Today was a nice day over here in Belgium, so I took advantage and went for a long ride.  Yes, yesterday was a race… Yes I’m crazy.  Not as crazy as the psychos who designed the Tour of Flanders course.  I rode part of the course today, from Kluisberg, where the hills start, to the town of Oodenarde.  I think that’s a little over a quarter of the hilly portion of the race.  Most of the climbs I did were on cobbles, were really steep and they come one right after another.  One of the less famous climbs, the Paterberg, has a narrow, winding downhill leading up to it.  Then, you slam on the brakes, make a sharp right turn and you’re on the hill.  There’s also a sharp turn at the bottom of the Koppenberg, another super steep cobbled climb.  If you look at the race photos, the Koppenberg is the one where riders are walking.  For those who are wondering, the Koppenberg is not so bad that the riders can’t ride up it.  They’re walking because of the congestion on the climb.  All the riders are trying to be as close to the front as possible, for the crosswind section after the top.  All it takes its one rider to crack.  He slows down, then other riders bang into him, then people are stopped and on foot.  In case you’re also wondering…I rode up it.

To say that the Tour of Flanders is hard doesn’t quite sound right.  Cruel and unusual punishment - that sounds more accurate.  Whoever designed that course is probably not a bike racer.  I’m tired after my 200 km in 6 hours 30 minutes, just training.  Try 250 km in 7 hours, racing over four times as many hills and cobbles.  Come to think of it…that’s my kind of race!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Marks Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.