De Ronde...

[-Adam-]

Only 3 days to go, bring it on!

[img]http://www.londoncyclesport.com/news/images/wil_08_ballan.jpg[/img]

[-Adam-]

In a car, on a boat, in a car again... frites, mayo, Chimay... full 260km sportif on Saturday... more frites, more mayo, much more Chimay...

Sunday: Scream lungs out at Jeremy Hunt, Roger Hammond, my mate from Liquigas, Manuel Quinziato and of course BOONEN BOONEN BOONEN BOONEN BOONEN BOONEN!!!

[Maria David]

You can enter the race at the Technical Institute (PTI) in Ninove (the event HQ, start town for the 140k and 75k and finish town for all distances) if you're doing the 140k and 75k distances. For the 260k you'd have to get to Bruges for about 5 or 6 am. You could try registering at Ninove the day before if you want to do the full 260k distance.
Last year we got Eurostar to Brussels. We took our bikes with us in soft foldable bags. At Brussels we got a connecting train to Haaltert - about a 20minute train ride. We then set up our bikes in the station and rode off to our hotel in Aalst, 2 miles away.
Getting to the start on the morning of the event involved riding about 7 miles down a straight road to Ninove. ( Cars were parked all the way along this road, almost as far as our hotel !)

There is a train station in Ninove. You should be able to get a connection from Brussels, Gent, and probably Ostende. You could try doing the above but Aalst (and other local towns like Ninove and Geraadsbergen) are quite small so may be already booked up accommodation-wise. Gent may be an option as it is bigger and is also a hub town for trains. (It's quite a pleasant town too.) By the way Belgian railways are laid back about taking bikes on trains. You just pay 4 euros (which is like a one-day travel card for your bike) and the guard is happy to assist.

Note that only about 300 riders do the 260k event, while about 12-13,000 do the 140k. A few hundred ride the 75k. Last year alot of locals waited until the morning itself to enter the event, and the warm weather helped to swell the numbers to about 18,000 riders ! Hopefully the weather won't be too Flandrien ! Have fun

Maria
http://2wheelchick.blogspot.com/2007/04 ... nders.html
http://2wheelchick.blogspot.com/2007/04 ... bones.html

[Andrew G]

Are you doing anything to your bike Adam? 2nd layer of bar tape, 25mm tyres, anything like that. Be good once you've done it for any pointers that are worth knowing for tackling the Belgian pave.

Paul D said he is doing this as well so it'll be good to read the reports, I definately want to do this one at some point. The classics tied in sportives appeal more to me than most of the big summer ones, the weather is more likely to be redhead friendly too .

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Tamar's been quiet, but she's doing it as well.

[Maria David]

Oh yes, other things worth mentioning :

You do all of the bergs on both the 140km ride and the 260km event - you just do a 100km run-in on a wind-swept tarmacced plain with the latter.

Re bike I used my cyclo cross bike with 25mm gatorskin road tyres. If the weather had been bad I would have considered taking the road bike instead, with the 25mm tyres.

I put on gel bar tape and that helped. Some people don't bother with thicker bar tape as it makes the grip more uncomfortable when holding something of a wider bore. They just use thick gloves.

For all the cushioning though, it is really down to technique (which I wasn't very good at) - being to the rear of the saddle and only holding the handle bars lightly, riding through the bergs at speed. Doing the uphill bergs was not that bad - they were only about 5-600m long, on average, and overall the cobbles are quite neatly arranged. The ones that were the real problem were the ones on the flat. One of them is about 3km long. There's also a horrible one that twists downhill. My arms and upper body were quite shot at the end of the day. Some of the locals just got round on no-frills sit up and beg bikes without any problem like The Muur was just their daily commute !

There are showers, a place to leave your bag and a good beer tent at the finish area, complete with band etc. It's a good day out.

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Shame I'm on ACC duties in the SCCU events otherwise I'd be there...next year??

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

[quote]
Belgium

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium


Weather Information for Brussels


Tourism Information:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weather Forecast
Issued at 10:00 (Local time) 02 Apr 2008 Date Temperature oC Weather
Minimum Maximum
03 Apr
( Thu ) 6 13 variable cloudiness - dry

04 Apr
( Fri ) 2 14 cloudy, risk of rain or showers

05 Apr
( Sat ) 7 9 risk of rain showers

06 Apr
( Sun ) 1 5 rain showers, hail or snow

07 Apr
( Mon ) -1 5 risk of rain showers, (soft)hail or snow

[quote="mrP(Boonen)VT"]Shame I'm on ACC duties in the SCCU events otherwise I'd be there...next year??

[Paul on the Pearson]

Thanks for the advice Maria you managed to make it all sound quite pleasant! I'll be on the Pearson, the only modifications to both man and machine might be a pair of track mitts under my gloves for extra padding and a bit less air in the tyres and I'll make sure everything's done up tight.

[Andrew G]

[quote="Paul on the Pearson"]I'll be on the Pearson

[-Adam-]

[quote="Andrew G"]Are you doing anything to your bike Adam? 2nd layer of bar tape, 25mm tyres, anything like that. Be good once you've done it for any pointers that are worth knowing for tackling the Belgian pave.

[MJ_1993]

Good luck

[Maria David]

Good luck with it guys, and Lisa and Tamar too.

Yep remember to strap down the bits that flap around, and make sure your drinks bottle fits snuggly in the bottle cage.

Tip: If you really want to have a clear ride up the Kappel Muur, but it's too crowded then get off your bike and wait a few minutes. The police let people up it in waves from Geraadsbergen. So if you wait until everyone has gone you'll get time to ride up it unhindered before the next wave of riders arrive.

As many groups of riders stop and wait for their friends at the top of each berg they've completed, you end up catching people anyway so you're never really alone during those last 100km.

Registration for this closes at around 10 o'clock on the morning of the event so there's still time to decide.

[Paul on the Pearson]

I know it sounded a bit obvious saying that I was doing the ride on my Pearson , but I was just trying to look hard in case anyone thought I might be doing it on a bike with full suspension or some such concession to comfort. Although I might decide to ride my purple raleigh chopper!