Tour of Flanders

michaelm

Anyone take part in the Tour of Flanders on Sat? If so I'd be interesting in hearing any reaction. It was my first time and I have to say by the far the highlight of my (3 yrs) cycling experience. I have never seen so many bikes in one place at the same time, according to newspaper reports 17,000 took part, slightly down on last year due to the poor weather! The organisation, the cobbles, the hills (at times chaotic in an enjoyable way) made for a brilliant day on the bike. Yesterday then it was possible to watch the pro version a number of times as it weaved its way through West Flanders. All in all a great weekend.

TinyExplosions

michaelm wrote: »

Anyone take part in the Tour of Flanders on Sat? If so I'd be interesting in hearing any reaction. It was my first time and I have to say by the far the highlight of my (3 yrs) cycling experience. I have never seen so many bikes in one place at the same time, according to newspaper reports 17,000 took part, slightly down on last year due to the poor weather! The organisation, the cobbles, the hills (at times chaotic in an enjoyable way) made for a brilliant day on the bike. Yesterday then it was possible to watch the pro version a number of times as it weaved its way through West Flanders. All in all a great weekend.

Coverage is on Eurosport at 2.15... presume it's the pros, but I'll watch it anyway -I've no thesis to do any more

Chips Lovell

I've always been curious about this one. How did you get on on the bergs? Seeing the way the peloton has to cope with them (with the latter half ending up walking up because of the logjam) what's it like with thousands of people riding? Did you have to get off the bike at all? Also, was it the full 260km?

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Coverage is on Eurosport at 2.15... presume it's the pros, but I'll watch it anyway -I've no thesis to do any more

Highlights from yesterday's pro race. Worth watching. Was a great race in filthy weather.

smithslist

el tonto wrote: »

Highlights from yesterday's pro race. Worth watching. Was a great race in filthy weather.

yeah defo, good race.....enjoying the races so far this year, paris-nice, milan san and flanders all hav bein good races.

pity the eurosport coverage wasnt better for flanders.....

bring on roubaix!!!!

smithslist

and oh dont forget ghent-welegen on wens......live on eursport!!!!

Chips Lovell

smithslist wrote: »

pity the eurosport coverage wasnt better for flanders.....

bring on roubaix!!!!

I watched it all on cycling.tv. Their coverage started at 12 and ran right to the end. Eurosport's schedule was all over the place yesterday. Showed the race in two bits.

Did you see Angel Gomez's crash?

smithslist

el tonto wrote: »

Did you see Angel Gomez's crash?

no didn't see it, sky+ all day on eurosport sun, before and after the cycling was scheduled to start, but they only showed last 20k or so.....was out training on bike so wasn't in house to watch it live on cycling.tv\eurosport

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

I watched it all on cycling.tv. Their coverage started at 12 and ran right to the end. Eurosport's schedule was all over the place yesterday. Showed the race in two bits.

Did you see Angel Gomez's crash?

Just seen it -feel sorry for the poor guy, 'twas nasty!

The weather was just manky for the race, but I think we can say we've been out in worse

Chips Lovell

Was on YouTube earlier, but I can't find it now.

A good reminder of why you should always keep the head up. He obviously didn't see it coming at all.

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

Was on YouTube earlier, but I can't find it now.

A good reminder of why you should always keep the head up. He obviously didn't see it coming at all.

The state of his wheel too... that's be a bugger of a buckle to get out

Tomas_V

smithslist wrote: »

pity the eurosport coverage wasnt better for flanders....

That was just Brit-Eurosport. The German Eurosport had continuous coverage.

michaelm

el tonto wrote: »

I've always been curious about this one. How did you get on on the bergs? Seeing the way the peloton has to cope with them (with the latter half ending up walking up because of the logjam) what's it like with thousands of people riding? Did you have to get off the bike at all? Also, was it the full 260km?

To put my experience in the tour into perspective I should point out that I’m only cycling in a regular way for about three years - am middle aged, have a basic bike (Giant SCR 3) and rarely average anything above 15/16 mph. I did the 140 Km and would not even dream of attempting the 250 - heard of guys coming in in the dark with all the facilties closed down. The vast majority (about 12,000 I think) do the 140K with about 3,000 doing the 250K and a similar number doing the 75Km. Personally this was by far the best experience I have had on a bike. The organisation, the crowds, the hills and the cobbles all make for one of the most unusual cycles you’re ever likely to do. Nothing that anyone says can ever really prepare you for the cobbles, going downhill or even on the flat is actually worse than going uphill, parts of me that I didn’t even know I had were shaking! Trying to find the gear lever was a major challenge on occasions, forget about the brakes as there is only one way to ride over cobbles, as fast as you can. The biggest challenge of all was the crowds on the hills, on occasions (3 out of 16 in my case) I had no option but to walk as there was complete congestion – but even this was a unique and enjoyable experience.

As a matter of interest if anyone is interested in cycling the route you don’t have to wait until next April as there is a similar version to the Tour (but with far less participants) in 4 weeks time. A final point of note is that it is possible to cover the 140k route in one day from Dublin: Take the 6.50am flight to Brussels, a 45 min train journey to Oudenaarde, go to the Tour of Flanders Museum (where Freddy Maertens is the director) pick up the map of the course and follow the signs, you should be on the road by 12 noon. On your return they have excellent shower facitilites for €1.50 – the 9.20pm flight gets back to Dublin at 10.10 local time. I did this a few weeks ago (though I didn’t do the full 140K) and would highly recommend it to anyone.

If anyone needs more info please let me know.

TinyExplosions

michaelm wrote: »

As a matter of interest if anyone is wanted to do the route you don’t have to wait until next April as there is a similar version to the Tour in (but with far les participants) on in 4 weeks time. A final point of note is that it is possible to cover the 140k route in one day from Dublin: Take the 6.50am flight to Brussels, a 45 min train journey to Oudenaarde, go to the Tour of Flanders Museum (where Freddy Maertens is the director) pick up the map of the course and follow the signs, you should be on the road by 12 noon. On your return they have excellent shower facitilites for €1.50 – the 9.20pm flight gets back to Dublin at 10.10 local time. I did this a few weeks ago (though I didn’t do the full 140K) and would highly recommend it to anyone.

If anyone needs more info please let me know.

Boards day trip to air our new jerseys anyone?

smithslist

el tonto wrote: »

I watched it all on cycling.tv. Their coverage started at 12 and ran right to the end. Eurosport's schedule was all over the place yesterday. Showed the race in two bits.

Did you see Angel Gomez's crash?

got to see the crash on eurosports late night highlight show....was goin at some speed, unbelievable!!!!

trek climber

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Boards day trip to air our new jerseys anyone?

Interesting idea !!!!!!!!!!