Flanders 09_04_11

It is not Really an Audax, but it is a hard ride!

Southport Riders Take on The Cobbled Classic Tour of Flanders

Sportive -or

A weekend in Belgium.

Club members Andy Grice and Pete Leonard, who both reside in Newton near Preston, have induced a number of the locals in the village to start riding their bikes which resulted last weekend in a trip to Belgium to ride the Tour of Flanders Sportive on Saturday and watch the race on the Sunday. Five am Friday morning saw a van, car and eight riders and bikes start the long journey to Dover the eventual destination being a hotel on the outskirts of Ghent.

All went smoothly arriving in the hotel at around 5-pm local time. Stopping in the hotel next door were the Moviestar, Cofidis and AG2R teams so there was plenty of bikes to lust at as the mechanics got them ready for the race. In our hotel there was also a couple of the women’s pro teams riding the ladies equivalent. Note that non of the pro bikes had 11 speed all were riding 10. After few beers in the hotel and a meal it was an early night as we had to drive 20 miles to get to the Sportive start in Ninove the next morning. 

After breakfast at seven we set off for the start and 3 or 4 miles out of Ninove we parked the van and car on the hard shoulder of a dual carriageway, as all the other locals seemed to have done, got our bikes together and rode to the start. With 14,000 riders it was a little chaotic but it did not take long to collect our numbers and transponders and strap them to our bars and we were on our way. We had elected to ride the 90-mile route which took in all but two of the seventeen climbs covered by the pros the next day. The weather was perfect with blue skies and 20 degree plus temperatures and arm warmers and leg warmers were soon taken off. Not much chance to get lost as there were riders as far as the eye could see. The first cobbles were a bit of a shock and riding over them took some getting used to. During the day yours truly had to ride back for his gillet (twice), bottle and multi tool but some people did not bother to retrieve their possessions and bottles etc were strewn all over the road as the riders bounced along. Although the hills were not long or particularly steep the cobbles made them a real obstacle. With plenty of feed stations and mechanics around the backup for the event was excellent.

As we approached the dreaded Koppenberg the organisers decided make the riders go up in groups of about 40 to give them a chance of riding up without stopping. After waiting our turn we rounded the first corner and a rider fell of in the middle of the road, who we managed to miss, but getting to the steep part of the climb there were so many riders off their bikes and blocking the narrow lane that the there was only one way up and that was on two feet. This was the pattern for one or two of the other climbs with one rider falling and many having to get off and push. We all made it to the finish in one piece with not one puncture between us. It was just a matter of finding our way back to the transport and fighting our way back to our hotel through the traffic.

That evening over beers and pizza we decided drive to Kruishotem the next day park up and find the Nokereberg (2nd climb on the route) to watch the pros. This ended up as being a bit of a hike as the berg was  in a small village about 3 miles from were we parked. However it was in a very nice village and by the time the race arrived there was a great atmosphere. A two-hour drive back to Calais and we were back in Newton at 9 pm.

A great weekend.

This is the web site for the Tour of Flanders Sportive

http://sport.be.msn.com/cyclingtour/rondevanvlaanderen/2011/eng/parcours/

Posted 09/04/2011

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