Tour of Flanders sportive

le_patron

Re jacket, I have a quite old now Berghaus Gore-tex paclite cycling jacket which is great, slim fit, lightweight and has two zipped flaps in the back which you can undo if too hot. It's 100% waterproof and pretty breathable. I don't think they make them anymore (or Berghaus anything cycling related).

Also depends how much 'effort' you put into your pedalling, I have to cycle pretty hard to generate enough heat, so my comfort zone when wet may be different to others, hence jacket comes on at a different temp. I never wear a jacket when racing and very rarely when training hard, but wore it pretty much all day on Sat.

I was no. 279 if you want to see me wearing it in the rain And I swapped the number for another tub of Isotar. No bidons this year.

Bronzie

#491 - clubmates have suggested I have found my true calling at the World Gurning Championships later this year

FransJacques

You guys look great! Stone, you look like you'd rather look at *anything* other than the cobbled, muddy mess around you. Very non-chalant!

I enjoyed the cobbles a lot but they're better when you're climbing them - flat cobbles suck. Downward cobbles are worse. I had a theoretical 30 km/h as my max - I was worried about wheels, stem, bars (mainly). I wasn't worried about the R3-SL or the 3T forks - they're proven.

I signed up for Roubiax as well but will only ride the middle distance b/c of the flatness. For that one I'll ride the flexy and too large Ti frame as that should stand up well to severe punishment.

My tires for my 3 runnings of the RVV ('00, '02 and now '10) are simply 25mm Conti 3000s or latterly the 4000s. The Vittoria Pave's are great but feel like wood on asphalt. I had no flats which was great. In fact when I was back in London on Monday, I took the bike to Wimbledon Park and threw it through the mud to enjoy more off road feeling. All it needs is cantis to make it a great off road machine!

blim

#38 - I reckon i can be forgiven the fist-pump as I crested the Muur 8)

That was difficult. No punctures, though I had to straighten my bars several times as the headset worked loose; the mud clogged my front mech repeatedly, but the regular showers cleaned it nicely afterwards. Had to climb bits of the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg & Koppenberg sadly. The latter was a bunfight. But the Muur was amazing, if somewhat crowded at the top. Hellish downpour after the Bosberg, though that last 10km is really fast.

Bontrager Race Lite tyres did the job nicely (23mm). Was with Baxter's and one of our group had a mechanical and got a lift to Ninove by a kindly local. Another guy's rear mech bust; he spotted a Dutch girl getting into the broom wagon and borrowed her's to get to the end!

Sunday was amazing. Met Johan Museeuw outside a hotel where all the buses were. If ever someone was "on the outside looking in", it was the former Lion of Flanders...

FransJacques

what do you mean? a bit of an outcast now that he was finally banned - be it a bit too late to do anyone any good...

I saw and spoke to him at the Smithfield Nocturne. Funny that he didn't have the high-pitched voice he used to.

His bikes are selling for a cool £6k on wiggle now. Good luck with that Johan!

blim

Yeah; I meant that it seemed symbolic that he was outside the 6-foot fence along with the rest of us. I'm sure he could have gotten in if he'd wanted. As it happened I was wearing my Rapha "Leeuw van Vlaanderen" t-shirt at the time. Probably thought i was a proper creepy little fanboy. :oops:

FransJacques - you're absolutely right; flat cobbles are horrible. Much better to climb them, which I never thought would be the case.

oxoneil

Seriously thinking about going over next year but with the finish moving to Oudenaarde I'm wondering what the route the sportive will use. I want to do the famous climbs and the route misses some out next year.

ddraver

oxoneil wrote:

Seriously thinking about going over next year but with the finish moving to Oudenaarde I'm wondering what the route the sportive will use. I want to do the famous climbs and the route misses some out next year.

I'm in exactly the same position! I have a Belgian Collegue that does it each year as he lives near either the start or finish (can't remember!) I'm sure I could only do the shorter routes but that would still be fun by the sounds of it! Not sure what he's doing yet though....

ugo.santalucia

oxoneil wrote:

Seriously thinking about going over next year but with the finish moving to Oudenaarde I'm wondering what the route the sportive will use. I want to do the famous climbs and the route misses some out next year.

If they stick to the PRO route, it's not worth doing it, Koppenberg and Paterberg are a long procession of walkers

It was a beautiful event, but too big for those roads... they can support 3 thousand riders, but not 20 thousand

Digger90

First time at RVV and I'm doing the full 258kms.

Can anyone suggest a training plan leading up to the event... other than "do lots of looooong rides"?

Rodrego Hernandez

Digger90 wrote:

First time at RVV and I'm doing the full 258kms.

Can anyone suggest a training plan leading up to the event... other than "do lots of looooong rides"?

You've entered a 258km ride and don't fancy doing long rides as training?

Maybe get some GH and EPO or just suffer lots on the day?

marc9926

I did it this year and it was not to bad. Its a long day doing the full route but the biggest pain is getting back and forth from the start to the finish. We stayed in Brugge so for the start it was ideal but then you've got to get back after you finish which meant going in 2 cars to register the day before, leaving 1 there and coming back in the 1 with 4 bike's (it was a bit cramped). You have to decide if you want a mega early morning on the day I think the coaches left the finish at 5am so if you stay in Bruxells you also got about a 30km drive to the start, or stay in Brugge, which i'm told is much nicer and closer to the ferry or chunnel, but have the agro of driving to register and driving back after the ride. We got back at about 7pm which was ok. I've not read all the posts but I'm sure much has been writtern about the course and organisation. The course is ok although the cobbles were murder, i'd rather ride hardknott pass 10 times than go over them again. We thought long and hard about where to stay and we think we got it right but its personal preference.

flanners1

Rides of 50-80m on the run up. I did a lot on the rollers which really helped. Some mountainbiking was good too turns into a MTB ride for the bergs!

PocketRocket42

The Tour of Flanders Cyclosportive is a great event to do I totally recommend it.

Although this coming years event in 2012 is different from the past it should still be fun.
If fun is the right terminology :arrow: :evil: pain is only monmentary .....etc etc.....etc

Make sure your fit before you do it other wise you will be in a whole world of pain.
The trick to riding on the cobbles is riding as fast as possible so you skim across the cobbles.
As soon as you lose your strength it gets markedly harder on the cobbles.

I can't make it this year as I will be at the Etape du Heath cyclosportive in Haywards Heath on the 1st April instead.
http://www.srs-events.cc

It will be interesting to see how the route changes the organisers have created for the 2012 Tour of Flanders affects the cyclosportive and the pro race. Whatever happens there will still be the lovely beer and chips and mayonnaise in the local area to enjoy ...... that will never change.

I will be thinking of you all when I am riding through the lovely lanes of mid Sussex on the Etape du Heath cyclosportve.