TOUR OF FLANDERS 2007 - David Curtis
Sorry it has taken so long to write to you all about our trip to Flanders.
The truth is that it was so mind blowing, it has taken till now to get a
grip on happened. To say that it was the best sporting moment of my life was
to put it mildly [ and I have done Nissans, Tour de France, Dublin City
Marathons, Irish, European, and World Triathlon Championships]. I can only
recommend it to anyone without hesitation. I have written a Report for an
American Pod cast I listen [ and recommend} called The Fred Cast. You can
find it in I-Tunes in the pod cast section and its god to down load and play
it on an I-Pod when you cycle. The report is below and slanted toward the
pod cast. On a personal note, my two brothers in law, Brain and Seamus,
would like to thank Wexford Wheelers for all their good wishes and support.
It was much appreciated.
A quick summery is that 18,000 cyclists did the trip, varying in distance
from the 260kms full race tour to the 140, and 70kms for road bikes. There
is also a MTB Tour with 70, 50 and 30kms cycles. The figures are approx
broken down to 2,500 for the 260kms , 8,000 for the 140kms , and 3,000 for
the 70kms with the rest MTB's. The 260 kms follows the race route and the
rest all start at the finish in Ninove. We stayed in Brugge, which is a
lovely town to get ready and prepare in. Brugge is an old classical town
with loads of shops, restaurants and bars. Its called the " Venice of the
North" with canals going through it. My sister Mary Rose, whose husband was
on trip with us, had lived there and knew it well. My two cycling companions
[and brothers in law], Brian Kilbride from St Tiernan's Cycling Club in
Dublin, and Seamus McDonnell, who trains with the Limerick Triathlon Club,
had both done the trip before on few occasions and knew their way around
well. This experience was to prove invaluable later.
We spent Friday getting ready and made sure our bikes were ready after the
plane journey by doing an hour trip out to the coast [Brugge is only a few
kilometres from the North Sea]. We made contact with an old friend, Sean
Kelly, the ex pro, who is from Carrick On Suir, which is only an hours drive
away. Sean was also doing the Tour of Flanders, but as he had had work for
Eurosport TV on Sunday, he felt it was better to do the 140kms trip. He had
arranged for 7 guys from Carrick to come out, but their bikes were left on
the plane and went back to Shannon Airport In Ireland on Friday night.
Luckily, he was able to use last years team bikes from his own team to get
the guys sorted out. According to Kelly, the Carrick guys were having beers
at 11 pm the night of the Tour toasting my health as they were confident
that I was still out there not having finished. And all this from cyclist
who ONLY did the 140 km Tour !
Another interesting thing that happened was that as we walked around the
Brugge on Good Friday morning, I noticed 4 Pros from the US Navigator Team.
Knowing that this was the team of Ciaran Power From Carrick On Suir in
Ireland, I went over but did not recognise him with them. As I walked away,
I was admiring their Colanago Frames, I noticed that Ciaran's name was
written onto one of the frame. Going back, I realised that he had lost so
much weight, I did not recognise him. Both he and his team mates were really
hospitable, and we talked for about 10 minutes before my 2 year old son got
bored and we had to go. At least we got a photo[ see below] and a promise
from Ciaran to take part in the my local cycling clubs Christmas Hamper Race
this year.
On Saturday morning, we got up at 5.15 am to get to the start in the Main
Square in Brugge at 6.20 am. Already there was about 200 in a queue for the
start, which we joined [ see photo].
At 6.50 am we got up onto the offical
start ramp for the next day's Pro Race, and were allowed to start after
signing in as first light was starting. There was at least a 1,000 waiting
to start behind us at that stage.
We quickly got into a bunch of about 400 with mainly Italians, Dutch, French and Belgium's who all were dressed in
their Club Colours with similar Bikes, Helmets and Clothes. We rode on our
pulse monitors with a plan to stay aerobic if possible, in view of the long
day ahead. This meant keeping a pulse of about 135 to 145 at all times,
which kept us aerobic and gave us a pace of about 35 kms per hour. This
meant that sometimes we were in a group that was going too fast for us, and
our pulse rates going too high for such along day. We used to fall out of
these groups, but had our revenge later when we passed many of the same guys
on the hills towards the end.
The first part of the spin is flat for about 140 kms. The weather was fresh
and a bit cold as we had a north eastern wind pushing us south, but giving
us cold air. The Tour of Flanders uses a mixture of Big Open Roads and then
little back tracks down farm lanes. Its all smooth till about 120 kms when
you hit your first section of cobbles. The shock of hitting this first
section of Cobbles cannot be described. The general advise is to go as fast
through these sections as possible as your momentum will carry you through
the troughs of the cobbles. You feel as if this cannot be good for your
bike, which will fall to pieces. The bunch is doing about 30 kms per hour,
and you and your bike are shaking so much you cannot see your speedometer.
When you come out of them, you feel as your bike is wrecked, but after a few
hundred meters, you realise all is well. There is one section of cobbles
that goes on for about 3 or 4 kms called the " Mater" [ Excuse spellings if
I'm wrong ]. Its quite rough and we saw one bad fall there. Overall, there
is very few falls in spite of the big number of cyclists taking part. You
realise that the standard of riding is very high with lots of good gear to
be seen. You also begin to realise that cycling really is the National Sport
of Belgium like GAA is here in Ireland or baseball in the USA, with massive
crowds taking part and watching.
There are 4 checkpoint with feed stations along the way, where free food [
waffles, cakes, bananas, and loads of Isostar drinks] keep you going [ see 2
photos below]. The whole secret of the Tour of Flanders is the second half ,
where after 160 kms of relatively flat and smooth road, you come to the
first of 17 hills. These hills are all in the last 100 kms and at that stage
in the Tour, you feel as the worst is over. BUT the worst is yet to come !
For an idea of what the hills are like, go the the Ronde website at
http://www.sport.be/cycling/rondevanvlaanderen/2007/eng/
and go to the Hills page which is very good at describing the hills with
pictures of many of them. Half of them are cobbles which make it harder. The
hills are not too long but incredibly steep. Also no sooner have you
finished one climb than you are into the next one. There is approximately a
severe climb every 6 kms. Another feature of the whole day is that the
route, and especially the hills, are packed with spectators. Think of the
Boston City Marathon in its heyday and its like that. Our group used low
gears and spun up the hills with not too much bother. Two hills have to be
mentioned for special consideration. The first is the Paterburg , which is
the steepest at 22%., but not too long. However, the greatest hill is the
second last hill known as the " Muir" , which is the Flemish for wall [ at
least it gives you an idea of what its like]. Its very steep and narrow and
packed with people [ mostly waiting for family members or friends] There is
a pub near the top which adds to the atmosphere. We stopped to take what
Benny called "Iconic Photographs" beside the church. As you can
see, we were on such a high at this point after a relatively trouble free
run, with only one more hill and about 20 kms to go. We finished at approx 6
pm, but even though its not a race, we were pleased with our time as we felt
very strong at the end [ see photo of Seamus and myself on the finish line].
In fact, I was really sorry the trip was over as we were all going well and
the atmosphere was great. The Finish Line for our Tour is the same as the
offical race but all us touring cyclists have to cycle another 3 to 4 kms to
finish the local university where T Shirts, cycle jerseys, Bottles, food ,
medical rub downs, etc are given out to all finishers. Its interesting that
the organisation is so good that all the different starters finish at
different times [ i.e. the MTB' finish before the 70 km guys who finish
before the 140 km guys who finished before the 260 kms guys; hence the end
point was not full of 18,000 cyclists!], Also every cyclist has a number on
the front of their bike not only for identification, but also to allow you
into the food stations.
One of the problems is that the Start in Brugge is about 120 kms away from
the finish in Ninove. We all had to pile into cars and head back to Brugge.
A few beers after dinner later back in Brugge helped ease our aching legs,
as Brugge is famous for its beer. Every bar does not just tell you what
beers they have, but gives you a menu for all their beers. The bar we went
to had a menu of approx 200 bears ! On our way back to our hotel after quite
a few drinks, we came across one of the Rabobank team support vehicles and
dreamed of what might have been [ see photo]
The next morning Seamus and I got out of bed to see the Pros off at 9.45 am.
Benny was there, but in a crowd of approx 10,000 it was easy to miss him [
see photo].
The buzz is incredible, and I was really sorry my family had
booked our flights home that afternoon. Brian and Seamus took a train to see
the race on one of the hills near a bar where they retired to see the rest
of the race on TV. I have already made sure that I will be with them next
year.
I would highly recommend the Tour of Flanders. Its easy to get to [ only an
hour from Brussels Airport], not too expensive, and your family will enjoy
the town and even watching the cycle as the atmosphere is fantastic. IF I
may be so bold to recommend another tour, I would strongly recommend "The
Wicklow 200" which is a great 200 km tour through Co Wicklow in what is
known as the garden of Ireland. Its very hilly and evolves about 8 long
climbs. The entry list is closed after 1600 for safety reasons but if any of
your listeners are going to be in Ireland on Sunday on Sunday, the 10th of
June 2007, they could do worse than give it a lash. There is also a shorter
100 kms route and both can be checked out on
http://www.wicklow200.ie/
Hope you got on well on your Ride across California. Looking foreword to
hearing the next Fred Cast.
Many Thanks
David Curtis
