The Great Day has arrived: I am wearing shorts!! It's almost 20 degrees here, and I swear I saw 25° on one of the deadly accurate roadside temperature gauges. Not much wind either, which made it a nice day for a toddle on the 'pede.
Nice big bunch, but not really fast early on, although I tried to stir things up a bit a few times. Did the Trap Op in a fairly slow 5'50, but I was alone by that stage and there was a bit of a headwind. I caught Guido at the bottom, who said he was sick, so he sat on until we got swallowed in Edelare. Then it was 43 clicks an hour back along the Schelde, which was actually fairly easy as we had a big bunch and a light tailwind. I suckered myself into going 150m too early in the sprint and ended fourth. I think the honours went by Bjorn Nachtergaele (Dirk's son), complete with special Museeuw jersey and hairy legs. They tell me he's good on the track though.
Tomorrow: Berchem for the first time this year. I need some sleep.
I spoke with Patrick 'De Witte' and he confirmed that it was indeed Rebecca McConnell the other day in the bunch. Shoulda said g'day. She's apparently quit racing professionally and is doing MTB now. It's not easy being a female pro unless you're very, very good and/or are prepared to live off the smell of an oily rag for the term of your natural career.
On an unrelated note, ma has informed me of a website that, I'm sorry to say, appeals to my warped sense of humour: www.savetoby.com (don't click on this link if you like rabbits, or any other small fluffy animals). The funny thing about it is that people have allegedly donated $28,000 to stop Toby being eaten! I dunno if it qualifies for extortion, but it's pretty crazy that people are so easily duped. I guess that's why the Nigerian email scam still works. Has humanity really come this far?
Enough bilge for one day.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Thursday, April 28, 2005
More crilge*
It's still cold, but it's getting to the point where shoe covers and long gloves are not necessary. At some stage next month, I expect to be wearing shorts. From June through August, I can pretty much guarantee that it'll be hot enough to wear shorts. By way of comparison, I think I've gone a whole year in Australia without wearing long pants, except for special occasions of course.
I just thought I'd get that in. But they reckon it's gunna be 26° on Sunday! Yeah baby!
Did a VO2max test earlier this week, which was fun. A heart checkup is compulsory if you want to get a licence here, but because I did it at UZ Gent, they also gave me a full VO2max test. First time I've done one actually. I couldn't use my cycling shoes but it was OK in normal shoes.
Basically, you ride on an ergometer while you're hooked up to a breathing mask and an ECG machine. I started at 120 Watts I think, and the load was increased by 40 W every three minutes, with a blood sample taken at the end of each block to measure lactate accumulation. But when I got to 360 W, the guy said it was the final burst so he just increased by 10 W every minute until I clagged out. I got to 405 W before my RPM dropped from about 100 to 80 very quickly, so I thought that was the time to stop. I was still 10 bpm off my max so I reckon I didn't try hard enough! Maybe another 10 W was possible.
Indurain did 573 W in a similar test, but I reckon that's because he's bigger than me. But I think Lance also is in that realm, and he's shorter than me. That's probably why he's won the Tour six times and I haven't.
I'll get the full results next Monday, which will be quite interesting for me. Then, hopefully I can get my racing licence. Dunno when I'll be able to use it though, 'cos the Giro starts fairly soon.
On a training theme, today was my first Schelde ride for a while, and it felt good to be able to go a bit quicker for a change. Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet) was with us, and whenever anyone attacked, he'd just get to the front and ride a few km/h faster until they came back. After one attack, I realised that it was futile trying again, so I just waited for the sprint as I sure as hell need the practice. We had a fairly good wind up and I got a good leadout to hit 62 km/h - definitely my quickest sprint for quite some time. I was even looking for an 11 cog! But there were three guys still ahead of me at the line, so that part obviously needs work :-)
I managed to have an all-Flemish conversation with one of the older guys in the bunch. Well, I use that term loosely as my Dutch is pretty ropey, maybe it qualifies as "Ned-Engels". I could get the words reasonably well, but my accent is apalling and I'm surprised that he understood me. Nevertheless, it was satisfying to explain that there was a green fern growing in the back of my Renault (sorry, that's a French joke). Het kan.
I think there was a female pro with us too, 'cos she was wearing a Let's Go Finland jersey. That team is now defunct so maybe she's an ex pro. I'll have to ask 'De Witte' who it was, as he took the responsibility (as he always does) of chatting to her. It was possibly Rebecca McConnell, as all the others from that team are either Italian or Finnish.
I'd planned to do a few hills afterwards, but just went up the Edelareberg and Eikenberg. 2'40 on the latter, which is 20 seconds quicker than previously. This bike is nice for climbing. And coming back home along the Schelde I could still average 41 (bit of a tailwind), so that was nice.
I ain't seen any movies at all because there is nothing much on of interest. Already seen Elektra, and I'm not that bored to see it again. I'm sure there will be good stuff on in June and July, which I tend to miss for some reason.
There is much to do.
*crilge = crud + bilge
I just thought I'd get that in. But they reckon it's gunna be 26° on Sunday! Yeah baby!
Did a VO2max test earlier this week, which was fun. A heart checkup is compulsory if you want to get a licence here, but because I did it at UZ Gent, they also gave me a full VO2max test. First time I've done one actually. I couldn't use my cycling shoes but it was OK in normal shoes.
Basically, you ride on an ergometer while you're hooked up to a breathing mask and an ECG machine. I started at 120 Watts I think, and the load was increased by 40 W every three minutes, with a blood sample taken at the end of each block to measure lactate accumulation. But when I got to 360 W, the guy said it was the final burst so he just increased by 10 W every minute until I clagged out. I got to 405 W before my RPM dropped from about 100 to 80 very quickly, so I thought that was the time to stop. I was still 10 bpm off my max so I reckon I didn't try hard enough! Maybe another 10 W was possible.
Indurain did 573 W in a similar test, but I reckon that's because he's bigger than me. But I think Lance also is in that realm, and he's shorter than me. That's probably why he's won the Tour six times and I haven't.
I'll get the full results next Monday, which will be quite interesting for me. Then, hopefully I can get my racing licence. Dunno when I'll be able to use it though, 'cos the Giro starts fairly soon.
On a training theme, today was my first Schelde ride for a while, and it felt good to be able to go a bit quicker for a change. Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet) was with us, and whenever anyone attacked, he'd just get to the front and ride a few km/h faster until they came back. After one attack, I realised that it was futile trying again, so I just waited for the sprint as I sure as hell need the practice. We had a fairly good wind up and I got a good leadout to hit 62 km/h - definitely my quickest sprint for quite some time. I was even looking for an 11 cog! But there were three guys still ahead of me at the line, so that part obviously needs work :-)
I managed to have an all-Flemish conversation with one of the older guys in the bunch. Well, I use that term loosely as my Dutch is pretty ropey, maybe it qualifies as "Ned-Engels". I could get the words reasonably well, but my accent is apalling and I'm surprised that he understood me. Nevertheless, it was satisfying to explain that there was a green fern growing in the back of my Renault (sorry, that's a French joke). Het kan.
I think there was a female pro with us too, 'cos she was wearing a Let's Go Finland jersey. That team is now defunct so maybe she's an ex pro. I'll have to ask 'De Witte' who it was, as he took the responsibility (as he always does) of chatting to her. It was possibly Rebecca McConnell, as all the others from that team are either Italian or Finnish.
I'd planned to do a few hills afterwards, but just went up the Edelareberg and Eikenberg. 2'40 on the latter, which is 20 seconds quicker than previously. This bike is nice for climbing. And coming back home along the Schelde I could still average 41 (bit of a tailwind), so that was nice.
I ain't seen any movies at all because there is nothing much on of interest. Already seen Elektra, and I'm not that bored to see it again. I'm sure there will be good stuff on in June and July, which I tend to miss for some reason.
There is much to do.
*crilge = crud + bilge
Monday, April 25, 2005
The Davitamon Classic!
So last Friday, Henk emailed me to remind me of the fact that the Davitamon Classic was on on Saturday. We'd discussed doing it and I was favourably inclined to the idea, so I'm glad he reminded me. It was slightly more interesting than the Saturday bunch ride, and about 60 km longer, as we chose the 150 km loop + it was 30 km to Nazareth and back from Gent (yes, Jesus was born in Belgium).
It was only €7 to sign up and you got a route map and four feed zones, which was a bit of overkill, although I guess I could have skipped brekky. The course was quite good, it has to be said. You just had to follow orange arrows that were painted on the road, and it was almost impossible to get lost. We rolled out and hit the Schelde for a few kilometres before turning off at Zingem, like we do on the normal Sunday ride. Then it was up the hill via Korsele and across to the Trap Op, where the first feed zone was. After having done only 35 km, the presence of breakfast was still strong, and we opted to skip this one.
Then it was down the other side through Schorisse and up some new hills that took us near La Houppe. I was down this way last Thursday but didn't actually do many of these roads. Now I know how to get to the back way up La Houppe. We had picked up a passenger at this stage, who rolled through for the odd turn, but we couldn't find a bunch to ride with, alas. I think we left a bit late to get with a good group. Dang. I blame myself.
Went up the fairly steep Cote du Hurdumont, where a photographer snapped pics of Henk and I (thanks Jo for pointing those out!). I was quite enjoying my new bike, I must say. 7.3 kg is nice for climbing hills, and it's also got a 39x25 so you can spin up just about anything.
We caught Henk's dad, who'd taken a few shortcuts, just before the feed zone at km 47 (60 for me). So we stopped there and I grabbed some Extran, muesli bar, orange, cake etc., even though I didn't really need it. In fact, for the next 30 km it just sat there before finally deciding that it was going to be more useful as energy. We had to do a 50 km loop before returning to this feed zone, and that involved several more hills, including the Hameau des Papins, 1.2 km at 12% - definitely one for the 39x25.
The roads were great: lots of narrow, twisting lanes, with not much traffic save for a couple of thousand cyclists. It wasn't anything like as busy as the Ronde van Vlaanderen, so that was good. Got to the second feed zone (km 112 on my clock) and stocked up again on the same stuff. I didn't even need to touch my second water bottle or my dextro energy tablets.
Right after the feed zone, we did the Kanarieberg, aka the other side of the Muziekbos. 1100 m at 13% and fairly nasty, especially with several bits of cake and choc coated museli bars floating around in your stomach. A lethal cocktail if ever I felt one.
We cruised up around the back of the Hotonde, actually descending into Ronse before taking a hard right at the bottom and going up the Hotondberg - De Klijpe. It was marked at 2100m at 17%, but there was no way it was that long. More like 500m. But it was that steep! It sort of skirted around the Hotonde, but again on some really cool narrow roads. Very fun! We ended up on the main road between Ronse and Kluisbergen, descended and did the first part of the Oude Kwaremont, which was about climb 13. We passed one of the few women I saw on the whole ride, and she was going pretty well. Henk graciously dropped back just in case she needed a hand.
Then it was across to the Paterberg, which is mercifully short but mercilessly steep: 400m at 12.5%. The gutter was clear so I went up the "easy way", avoiding most of the cobbles. I'm not stupid. Managed it in 1'35, which is my best so far. I followed the wrong orange signs on the descent, because I thought it was the same as the RVV, but I soon realised my error when Henk went the opposite way.
After that it was a steady ride up through Kerkhove, Kaster, Wortegem-Petegem, Ooike and the final feed zone at Huise. I started to feel ok by this point and we were zipping along through the back roads at 35+ km/h, bound for the feed zone. Thus I was surprised that the girl we'd passed on the Kwaremont 25 km previous rolled in a few minutes behind us. I realised later (because we did the same thing) that she had hooked onto a big bunch, and they weren't mucking around.
The final feed zone was good: two Red Bulls, one from each girl, lots of chocolate (yeah it was only another 25 km home, but who can resist free choccy?), and the usual cake/muesli bars/fruit/water/extran. We took a shortcut which saved us a good kilometre, and then rode back to Nazareth with the aforementioned bunch. I wish we'd found them at the beginning!
15 climbs, 180 km, about 30 clicks an hour...it was all good!
It was only €7 to sign up and you got a route map and four feed zones, which was a bit of overkill, although I guess I could have skipped brekky. The course was quite good, it has to be said. You just had to follow orange arrows that were painted on the road, and it was almost impossible to get lost. We rolled out and hit the Schelde for a few kilometres before turning off at Zingem, like we do on the normal Sunday ride. Then it was up the hill via Korsele and across to the Trap Op, where the first feed zone was. After having done only 35 km, the presence of breakfast was still strong, and we opted to skip this one.
Then it was down the other side through Schorisse and up some new hills that took us near La Houppe. I was down this way last Thursday but didn't actually do many of these roads. Now I know how to get to the back way up La Houppe. We had picked up a passenger at this stage, who rolled through for the odd turn, but we couldn't find a bunch to ride with, alas. I think we left a bit late to get with a good group. Dang. I blame myself.
Went up the fairly steep Cote du Hurdumont, where a photographer snapped pics of Henk and I (thanks Jo for pointing those out!). I was quite enjoying my new bike, I must say. 7.3 kg is nice for climbing hills, and it's also got a 39x25 so you can spin up just about anything.
We caught Henk's dad, who'd taken a few shortcuts, just before the feed zone at km 47 (60 for me). So we stopped there and I grabbed some Extran, muesli bar, orange, cake etc., even though I didn't really need it. In fact, for the next 30 km it just sat there before finally deciding that it was going to be more useful as energy. We had to do a 50 km loop before returning to this feed zone, and that involved several more hills, including the Hameau des Papins, 1.2 km at 12% - definitely one for the 39x25.
The roads were great: lots of narrow, twisting lanes, with not much traffic save for a couple of thousand cyclists. It wasn't anything like as busy as the Ronde van Vlaanderen, so that was good. Got to the second feed zone (km 112 on my clock) and stocked up again on the same stuff. I didn't even need to touch my second water bottle or my dextro energy tablets.
Right after the feed zone, we did the Kanarieberg, aka the other side of the Muziekbos. 1100 m at 13% and fairly nasty, especially with several bits of cake and choc coated museli bars floating around in your stomach. A lethal cocktail if ever I felt one.
We cruised up around the back of the Hotonde, actually descending into Ronse before taking a hard right at the bottom and going up the Hotondberg - De Klijpe. It was marked at 2100m at 17%, but there was no way it was that long. More like 500m. But it was that steep! It sort of skirted around the Hotonde, but again on some really cool narrow roads. Very fun! We ended up on the main road between Ronse and Kluisbergen, descended and did the first part of the Oude Kwaremont, which was about climb 13. We passed one of the few women I saw on the whole ride, and she was going pretty well. Henk graciously dropped back just in case she needed a hand.
Then it was across to the Paterberg, which is mercifully short but mercilessly steep: 400m at 12.5%. The gutter was clear so I went up the "easy way", avoiding most of the cobbles. I'm not stupid. Managed it in 1'35, which is my best so far. I followed the wrong orange signs on the descent, because I thought it was the same as the RVV, but I soon realised my error when Henk went the opposite way.
After that it was a steady ride up through Kerkhove, Kaster, Wortegem-Petegem, Ooike and the final feed zone at Huise. I started to feel ok by this point and we were zipping along through the back roads at 35+ km/h, bound for the feed zone. Thus I was surprised that the girl we'd passed on the Kwaremont 25 km previous rolled in a few minutes behind us. I realised later (because we did the same thing) that she had hooked onto a big bunch, and they weren't mucking around.
The final feed zone was good: two Red Bulls, one from each girl, lots of chocolate (yeah it was only another 25 km home, but who can resist free choccy?), and the usual cake/muesli bars/fruit/water/extran. We took a shortcut which saved us a good kilometre, and then rode back to Nazareth with the aforementioned bunch. I wish we'd found them at the beginning!
15 climbs, 180 km, about 30 clicks an hour...it was all good!
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Words, lots of words
I've lost track of the number of words of cycling-related dribble I have typed in the last four days, but it's been a lot. Amstel was weird, because there was no TV! When Jon and I left for Maastricht at 7am after yet another 5 hr sleep, there was fog everywhere. I confidently predicted that it would burn off by about 11am, but it didn't happen! It was foggy the whole bloody day!
We got to the start OK and I got the bike out to ride to the press room, but for some reason I didn't follow the correct road and I ended up zig-zagging my way up to Valkenburg. It should have been 10 km, but my speedo read 23 km by the end. No matter. At least the press room was closer to the finish line this year, but jeez it was cold.
Then on Monday, Lance announced his retirement and the Tyler decision was handed down, both within hours of each other. So I was kept busy. The Hamilton arbitration report made for some interesting reading, and there are some pretty big holes on both sides of the argument. I guess that's why it was a split decision. We haven't heard the last of it, and that will give me something more to write about. Just as well, because I was getting bored with nothing to do...
One more classic to go: Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Then a slight (and I mean slight) break before the Giro.
Obligatory weather mention: The sun is out for the first time in about two weeks. Yay!
I have a "new" test bike, a Canyon Carbon Ultimate, weighing a mere 7.3 kg. Phwoar - that's even 1 kg lighter than the Ridley. I've only been riding it for a week so far, but it's not bad. Very light, very stiff, bit uncomfortable as a result, very nervous. I've also set the Flandria up so that I can test some Zipp 404s. Should be fun too.
Today's ride consisted of sitting in the bunch for about 70 km at a nice average speed of 38, then going and finding some hills. Edelare, back of Koppenberg (the smooth side), Muziekbos, some funky little climbs around Ellezelles, which I thought was Flobecq, so I didn't end up going the back way up La Houppe, as I had intended. Then back home via Michelbeke and the Berendries. A nice round 150km.
I have yet to get my racing licence, but I will do so once I get a heart checkup. Apparently, they're compulsory now. Not such a bad thing I guess. There's three doctors in Gent that will do them, so I'd better make an appointment.
Last but not least, I heard that my PhD supervisor John Mackie retired about three weeks ago. I wish I could have been back in Oz to go to the party, as he was a great supervisor and top bloke! Perhaps he was a little disappointed with the way I turned out though :-)
We got to the start OK and I got the bike out to ride to the press room, but for some reason I didn't follow the correct road and I ended up zig-zagging my way up to Valkenburg. It should have been 10 km, but my speedo read 23 km by the end. No matter. At least the press room was closer to the finish line this year, but jeez it was cold.
Then on Monday, Lance announced his retirement and the Tyler decision was handed down, both within hours of each other. So I was kept busy. The Hamilton arbitration report made for some interesting reading, and there are some pretty big holes on both sides of the argument. I guess that's why it was a split decision. We haven't heard the last of it, and that will give me something more to write about. Just as well, because I was getting bored with nothing to do...
One more classic to go: Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Then a slight (and I mean slight) break before the Giro.
Obligatory weather mention: The sun is out for the first time in about two weeks. Yay!
I have a "new" test bike, a Canyon Carbon Ultimate, weighing a mere 7.3 kg. Phwoar - that's even 1 kg lighter than the Ridley. I've only been riding it for a week so far, but it's not bad. Very light, very stiff, bit uncomfortable as a result, very nervous. I've also set the Flandria up so that I can test some Zipp 404s. Should be fun too.
Today's ride consisted of sitting in the bunch for about 70 km at a nice average speed of 38, then going and finding some hills. Edelare, back of Koppenberg (the smooth side), Muziekbos, some funky little climbs around Ellezelles, which I thought was Flobecq, so I didn't end up going the back way up La Houppe, as I had intended. Then back home via Michelbeke and the Berendries. A nice round 150km.
I have yet to get my racing licence, but I will do so once I get a heart checkup. Apparently, they're compulsory now. Not such a bad thing I guess. There's three doctors in Gent that will do them, so I'd better make an appointment.
Last but not least, I heard that my PhD supervisor John Mackie retired about three weeks ago. I wish I could have been back in Oz to go to the party, as he was a great supervisor and top bloke! Perhaps he was a little disappointed with the way I turned out though :-)
Thursday, April 07, 2005
A slight decline
As I expected, I've picked up Jono's cold. Or someone's cold...those press rooms are lethal. So I'm a bit under the weather, but not too much. This is OK because the weather's a bit under the weather too. Rain, wind, 7 degrees for the next four days and beyond, it looks like. I doubt I'll be getting on the bike a lot.
I finally managed to inveigle a full day off on Tuesday, which was great. In the arvo, Jon and I wandered into town and acquired various useful items, including lunch at a very good but utterly deserted French boulangerie. A digital dictaphone that doesn't play at 120% of normal speed was also on the shopping list, and now I have no excuse for "losing" finish line quotes.
But the piece de resistance was a fully wireless setup for my laptop: a PCMCIA card that can hook into any wireless network that's available, and apparently there's one across the street that Jono's been using. But I got my own box too, which I could plug straight into the ADSL phone socket in the wall. This is so cool - I can now work from the couch or in bed.
Configuring said wireless network was done while utterly inebriated between 12:30-1:30 am on Tuesday night. Don't ask me why, but it had to be done. After our shopping expedition, we had hooked up with Lucy Power and her bro Pete, who were visiting from the UK to see all the races this week. We started at a cafe on the Graslei and when that closed, we went to a funny little cafe/restaurant near the Vridagmaarkt called "Mosquito Coast" or something. Many beers and some decent food followed, and a great time was had by all. Obviously, after that was the best time to install the wireless network on my PC.
Gent-Wevelgem yesterday - another busy day. Excellent finish though, and Mattan deserved that win. He wound it up to 60 km/h way before he got behind the cars to close the five second gap to Flecha in the last 600m. The "neutral car" shouldn't have been there, but it definitely didn't provide Mattan with any real assistance.
To cap it all off, I had a foot long chicken kebab from the Doner Kebab place down the road. I wanted it with frites, and the guy just stuck everything in the kebab, with heaps of special garlic mayo. I was so hungry before eating it, but bloody hell it took some getting through. Now I know how Elvis used to feel.
I finally managed to inveigle a full day off on Tuesday, which was great. In the arvo, Jon and I wandered into town and acquired various useful items, including lunch at a very good but utterly deserted French boulangerie. A digital dictaphone that doesn't play at 120% of normal speed was also on the shopping list, and now I have no excuse for "losing" finish line quotes.
But the piece de resistance was a fully wireless setup for my laptop: a PCMCIA card that can hook into any wireless network that's available, and apparently there's one across the street that Jono's been using. But I got my own box too, which I could plug straight into the ADSL phone socket in the wall. This is so cool - I can now work from the couch or in bed.
Configuring said wireless network was done while utterly inebriated between 12:30-1:30 am on Tuesday night. Don't ask me why, but it had to be done. After our shopping expedition, we had hooked up with Lucy Power and her bro Pete, who were visiting from the UK to see all the races this week. We started at a cafe on the Graslei and when that closed, we went to a funny little cafe/restaurant near the Vridagmaarkt called "Mosquito Coast" or something. Many beers and some decent food followed, and a great time was had by all. Obviously, after that was the best time to install the wireless network on my PC.
Gent-Wevelgem yesterday - another busy day. Excellent finish though, and Mattan deserved that win. He wound it up to 60 km/h way before he got behind the cars to close the five second gap to Flecha in the last 600m. The "neutral car" shouldn't have been there, but it definitely didn't provide Mattan with any real assistance.
To cap it all off, I had a foot long chicken kebab from the Doner Kebab place down the road. I wanted it with frites, and the guy just stuck everything in the kebab, with heaps of special garlic mayo. I was so hungry before eating it, but bloody hell it took some getting through. Now I know how Elvis used to feel.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
It's busy
The classics are in full swing now, so time is at a premium. Photographer Jon Devich is staying with me at the moment, which is cool because he is a decent cook. Lucy's Easter visit was short but tres bon and we catched up on all the goss over two days, as well as drinking a coupla beers and eating a massive quantity of the finest Belgian chocolate.
The Ronde was cool: Boonen was right in saying that you have to win it solo. Jeez he was strong.
I done it the day before with I don't know how many thousands of others. Well, I started in Gent and hit the course at the Wolvenberg after about 30 km. Then followed it all the way to the Muur, before turning off and heading back to Gent. 160 km all up in about 5:15, well short of the full 260 km distance, which quite a lot of people do. It's a great ride and a great race, and by about the 9th climb, I was really starting to feel it. But a few dextro energy tablets got me over the rest.
The Koppenberg is nasty, and the Muur is fairly hard too, because it's at the end. I had installed a 27 tooth cog on the back (because I had one and my existing cluster was kaput) and a new 42 tooth chainring, and it was actually quite useful for the steeper climbs. One guy passed me on the Koppenberg in an even smaller gear, and another guy did the same on the Valkenberg. But they both died at the top of the climbs. I needed someone fast to ride with!
Race day on Sunday was a pretty full day - started at 6:30, finished at midnight.
Random notes: Trap Op in 5'10 on the Saturday of the E3 Prijs. And that was with a fairly slow start! I was up to 42 km/h on the false flat in the middle, bridging up to the leaders. No wind either. I think that's our record for that climb.
The sky is blue so I'd better get out on the deadly treadly.
The Ronde was cool: Boonen was right in saying that you have to win it solo. Jeez he was strong.
I done it the day before with I don't know how many thousands of others. Well, I started in Gent and hit the course at the Wolvenberg after about 30 km. Then followed it all the way to the Muur, before turning off and heading back to Gent. 160 km all up in about 5:15, well short of the full 260 km distance, which quite a lot of people do. It's a great ride and a great race, and by about the 9th climb, I was really starting to feel it. But a few dextro energy tablets got me over the rest.
The Koppenberg is nasty, and the Muur is fairly hard too, because it's at the end. I had installed a 27 tooth cog on the back (because I had one and my existing cluster was kaput) and a new 42 tooth chainring, and it was actually quite useful for the steeper climbs. One guy passed me on the Koppenberg in an even smaller gear, and another guy did the same on the Valkenberg. But they both died at the top of the climbs. I needed someone fast to ride with!
Race day on Sunday was a pretty full day - started at 6:30, finished at midnight.
Random notes: Trap Op in 5'10 on the Saturday of the E3 Prijs. And that was with a fairly slow start! I was up to 42 km/h on the false flat in the middle, bridging up to the leaders. No wind either. I think that's our record for that climb.
The sky is blue so I'd better get out on the deadly treadly.
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