Tour de Flanders in 3 weeks -just done a practice run
weeve
Posts: 393
Live about 2.5 hours away in NL so did a little practice run on sunday as good weather. Was great but as only my 5th ride this year (dodgy knees, too much work and lazy) just did 120km @25kph average - quite enough to consider my training work done for this year..roll on the sportives 
It was just like riding in Devon to be honest with the exception of the cobbles...frankly theyre comedy (afterwards...) The bike and I got shaken to bits - my favoured strategy on the flat was to hold the bars as tightly as possible and cycle as fast as I could - any tips? This approach wasnt great on the arms but loose grip just shakes your hands off.
With 17000 others there no way someone isnt going to stop in front of you...riding up then in the sun yesterday was fine but in the wet I think I might pack my trainers, pick my bike up and walk
Guess there will be plenty of Brits coming over? - if you see an English bloke trying to hold the wheel of his Mrs who has a Dalarna horse on her top (yeah I know ...but she's Swedish so can get away with it) or a couple having a picnic half way through that'll be me. Have fun.....
It was just like riding in Devon to be honest with the exception of the cobbles...frankly theyre comedy (afterwards...) The bike and I got shaken to bits - my favoured strategy on the flat was to hold the bars as tightly as possible and cycle as fast as I could - any tips? This approach wasnt great on the arms but loose grip just shakes your hands off.
With 17000 others there no way someone isnt going to stop in front of you...riding up then in the sun yesterday was fine but in the wet I think I might pack my trainers, pick my bike up and walk
Guess there will be plenty of Brits coming over? - if you see an English bloke trying to hold the wheel of his Mrs who has a Dalarna horse on her top (yeah I know ...but she's Swedish so can get away with it) or a couple having a picnic half way through that'll be me. Have fun.....
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Comments
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As loose a grip on the bars as you can, and allow your arms to soak up as much vibration as possible. As you say, riding them faster cuts down the worst of the vibration, but boy, you have to be very fit to carry this off - stick it in the big ring and hit the first bit of cobbles as quick as you can and just try and hang on.weeve wrote:The bike and I got shaken to bits - my favoured strategy on the flat was to hold the bars as tightly as possible and cycle as fast as I could - any tips?
I've always found the 3km section of flat cobbles (Kerkgate?) fairly early on and the downhill section just before the level-crossing to be the most difficult bits of the route in terms of keeping speed up without blowing up or getting shaken to pieces.0 -
Hi there,
if you take a look at the following it has some tips from a pro who rode in belgium last year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cfKuGacLpU
good luck, see you there!0
