Off to a Chipper...

ridgerider

Forget Flanders, the place to be this weekend is Eijden near Maastricht for the Volta Limburg!

http://www.voltalimburgclassic.nl

Belkin are out in force on Saturday to blow away Giant Shimano and a whole load of pro-continental teams in the UCI 1.1 pro race. Hopefully I will be able to get up close and personal with Messrs Kelderman, Kruiswijk, Hofland and local hero ten Dam, and get some useful inside information for my up and coming PTP picks.

Doing the Sportive on Sunday over the same roads...according to Sir Rick Chasey, it is going to be 'hilly'! How do they manage to find 2300m of climbing in the land of the polders!

Fun, fun fun

yakk

Hi Ridgerider, expecting a full report with pics, including Ten Dams bad facial growth. Will you be riding in Belkin green??
Yours in anticiptation.
Yak

ddraver

Ridgerider wrote:

Doing the Sportive on Sunday over the same roads...according to Sir Rick Chasey, it is going to be 'hilly'! How do they manage to find 2300m of climbing in the land of the polders!

Fun, fun fun

Cos you aint in the polders down there. Lots of chalk hills. Think The Chilterns but with no forests (and the White Cliffs, Seven Sisters etc etc). Geologically they re the same. Cretaceous age talk deposited in a wide, warm shallow sea that covered most of north western and eastern Europe. Chalk is the remains of micrometre sized, single celled carbonate organisms (coccoliths) that live in the shallow water, then "rain down"to the sea floor on death. It forms the regional seal for much of the North Sea oil and gas but where it's fractured it can produce gas, for example on the Norweigen Shelf.

Yellow Peril

Get in DDRaver, first geological spoiler of the season!

ridgerider

Not very windy here, so probably no echelons. Off to buy some cheese. However, there is no bigger fan on this planet than me when it comes to croquettes!

Richmond Racer

Ridgerider wrote:

Not very windy here, so probably no echelons. Off to buy some cheese. However, there is no bigger fan on this planet than me when it comes to croquettes!

Chipper and croquettes...perfect combo

blazing_saddles

It's on my telebox, (L 1 Limburg) tomorrow afternoon from 1-45pmBST, so there should
be a live feed or two for the peasants. :P

ridgerider

By the power invested in me by the pro race forum I am going to give it my best shot and try and get a ride in the belkin team car...can't be many takers for a back seat in a UCI1.1.

'Chalk' you say Mr Raver...I come all this way from the South Downs of Sussex and all I get are the South Downs of Limburg, flipping great!

ridgerider

As recommended in the 'Belgium Beer' thread, I searched out the speciality beer pub in Maastricht with the rudest landlord I have met since Norman in the Coach & Horses. I would post in that thread, but this is surrealist gold, so it stays here...

First of all it is a smoking pub, so I came out reaking of cigarette smoke, but some of the highlights were...

"What kind of beer would you like?"
"I like brown beers"
"Brown is a colour"

and

"I quite like Duval"
"If you want strong, go to a gym"

The first beer I managed to buy was a green label Duvel, which is like red label Duval but without the steroids. The second one I managed to buy was based on my preference, which I never realised I had, for a 'bitter' tasting beer, but in the throat as opposed to the mouth...so I ended up with a glass of Bink.

Throughout all this, the music system was playing "Now that's What I Call 80's Music". So after two drinks and a grilling of my sub-conscious taste buds, and to the chorus of crickets on Club Tropicana, I made my excuses and left.

frenchfighter

Haha makes for an interesting Friday evening!

Enjoy the racing RR.

Paul 8v

Loving the beer report ridgerider!

joelsim

I was expecting one of these when I read the post name

blazing_saddles

Live coverage just starting:
http://www.l1.nl/epg_nowon/popup/tv

ridgerider

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Live coverage just starting:
http://www.l1.nl/epg_nowon/popup/tv

I watched it all, has anyone got any questions...?

Yes, the riders all look very young.

Yes, Hofland's stem looked like it had been made out of a bit of the Forth Railway Bridge, it was CHUNKY!

The U21(?) podium was three Norwegians, not sure if that is significant.

Yes, Belkin did seem to chase down ten Dam, but I think he was Plan B and their Plan A for Hofland to win took priority, and was successful.

Yes it did look hilly for tomorrow...

specialgueststar

Hoflands having a good start to the season ...

179 dnf's :shock:

259 starters - only 2 French riders?

ridgerider

Like in all good Chippers, there were a couple of circuits of the town centre at the end of the race to boost cafe business, so I think there was a cut off of riders to avoid confusing the punters, hence the dnfs.
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Either that, or the hills are killers!

ddraver

That is an outstanding bar! I loved that guy!