Five of us packed into Bruce's car to make the pilgrimage to Flanders - me, Bruce, Tom, Mike and Stuart. Bruce has a Skoda Octavia estate and you can see why they make good team cars - it swallowed all of us and our gear without any trouble. Nightime ferry to Zeebrugge meant we had a leisurely day on Friday, including a little ride to a bike shop to buy a new tyre for me as I had a large cut in my back one. We would have gone further but it started snowing! Saturday meant an early start. Bruce, Stuart and I were doing the 259km ride starting in Brugge and finishing in Oudenaarde whilst Tom was doing the 140km ride starting and finishing in Oudenaarde so had to get the train there. Mike was nursing an injury so was chilling out soaking up the atmosphere. Bruce had some friends from around the UK riding so we all set off as a group at 7.10am. It was very cold, not far from freezing. I wasn't wearing too many layers as I knew the pace would keep me warm but my hands were freezing as we rolled along in a huge group at about 30km. In Belgium there are bike lanes along most major roads and the groups stuck to these mainly so moving up could be difficult, After about 10km we started rolling faster, moving up the outside of the groups and jumping across to faster groups. Hard to keep track of your crew in those circumstances but every now and then you'd see one of them rolling through. At one point I was stuck at the back of a massive group packing a bike lane with seemingly no way to the front when there was a slap on my buttock and a shout in Flemish. I squeezed to the right and a Flemish woman, well into her fifties, riding a Colnago came through.. I hopped on her wheel as she slapped and shouted her way through the group like a knife through butter and before I knew it we were through and off the front and rolling along in a fast-moving paceline. She was class. We regrouped at the first feed station after only about 20km (there were 7 in total!) and stuffed our faces with waffles (can't face waffles now) then off again. Got in a group with two towering Belgians and we flew along to the next feed station as they cracked the whip. At the next feed the group got split up when leaving as it was so chaotic. I was by myself, jumping from group to group when a serious express train came through with some strong riders in it. I punched my ticket and hopped on board for the next 30km. We were going so fast we caught Bruce's group, jut as he stopped for a 'comfort break'. Next stop was a feed station just before the Koppenberg (we'd already done the first climb which was a pretty innocuous tarmac drag). Four of us regrouped and set off. You can see the Koppenberg looming as you approach it but you don't realise its steepness until you're on it. Steep and cobbled. I put it in the 39 x 29 and ground up it. Two motorbikes decided to ride up it at the same time. The first one clipped a cyclist and knocked him off; this freaked out the rider of the second on who toppled over right next to me with an almighty crash then lay there pinned under her huge bike blinking at me helplessly. Not much I could do and there were plenty of spectators about to help so I carried on. My strategy was to ease over the climbs (17 of them) and ride on the flats. By myself now but feeling strong on the flats and drags I carried on, joining groups when I could and taking my time on the short, steep climbs. The hardest bit is keeping your head together. I had no computer, the plan being to keep riding until told to stop., and I lost count of the climbs. We were doing them in a different order to the race the next day so you couldn't use the number on the banner at the top to keep track. My head nearly fell off when I saw 50km to go chalked on the road but I managed to rationalise it and use it as a countdown. Oude Kwaremont came and went - long, hard cobbled drag, then the Paterberg - very short, steep, only 300m long but long enough for Cancellera to destroy everyone.. Then 15km headwind home, jumping from group to group again with a final run in with a mixed group of Belgians, French and Italians. We all met up at the Expo at the end where there was free-running beer and frites and mayo - bliss. 9hrs 20mins riding time, 10 hours total - well within my expectations.
http://app.strava.com/activities/46518841
On Sunday we watched the start in Brugge.
We saw the race come through - break off the front, peloton just behind the stragglers already tailing off the back.
Great photo by Tom of Europcar hauling back the break. Then drove back to Brugge to watch the finale in a bar with beer to hand to toast Spartacus as he lay down the power. Great trip, great company, cheers boys.
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