Day 22 - Tour of Flanders

Written by Stephen Hall with Brett Schnitzerling & Glenn Harris

We woke up just after 7 as planned and sat down for a decent breakfast. Brett had been looking forward to riding the tour of flanders circuit the entire trip so he was first out of bed and kitted up. Glenn and I had decided to ride to Diest to meet Simms while Brett and Tim drove the car down. There wouldn't be enough room for 4 bikes and 4 people and we were both more than willing to get the extra km so it wasn't an issue. We set off for Diest just after 8 o clock and before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes to Stijn and Brenda in La Bas while enjoying our last chocolate coffee. Something got lost in the translation with Michael but he thought we were riding to his place and not the coffee shop. Because of the delay we got caught in traffic through Brussels but we made our way through eventually. The start of the course was some distance away from Diest so we packed our bikes in the back and drove the 100km to the start.

We parked the car at Ninove, unpacked our bikes, kitted up and were on the rode immediately on the course of the famous tour of flanders. Tim has a good knowledge of the roads and had found a 120km circuit for us to enjoy with many of the cobble sections featured in the race. The first section we tackled was the infamous Koppenberg. This section is only 600m long but with an average gradient of 11.6% (with a maximum of 21%) on the horrendous cobbles it is extremely difficult. The hot tip we received from Glenn was to hit the cobbles as fast as possible and try to carry your speed throughout the section. If you lose momentum you can come to a complete stop and its impossible to get back on, in fact you'll find yourself walking your bike up the gutter. Road works at the bottom of the Koppenberg made it difficult to gather speed before the climb but we all grit our teeth and made our way over the top. On most of the cobble sections if you don't pick the right gear before you hit the section you can get caught out and be stuck in the gear you started in. Most riders choose to ride cobbles with their hands loosely holding the bars as opposed to in the drops or on the hoods so it is hard to change gear especially when your bouncing violently as you go. I was caught in the wrong gear and came to a complete stand still just before the summit. The climb brought back painful memories for Glenn having ridden the u/23 tour of flanders many years ago.

After the Koppenberg we had a fast descent through the streets and worked our way over to more sections including the steenbeekdries, taaienberg and berg ter stene. By now we'd gotten much better at riding the cobbles and started to fool around and race across them. Tim and Michael were used to the cobbles having lived in Belgium for so long, whereas Brett and I have never seen anything like them but our fitness got us through. We sat down outside for a coke on the way across to the Muur when it started to rain. Until then we'd been blessed with only overcast sky but the rain started to come down pretty quickly. We were all having such a great time that we didn't really notice our socks turning from white to black. Tim decided it would be better for us to skip a couple of the sections he had planned because the weather would have made them quite dangerous. Here in Europe you only have to wear a helmet when your racing but we decided it would definitely be a good idea to wear one today. We zig zagged through towns and eventually arrived at Geraadsbergen the home of the Muur.

The Muur is one of the most famous sections as is located only 16km from the finish and can often dictate who will throw their hands in the air 20 minutes later. There is a few different parts of the Muur but it is considered to be 500m long on very slippery cobbles covered in moss. Glenn had been stuck in his big chain ring most of the day and miraculously managed to power over the climb with Brett close behind. I followed Glenn up the hill and was going well until I hit a particularly rough section and washed off all momentum. Tim and Simms made their way up eventually but weren't very happy considering both of them hadn't been on the bike for awhile! The Muur wasn't very popular with Tom Boonen either after the lastest edition of the tour of flanders where Fabian Cancellara left him for dead on the climb and went on to take the victory. We took a few photos and had a laugh before we made our way back to the car. Glenn was really looking forward to tackling the Bosberg but we got lost and Simms was in a hurry to be on time for a meeting. The loop was almost spot on 120km and we all thoroughly enjoyed it, we are definitely going to watch the next tour of flanders closely next year to see just how incredible some of the riders conquer the cobbles.

We were hoping to make it back to the car earlier but the mess up with times in the morning made us late and we were stuck in the Brussels traffic for over an hour. Eventually we made our way out and Simms was madly rushing to get to his meeting. He dropped us off at his place where Annalise made Glenn and I some food which we inhaled. Brett and Tim took a different route home and dropped their bikes off before coming back to Diest to pick us up. We said our goodbyes to Annalise and the little rascal dog Milo and made our way home to Dessel. A big thank you to Simms for taking the day off work to come training with us we thoroughly enjoyed your company as well as Tim for being our tour guide. Everyone's stomach was rumbling so we had a quick shower, unpacked the car and drove to Geel for dinner at a restaurant. The servings were absolutely massive and no one got close to finishing but the food was beautiful and we were all famished. We drove around the corner to Mol after dinner and had a few drinks at a small bar in town. Brett and Tim headed home soon after while Glenn and I hung around for awhile having a drink and a chat with the locals. Eventually we made our way home and the lights were out as soon as our head hit the pillow. Tomorrow we catch a train to Amsterdam where we'll spend the night before our flight to Singapore on the Saturday. Our last full day here in Belgium was brilliant and will be remembered for a long time after we return.