Frank is one of the TV weathermen here in Sunny Belgium(tm). He is not always right, but he serves an important role. Together with Blackadder, he helps make TV worth watching occasionally.
I happened to switch onto Frank on Sunday to get the lowdown on what weather delights we were due for this week [we did actually have a good weekend, so it's not all bad]. "Monday will be a terrible day," he said, and I quote fairly loosely as I've just been to Marimain with Reiny and Gerald and my memory isn't what it once was. "Heavy rain with occasional hail. Tuesday will be stormy in the morning but in the afternoon it will clear up."
I trusted these words, as I wanted to race on Tuesday afternoon in Erwetegem. It was 'only' an Open race, so U23/Amateurs/Masters can also race with the Elite zonder contracts. But that was OK, as a) I really liked the course and b) I wouldn't necessarily get a complete arse sport kicking. There was another elite zc race on in Oordegem, but I chose this one instead.
Frank was right in that it rained for much of the morning. But it seemed to be clearing up about lunchtime and I thought 'bonza, I'll get a dry ride out'. It goes without saying that as I rode up the Hundelgemsesteenweg 2 km from home, the heavens opened and I got very drenched very quickly and I noted it was 11 degrees. I was determined to race today, so I continued, and by Bottelare about 5 km later, it had stopped. Another 5 km up the road at Balegem, the roads were bone dry although there was a black cloud that stretched from right to left in front of me. It was not moving towards me, so I figured I'd avoid it (for once). That proved to be correct, and the rest of the afternoon was rather pleasant.
Thanks Frank.
I was number 42 of 44 starters, and it seemed to be a reasonable sort of field. The course was 12 km long to be completed just seven times (84 km), and it had a 1.3 km climb plus a 500m climb each lap. Last year, I finished 12th/20 but it was all elite riders. This time, I hoped for a bit better.
First lap, two guys get away and hover 30 seconds in front for the next two laps. I sat in a strategic position towards the back, as is my wont, but moved up a bit on the long hill up to the start/finish. On the second lap, I started to get itchy legs and had a go with Krijn Verschraegen (4th in this same race yesterday) plus another guy. Unfortunately, he didn't have yesterday's legs. Or more correctly, he did, and we got caught on the descent.
I decided to stay active after that. We'd almost caught the two early leaders at the end of lap 2, and we finally did halfway through lap 3 following the first short climb. At the end of the lap, I went with all the moves on the start/finish hill, and did a hard turn at the top and kept going with it. I ended up with five others for company, but they weren't working that well. Another six quickly joined us and I thought we had a good group of a dozen.
Alas, despite being the lead group, the cooperation was either a) quite appalling b) totally crap or c) bloody terrible. We had managed to gap the peloton, and I hoped that no-one would be working there so we could stay away. That's sort of how it went, but we were doing our chances no favours. On the next two start/finish climbs, I rode a solid tempo to try and extract the best six riders out of the break, but it wasn't to be. I'd end up going over first with a 10 second gap, but would have to sit up because all the others were still together. Argh! It was possible, but you need the right mentality...
At the end of lap 6, I stayed behind another guy on the climb, but that didn't help matters much. On the previous lap, I'd heard someone say "peloton komt terug" but no-one paid it much heed. We were caught by the whole goddamn bunch at the top of the climb with less than one lap to go! Double argh!!!!
There were now 40 riders in the race instead of 12, and I had to rethink my strategy, which up until now had relied on the fact that I would be the only one left at the finish and would therefore win. Maybe if the whole race went uphill, that would have worked. But it didn't.
I probably shouldn't have drifted as far back as I did, as I missed the two four man moves that went in the next few km. I was actually figuring that it would come down to a sprint up the last climb, but halfway through the lap, that was looking improbable. I went with a counter-counter attack, which at least made life difficult for the rest of the bunch, and we hit the final climb about 10 seconds behind the leading eight.
Naturally, no-one wanted to lead out a big sprint on the climb, so about a third of the way up, I thought 'bugger it, I'll go myself'. Surprisingly, no-one reacted until Nico Savat (winner of a few kermises this month) flew past me as I was almost on the back of the lead group. But they just started sprinting and I was already on my limit. I hung on for 10th, which was OK in one sense, but I felt it coulda woulda shoulda been a top five today. The gap between the winner and me was 10 seconds, same as it was at the bottom. That's racing for you.
Cool course though, and I was generally happy with how I was going. Got a few cheers too from my fellow crashee Luc De Loor, who was watching. That's always noice. Post-race recovery meal: a pie, a sausage roll, and five beers.
Congrats to Philippe B for finishing the Criquielion in 6hrs7min. Gold, gold, gold!!! And an even better time to Henk B in 5hrs40min. Not so bad at all!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Newsflash
It's raining. It has been doing that a lot of late.
Nevertheless, you can still do things when it's wet. Like replace your groupset with the new one you bought while riding out to Balegem to race on Monday, except that it was raining hard so you continued down to Aalst, home of Van Eyck Sport. 'You' can be substituted for 'I' in this case. Don't ask me what case it is.
Anyway, if you (not I) need tips on installing Ergopower levers and the special Campagnolo chain with the link pin that ensures you (I) will bugger it totally when putting it on, then please do not ask me. Or them. It works a treat now though.
Due to weather and other shenanigans, I have done a grand total of three races since Feb. I hope to expand that by a few more, but it ain't easy. Tuesday - a rare dry day - I went to Wippelgem for 14 laps of an 8 km circuit. It looked like we had 29 starters until the Kingsnorth team turned up en masse with 10 mins to go after getting lost, so we ended up with 45 starters.
It was a relatively easy affair, despite the presence of Mssrs Willems, Cocquyt, Goncaras, Strole and Baeyens. They were paying three deep in each prime, but the best I could do was fourth as Willems cleaned up most of the early ones with Baeyens. After a bit, we caught them and I think at about halfway, the five hitters mentioned above cleared out with Matt Smith and a couple of others. We chased them hard for 4 km and they put 30 seconds into us anyway, so there wasn't really much point after that.
Poor old Matt got worked over by the 'mafia' in the break and eventually dropped out with another guy, and we caught them on the last lap. By this stage, we had reduced our group to 13 by means of a lotta attacking with about 4 laps to go. The trick to getting into the break is to go with every single attack, which I did. It's only pain. Unfortunately when it came to the sprint on the last lap, I no longer had the necessary legs. I couldn't even follow the leadout so 19th was the result.
Tip: Do not save one day old energy drink mixed with tea for the next day. There is no point, especially as the energy drink was free. The stomach pain was not worth it and I ended up doing the whole race on one bidon. I had to have several beers with Reinhard and a couple of other mates to settle things down, and also found a good Thai place here.
In other other happenings, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Brugge last week (crikey that was a busy week) with Michael, Sarah and Holly from either Belgium or Edinburgh or both. It was fun and I have pics to prove it. It didn't even rain much.
Spot the tourist
© Jeff Jones
Brugge is very pictureskew
© Jeff Jones
A headless horse. These are rare.
© Jeff Jones
One of Brugge's noice squares or rounds
© Jeff Jones
Quo vadis?
© Jeff Jones
Michael, Sarah, Holly
© Jeff Jones
Choosing one/two/many ice cream flavours.
© Jeff Jones
Nevertheless, you can still do things when it's wet. Like replace your groupset with the new one you bought while riding out to Balegem to race on Monday, except that it was raining hard so you continued down to Aalst, home of Van Eyck Sport. 'You' can be substituted for 'I' in this case. Don't ask me what case it is.
Anyway, if you (not I) need tips on installing Ergopower levers and the special Campagnolo chain with the link pin that ensures you (I) will bugger it totally when putting it on, then please do not ask me. Or them. It works a treat now though.
Due to weather and other shenanigans, I have done a grand total of three races since Feb. I hope to expand that by a few more, but it ain't easy. Tuesday - a rare dry day - I went to Wippelgem for 14 laps of an 8 km circuit. It looked like we had 29 starters until the Kingsnorth team turned up en masse with 10 mins to go after getting lost, so we ended up with 45 starters.
It was a relatively easy affair, despite the presence of Mssrs Willems, Cocquyt, Goncaras, Strole and Baeyens. They were paying three deep in each prime, but the best I could do was fourth as Willems cleaned up most of the early ones with Baeyens. After a bit, we caught them and I think at about halfway, the five hitters mentioned above cleared out with Matt Smith and a couple of others. We chased them hard for 4 km and they put 30 seconds into us anyway, so there wasn't really much point after that.
Poor old Matt got worked over by the 'mafia' in the break and eventually dropped out with another guy, and we caught them on the last lap. By this stage, we had reduced our group to 13 by means of a lotta attacking with about 4 laps to go. The trick to getting into the break is to go with every single attack, which I did. It's only pain. Unfortunately when it came to the sprint on the last lap, I no longer had the necessary legs. I couldn't even follow the leadout so 19th was the result.
Tip: Do not save one day old energy drink mixed with tea for the next day. There is no point, especially as the energy drink was free. The stomach pain was not worth it and I ended up doing the whole race on one bidon. I had to have several beers with Reinhard and a couple of other mates to settle things down, and also found a good Thai place here.
Other amusements
Speaking of Reinhard and a couple of mates, we went to Amadeus in the Patershol last week, which has all you can eat ribs for about 15 euros. I wasn't hungry enough and only managed two slabs of ribs, but Justin (GumNut), who was staying with Reiny, ate five. That is a lot of pig.In other other happenings, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Brugge last week (crikey that was a busy week) with Michael, Sarah and Holly from either Belgium or Edinburgh or both. It was fun and I have pics to prove it. It didn't even rain much.
Spot the tourist© Jeff Jones
Brugge is very pictureskew© Jeff Jones
A headless horse. These are rare.© Jeff Jones
One of Brugge's noice squares or rounds© Jeff Jones
Quo vadis?© Jeff Jones
Michael, Sarah, Holly© Jeff Jones
Choosing one/two/many ice cream flavours. © Jeff Jones
Saturday, August 05, 2006
The return of the native
Finally, I can race again. Got my licence this week and it goes without saying that after five weeks of sunshine and 30 degrees, the weather turned to utter crap on the same day. I tried to race in Aalst on Thursday, but my wonderful *cough* new FSA cranks came loose again. I didn't have an allen key with me to tighten them, and although I tried a bike shop en route to Aalst, they refused to touch it on the grounds that they'd had a few problems with these cranks (XCO compact). I've heard that the spindles are sometimes too thin. Maybe Superglue or Loctite would help with the fitting.
I rode home, despised and rejected in the rain, and tightened up the crank as much as possible, vowing to have another go on Saturday. And seeing as the Schelde has now become a police-state, I opted not to join the wielerterrorists on their morning constitutional.
That takes us up to the real-time present, so to speak. The race was at Knesselare, which is about 28 km from here into a headwind, or 40 km if you go the way I did. I had planned to stick to the canal, but because I was running late I turned right at the Aalter bridge to take a shorter route into Knesselare. The problem was that the race actually started on the canal, so if I'd ridden 2 km more...
After piss-farting around in town for a while looking for a non-existent bike race, I thought I'd head back down to the canal anyway and start riding home, as I'd given up on the idea of starting and was thus not very gruntled. Fortunately, a car drove past and a guy waved out the window "andere kant" (other side), so I turned around, found a side road which was actually part of the course, and eventually found the sign on cafe with exactly eight minutes to spare. They allowed me to start, and I got changed very quickly, inhaled a powergel, and rolled up to the start line facing the wrong way.
The whistle blew only 2 minutes behind time, and we were away, with me now facing the right way! Because it was really windy, I decided I didn't want to be anywhere near the front, so worked my way stealthily back to about last wheel. At least you don't have to fight for your position there, and you get to see all the crashes and other stupid things that happen in the bunch.
The course was pretty straightforward: along the canal into the headwind, then left and right over a bridge and along a crosswind bit (mind the bollards on the bridge!), then weaving along a tailwind bit past a horse jumping expo, then right into another crosswind bit that was also the finish straight. 18 laps of 5.88 km for 106 km, with 62 starters.
After I worked out where the holes were, I just settled into last wheel and watched numerous attacks go with little interest. They all came back, although some took longer than others to haul in. I was surprised, as usually the winning break goes in the first three laps. And we were only averaging 42-43 km/h.
After an hour or so I got hungry, but had to delay eating for a lap after some idiot took a waterbottle in front of me, and in doing so, dropped completely off the back. It took me a bit too long to register that he wasn't in fact going to even try to get back on, so I chased for a couple of km and regained the bunch just before the bridge/crosswind. Fortunately, it wasn't flat out then and I could recover my composure.
I searched in my pocketses for the testosterone massage cream that I bought in a Phonak fire sale off eBay this week, but in my haste, I must have forgotten it. Verdomme!! Instead, I only had bloody powergels. They taste like crap and come in lurid grape and apple flavours. I suppose they work.
In the race, nothing much was getting away, which was good, I guess. A few more people were getting dropped and I began to reconsider my position in the bunch, which was perhaps not ideal. But I couldn't be arsed moving up yet. After about an hour and a half, I started to feel it in the legs. Coincidentally, my left crank had come loose again, and I was getting a 5 degrees freeplay that is so good for the knees.
This annoyed me, so I decided to channel any pent up frustration into my right leg and practice one-legged sprinting out of corners. I thought I could still finish the race, because I've ridden with this thing loose for a few weeks now (thought it was the pedal), which could also explain why it's totally ruined.
For some reason that I have yet to fathom, I moved up with about four laps to go and got amongst the attacks. The cooperation wasn't particularly good, which explains why nothing had gotten away so far. But then I realised I didn't actually have the legs to do much, so I returned to the rear. The winning move of 20 finally went with some three laps to go, and that was that sorted. The crank was getting a little looser, and my one-legged sprinting was getting a little better.
Coming into one lap to go and suddenly everyone looked very tired. We weren't going to pull back the guys in front, so the battle was for the very minor scraps. I followed some jongens off the front coming up to the line, looked back and saw that the bunch was close but not too interested, so I persisted. Two guys managed to get a gap on us that we couldn't pull back, so that was 21st and 22nd sorted. The rest of our group numbered six at the end, and I managed third for a glorious 25th place. None of us were really doing anything remotely resembling sprinting at that stage, so I don't think the loose crank made one iota of difference. But it was goddamn annoying!
I'd like to race on Tuesday, but I'll have to get my old cranks put on first. Otherwise my right leg will get huge and I wouldn't want that.
The end.
I rode home, despised and rejected in the rain, and tightened up the crank as much as possible, vowing to have another go on Saturday. And seeing as the Schelde has now become a police-state, I opted not to join the wielerterrorists on their morning constitutional.
That takes us up to the real-time present, so to speak. The race was at Knesselare, which is about 28 km from here into a headwind, or 40 km if you go the way I did. I had planned to stick to the canal, but because I was running late I turned right at the Aalter bridge to take a shorter route into Knesselare. The problem was that the race actually started on the canal, so if I'd ridden 2 km more...
After piss-farting around in town for a while looking for a non-existent bike race, I thought I'd head back down to the canal anyway and start riding home, as I'd given up on the idea of starting and was thus not very gruntled. Fortunately, a car drove past and a guy waved out the window "andere kant" (other side), so I turned around, found a side road which was actually part of the course, and eventually found the sign on cafe with exactly eight minutes to spare. They allowed me to start, and I got changed very quickly, inhaled a powergel, and rolled up to the start line facing the wrong way.
The whistle blew only 2 minutes behind time, and we were away, with me now facing the right way! Because it was really windy, I decided I didn't want to be anywhere near the front, so worked my way stealthily back to about last wheel. At least you don't have to fight for your position there, and you get to see all the crashes and other stupid things that happen in the bunch.
The course was pretty straightforward: along the canal into the headwind, then left and right over a bridge and along a crosswind bit (mind the bollards on the bridge!), then weaving along a tailwind bit past a horse jumping expo, then right into another crosswind bit that was also the finish straight. 18 laps of 5.88 km for 106 km, with 62 starters.
After I worked out where the holes were, I just settled into last wheel and watched numerous attacks go with little interest. They all came back, although some took longer than others to haul in. I was surprised, as usually the winning break goes in the first three laps. And we were only averaging 42-43 km/h.
After an hour or so I got hungry, but had to delay eating for a lap after some idiot took a waterbottle in front of me, and in doing so, dropped completely off the back. It took me a bit too long to register that he wasn't in fact going to even try to get back on, so I chased for a couple of km and regained the bunch just before the bridge/crosswind. Fortunately, it wasn't flat out then and I could recover my composure.
I searched in my pocketses for the testosterone massage cream that I bought in a Phonak fire sale off eBay this week, but in my haste, I must have forgotten it. Verdomme!! Instead, I only had bloody powergels. They taste like crap and come in lurid grape and apple flavours. I suppose they work.
In the race, nothing much was getting away, which was good, I guess. A few more people were getting dropped and I began to reconsider my position in the bunch, which was perhaps not ideal. But I couldn't be arsed moving up yet. After about an hour and a half, I started to feel it in the legs. Coincidentally, my left crank had come loose again, and I was getting a 5 degrees freeplay that is so good for the knees.
This annoyed me, so I decided to channel any pent up frustration into my right leg and practice one-legged sprinting out of corners. I thought I could still finish the race, because I've ridden with this thing loose for a few weeks now (thought it was the pedal), which could also explain why it's totally ruined.
For some reason that I have yet to fathom, I moved up with about four laps to go and got amongst the attacks. The cooperation wasn't particularly good, which explains why nothing had gotten away so far. But then I realised I didn't actually have the legs to do much, so I returned to the rear. The winning move of 20 finally went with some three laps to go, and that was that sorted. The crank was getting a little looser, and my one-legged sprinting was getting a little better.
Coming into one lap to go and suddenly everyone looked very tired. We weren't going to pull back the guys in front, so the battle was for the very minor scraps. I followed some jongens off the front coming up to the line, looked back and saw that the bunch was close but not too interested, so I persisted. Two guys managed to get a gap on us that we couldn't pull back, so that was 21st and 22nd sorted. The rest of our group numbered six at the end, and I managed third for a glorious 25th place. None of us were really doing anything remotely resembling sprinting at that stage, so I don't think the loose crank made one iota of difference. But it was goddamn annoying!
I'd like to race on Tuesday, but I'll have to get my old cranks put on first. Otherwise my right leg will get huge and I wouldn't want that.
The end.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
The Henk Ballet Classic III
As promised, the director's cut in all its gory details: the return of Henk's Fietstocht, which is now known as the Henk Ballet Classic. Now in its third year, the tour's increase in status was predicted. In fact, next year it will be upgraded to a UCI event on the European continental circuit, with ambitions of becoming a ProTour event in 2009. That's what Henk told me anyway, and as a journalist, I never ever fabricate things.
It was a small, but quality field of eight riders that met in Henk's garage in Ouwegem. Henk Ballet, Philip 'Pippo Pozzato' Boutens, Gunther Petrens (Henk's mechanic), Domien Bracke (physiotherapist and WAOD rider), Jan Hoef, Bert Vertriest (organiser of Davitamon Classic), Peter 'Dario Pieri' Achtergaele, and ik. There were a few dark horses among them, but everyone was clearly prepared for the 100 km tour through the Henegouwen countryside. None of us were familiar with the route, although Henk had reconnoitred it and knew every little twist and turn.
Interestingly (or coincidentally?), the WAOD was holding its national championships in Ouwegem on the same day, so we could watch the field of very fit looking 50 year-olds race around the tough circuit with the aim of becoming national champion for the day. And a nice day it was: 25 plus degrees, no wind, no rain. We set off at 1:00pm and had planned about four hours for the ride, including stops.
We are gathered here today in Henk's garage
© Jeff Jones
Philip Boutens with his Johan Museeuw autographed jersey
© Jeff Jones
Watching the WAOD Championship of the Universe
© Jeff Jones
We made our way towards the Schelde on the back roads, enjoying the afternoon and trying not to get run over by the WAOD broom wagon. Then it was over the bridge at Eine and up towards Mater, which provided me with my first lengthy sector of cobbles for some time, but the wrist handled it well enough. The first of the day's climbs was nestled somewhere around Mater, and although I've ridden most of those roads, this one was totally new. I love that! And I know where it comes out now.
We crossed the main road, and descended towards the next climb, Berg ten Houtte, which is another new one for me. It used to be used in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but is now fairly quiet. Filip Meirhaeghe lives at the bottom, I believe. It's a tough little climb - quite steep at the bottom, but then flattens out at the top and you end up at the vending machine at Koekamer. One of our number inconveniently had a phone call at the bottom, so I waited for him and we chased back on at the top. The rest waited, which was jolly decent of them.
I know how fast I can go without crashing
© Jeff Jones
Cruisin' through the Flemish countryside
© Jeff Jones
From then on, we followed the end part of the Berchem ride in reverse, through Flobecq and Wodecq, then instead of going up towards Lahamaide, we went straight on in the direction of Ath. Then it was all unchartered territory. It's a rather pleasant part of Belgium to ride in, with lots of quiet small roads, little forests, ups and downs, and so on. Henk didn't miss a turn, although we did a few times.
We eventually stopped for some bevoorading at a vending machine in the vicinity of Moustier. A Coke went down very well, but I was still thirsty so I put in another 80 cents for a Gluck, not knowing what it was, apart from being the cheapest drink. It turned out to be beer, but only 5% strength, so I barely noticed it. Unlike some other times.
Noice
© Jeff Jones
Why am I always at the back?
© Jeff Jones
Bevoorarding
© Jeff Jones
We went a different way home and it was clear that folks were getting tired. We did a climb that was very similar to La Houppe but was nowhere near it, so maybe it was some sort of temporal space shift. En route to the last climb, Gunther suffered a puncture as we went through some stones. It had to happen, but fortunately it was our only mishap of the day. Contrast that with two years ago when we had at least n flats, where n is greater than four.
Puncture time for Gunther and Jan
© Jeff Jones
I tried to get up the last climb quick enough so that I could take pics of everyone, and I almost succeeded, except Henk and Bert were a bit too quick to get in the shot. You can't be both fast and famous!
Gunther comes up the final climb
© Jeff Jones
The autobus
© Jeff Jones
The hills had started to take their toll, but fortunately it wasn't too far (or too windy) to get back to home base in Ouwegem, after a 100 km round trip. Great stuff, and we indulged in a few special recovery drinks that go by the name of "Ename", and come in dark or blond.
Back in the garage in Ouwegem, ready for refreshment
© Jeff Jones
From L to R: Ikke, Philip 'Pippo Pozzato' Boutens, Gunther Petrens (Henk's mechanic), Domien Bracke (physiotherapist and WAOD rider), Henk Ballet, Jan Hoef, Bert Vertriest (organiser of Davitamon Classic), Peter 'Dario Pieri' Achtergaele
© Ilse Stevens
It was a small, but quality field of eight riders that met in Henk's garage in Ouwegem. Henk Ballet, Philip 'Pippo Pozzato' Boutens, Gunther Petrens (Henk's mechanic), Domien Bracke (physiotherapist and WAOD rider), Jan Hoef, Bert Vertriest (organiser of Davitamon Classic), Peter 'Dario Pieri' Achtergaele, and ik. There were a few dark horses among them, but everyone was clearly prepared for the 100 km tour through the Henegouwen countryside. None of us were familiar with the route, although Henk had reconnoitred it and knew every little twist and turn.
Interestingly (or coincidentally?), the WAOD was holding its national championships in Ouwegem on the same day, so we could watch the field of very fit looking 50 year-olds race around the tough circuit with the aim of becoming national champion for the day. And a nice day it was: 25 plus degrees, no wind, no rain. We set off at 1:00pm and had planned about four hours for the ride, including stops.
We are gathered here today in Henk's garage© Jeff Jones
Philip Boutens with his Johan Museeuw autographed jersey© Jeff Jones
Watching the WAOD Championship of the Universe© Jeff Jones
We made our way towards the Schelde on the back roads, enjoying the afternoon and trying not to get run over by the WAOD broom wagon. Then it was over the bridge at Eine and up towards Mater, which provided me with my first lengthy sector of cobbles for some time, but the wrist handled it well enough. The first of the day's climbs was nestled somewhere around Mater, and although I've ridden most of those roads, this one was totally new. I love that! And I know where it comes out now.
We crossed the main road, and descended towards the next climb, Berg ten Houtte, which is another new one for me. It used to be used in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but is now fairly quiet. Filip Meirhaeghe lives at the bottom, I believe. It's a tough little climb - quite steep at the bottom, but then flattens out at the top and you end up at the vending machine at Koekamer. One of our number inconveniently had a phone call at the bottom, so I waited for him and we chased back on at the top. The rest waited, which was jolly decent of them.
I know how fast I can go without crashing© Jeff Jones
Cruisin' through the Flemish countryside© Jeff Jones
From then on, we followed the end part of the Berchem ride in reverse, through Flobecq and Wodecq, then instead of going up towards Lahamaide, we went straight on in the direction of Ath. Then it was all unchartered territory. It's a rather pleasant part of Belgium to ride in, with lots of quiet small roads, little forests, ups and downs, and so on. Henk didn't miss a turn, although we did a few times.
We eventually stopped for some bevoorading at a vending machine in the vicinity of Moustier. A Coke went down very well, but I was still thirsty so I put in another 80 cents for a Gluck, not knowing what it was, apart from being the cheapest drink. It turned out to be beer, but only 5% strength, so I barely noticed it. Unlike some other times.
Noice© Jeff Jones
Why am I always at the back?© Jeff Jones
Bevoorarding © Jeff Jones
We went a different way home and it was clear that folks were getting tired. We did a climb that was very similar to La Houppe but was nowhere near it, so maybe it was some sort of temporal space shift. En route to the last climb, Gunther suffered a puncture as we went through some stones. It had to happen, but fortunately it was our only mishap of the day. Contrast that with two years ago when we had at least n flats, where n is greater than four.
Puncture time for Gunther and Jan© Jeff Jones
I tried to get up the last climb quick enough so that I could take pics of everyone, and I almost succeeded, except Henk and Bert were a bit too quick to get in the shot. You can't be both fast and famous!
Gunther comes up the final climb © Jeff Jones
The autobus© Jeff Jones
The hills had started to take their toll, but fortunately it wasn't too far (or too windy) to get back to home base in Ouwegem, after a 100 km round trip. Great stuff, and we indulged in a few special recovery drinks that go by the name of "Ename", and come in dark or blond.
Back in the garage in Ouwegem, ready for refreshment © Jeff Jones
From L to R: Ikke, Philip 'Pippo Pozzato' Boutens, Gunther Petrens (Henk's mechanic), Domien Bracke (physiotherapist and WAOD rider), Henk Ballet, Jan Hoef, Bert Vertriest (organiser of Davitamon Classic), Peter 'Dario Pieri' Achtergaele© Ilse Stevens
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