Post by Darbs on Apr 25, 2014 14:00:22 GMT
I was working in Brussels this week, so managed to have a change from flying and put my bike in the car and jumped onto Eurotunnel.
I got two evening rides in the main Belgian classics area to the north west of Brussels where cobbles rule the roost! The first one was around Geraardsbergen that included the Muur van Geraardsbergen which is the cobbled climb that Cancellara rode away from Tom Boonen on in the Tour of Flanders in 2010, that had the UCI then x-ray his bike to check for a motor!
This climb starts in the town centre then climbs through residential streets, getting steeper and narrower up to the church on top of the hill. It’s 17% and although the cobbles are rough, they were nothing compared to the next evenings ride.
This one started for Oudenaarde, the centre of the Belgian cycling scene, headed out following the Tour of Flanders route to take in the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg and Koppenberg. This started off badly as 200 meters from the car I hopped from a road onto a cycle path and my front wheel clipped the drainage channel, firing me onto the cobbled concrete surface! Brand new Campag Super Record 11, suddenly didn’t look so new. I stopped most of the bleeding and certainly wasn’t going to miss the evening sun and being further battered by the cobbles, so set off with flapping bar tape!
After following the cycle path by the river, the very narrow roads started. How on earth a fast moving peloton get down them I will never know, they are like a very small Worcestershire country lane!
Nothing can prepare you for the brutality of the cobbles. I was constantly waiting for a rear puncture, I am still not sure how I managed to avoid getting a flat, a few times I felt the tub compress and twist off the edge of a cobble, but amazingly they stayed inflated! I must have also checked that everything was still in my jersey pockets about 500 times as I was certain it was all being shaken out!
If anything on the bike wasn’t secure, it would fall off, and although I have heard about riding fast and ‘floating’ over the cobbles, the faster I got it just seemed to rattle my teeth and make my vision blurred! After the relatively gentle 7% of the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg arrived. This is a monster, 20% and straight up, so you can see the whole climb. I could feel my tyres pinging off the side of the cobbles, but I managed to haul myself over the top. Feeling fairly happy with myself, I then arrived at the foot of the Koppenberg.
I will never moan about hills again, ever. If I do moan you can kick me in the kneecap, but make it my left one, as I cut my right in the earlier fall.
(Notice the flappy bar tape and blood just visible on my right arm!)
The Koppenberg is the same gradient as Ankerdine Hill at 22%, but the cobbles are like half house bricks with a 2 inch drop between each one. It’s an animal. To make it worse, it starts out gently, with not much of a gap between the cobbles, but then it ramps up under the trees where the dripping water washes away anything that settles in the gaps, so it like riding over a building site at 22% gradient!
Coming over the top onto smooth tarmac is the best feeling ever, after being pounded for miles at 8mph having my fillings rattled out of my teeth and my helmet over bounced my eyes, 18mph felt like 45mph!
I did a bit more of a loop on smooth roads, even catching up a local chain gang for a few miles, then with the last of the setting sun returned to my car and opened the first aid kit.
Happy days!
I got two evening rides in the main Belgian classics area to the north west of Brussels where cobbles rule the roost! The first one was around Geraardsbergen that included the Muur van Geraardsbergen which is the cobbled climb that Cancellara rode away from Tom Boonen on in the Tour of Flanders in 2010, that had the UCI then x-ray his bike to check for a motor!
This climb starts in the town centre then climbs through residential streets, getting steeper and narrower up to the church on top of the hill. It’s 17% and although the cobbles are rough, they were nothing compared to the next evenings ride.
This one started for Oudenaarde, the centre of the Belgian cycling scene, headed out following the Tour of Flanders route to take in the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg and Koppenberg. This started off badly as 200 meters from the car I hopped from a road onto a cycle path and my front wheel clipped the drainage channel, firing me onto the cobbled concrete surface! Brand new Campag Super Record 11, suddenly didn’t look so new. I stopped most of the bleeding and certainly wasn’t going to miss the evening sun and being further battered by the cobbles, so set off with flapping bar tape!
After following the cycle path by the river, the very narrow roads started. How on earth a fast moving peloton get down them I will never know, they are like a very small Worcestershire country lane!
Nothing can prepare you for the brutality of the cobbles. I was constantly waiting for a rear puncture, I am still not sure how I managed to avoid getting a flat, a few times I felt the tub compress and twist off the edge of a cobble, but amazingly they stayed inflated! I must have also checked that everything was still in my jersey pockets about 500 times as I was certain it was all being shaken out!
If anything on the bike wasn’t secure, it would fall off, and although I have heard about riding fast and ‘floating’ over the cobbles, the faster I got it just seemed to rattle my teeth and make my vision blurred! After the relatively gentle 7% of the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg arrived. This is a monster, 20% and straight up, so you can see the whole climb. I could feel my tyres pinging off the side of the cobbles, but I managed to haul myself over the top. Feeling fairly happy with myself, I then arrived at the foot of the Koppenberg.
I will never moan about hills again, ever. If I do moan you can kick me in the kneecap, but make it my left one, as I cut my right in the earlier fall.
(Notice the flappy bar tape and blood just visible on my right arm!)
The Koppenberg is the same gradient as Ankerdine Hill at 22%, but the cobbles are like half house bricks with a 2 inch drop between each one. It’s an animal. To make it worse, it starts out gently, with not much of a gap between the cobbles, but then it ramps up under the trees where the dripping water washes away anything that settles in the gaps, so it like riding over a building site at 22% gradient!
Coming over the top onto smooth tarmac is the best feeling ever, after being pounded for miles at 8mph having my fillings rattled out of my teeth and my helmet over bounced my eyes, 18mph felt like 45mph!
I did a bit more of a loop on smooth roads, even catching up a local chain gang for a few miles, then with the last of the setting sun returned to my car and opened the first aid kit.
Happy days!
