I woke to cold, cloud and light rain... Which makes me realise another tip for future attemptees, yesterday was sunny and 25 degrees... Today looks wet and forecast to be 13 degrees... So... Pick a year with good weather !
Anyway... The plan was to ride from the hotel... Turns out I'm only about 15k from the climbs like Paterberg and Koppenberg. So, off I headed after breakfast (and watching the start on TV) to the first climb of the day...Tiegemberg. Rode there backwards up the route. The first 2 pics are at this climb. Amazing crowds given it wasn't a significant stage in the race... And terrific party atmosphere.
After that i followed the route, (over the Tietenberg - one that was missing from my route yesterday) grabed some lunch and headed to catch the race again at the Paterberg (this was my first really big climb yesterday). Of course, given that i had no map.. I got lost... Found a cute bar, got a coke and waffle, and watched a bit of the race ! When i asked the guys in the bar where the Paterberg was.. They gave me that "it might be in a different country" look.. !! So after turning on the data in my phone I realised i was no where near where i wanted to be.. But got a move on... Timing was getting tight.
Long story short.. .after some time trial riding... I saw some official cars and followed them.. Onto the route... Ahead of the riders... Thank goodness ! Then i found myself on the Kwaremont (another climb I'd missed yesterday) ... I was going to ride up a short way and watch.. But the crowd rose to the occasion.. And with 1000's of people shouting me on.. I had to keep going to the top...it was an amazing and deafening experience ! Anyway... Shortly there were some other riders cheered passed (yeah .. I mean the race !)... After they'd passed... i walked and rode back down... Checkout the close up pic of the Kwaremont .. It's crazy stuff.
The only thing left was to pick up some food and take it back to the hotel and watch the end of... What was an amazing race.. Totally fascinating !
Got to say... The day did warm up and the sun came out... So it's been a perfect RVV (that's Ronde van vlaanderen for us cool dudes !)
Top of the Kwaremont
Even the pro's made it up !
Kwaremont.... Love those cobbles !
1. What's with you and the waffles???
ReplyDelete2. I looked for you on Eurosport on the Kwaremont last night, but alas, didn't spot you amongst the hordes
3. It looks and sounds fantastic!!!
4. Mwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Are we going to read about you doing recon on the r
ReplyDeleteParis roubaix route on cycling news this week?