Hour 3:11 and the lack of an opposable thumb.
What a weekend it has been! I left La Rochelle and headed North to Paris on Thursday to stay with friends of the family. After schlepping my 60 lb bike box and 65 lb suitcase through train stations and metros, I made it just in time for a homemade dinner. Thanks so much Beth and Jim!
Hmm…. I went from riding completely alone on the pancake flat roads of Western France to a group ride of 17,000 participants and one of the steepest climbs in the world, all over night. OK, lets begin.
On Saturday I rode the entire Tour of Flanders route, 160 miles of cobble stones, raging winds and 4.5 hours of rain. It took a total of 9 hours and 30 minutes, a long day at the office. The temps were in the very low 40’s so as usual I had no feeling in my hands or feet while trying to ride cobbles at 25 mph. The course included 17 major climbs, and luckily had four feed stations.
As I write this entry it has been almost 48 hours since the ride, but I still have very limited strength/motion in my right thumb. For several hours after the ride I thought for sure it was just the cold lingering around, but I have actually rattled my something around in there and simple chores like eating with utensils, zipping up my jacket and un-buckling the clips on my backpack take at least 4x’s as long. So much for being one of two species with opposable thumbs, I feel like a snake typing on a QWERTY keyboard.
Despite being underdressed as usual the ride was epic and awesome. Too bad I didn’t have a rain cape or shoe covers for the nasty Belgium weather. I will never forget looking at my watch, it was 3:11 (3 hours 10 minutes) into the ride when the first raindrop fell. Brendan, Andy and I had just left the second feed station after scarffing down honey wafer crackers, orange slices and the best miniature waffles ever! From then on we all kinda split up among the 17,000 participants and I just jammed the iPod for the rest of the day. Even the Belgium team we had been working with was huddled into a bus stop to escape the weather, perhaps that puts the situation into perspective.
I was able to ride every single climb, which is a pretty big feat in itself. The Koppenberg was the hardest as predicted, with a max 22-degree pitch and average of around 15, it is 600 meters long and is pure cobblestone. The cobbles were coated in a thin layer of mud and completely wet; so standing up was not an option. I had been thinking about this climb for weeks, and I was going to give everything I had to clean it. If I bobbled or someone got in the way I was heading back down for round 2,3,4… I was the only one in my group to ride it 100%, and I had a bit more motivation from the helicopter filming just 100 yards above my head, it was surreal. As I begun the Koppenberg my iPod conveniently put on a song with the lyrics, “He put me smack dab in the middle of paradise… it’s another reminder, God’s been good to me” by Keith Urban.
“I’m closer to being Tiger Woods than Lance Armstrong” –that is from Brendan Quirk a few years ago after watching a Tour de France stage in person on the Pyrenees of France, and keep in mind he had not golfed in years and was riding/racing his bike everyday. After seeing the Pro race on Sunday, I can’t agree more. NO ONE in the United States has any clue what riding cobbles are like, unless of course they have been to Europe in a true classic race or ride. No I don’t care if the market downtown has a cobbled street- or if you know of an old rode to grand-ma’s, you don’t know cobbles.
On Sunday we received wonderful treatment courtesy of Ridley bikes and zipped around the course in the Silence-Lotto team car catching different sections of the course which we had suffered on the day before. At the Kemelberg the snow/sleet/rain started and the guys still came up the hill twice as fast I did 24 hours earlier, minus snow in my case. At the end of the day, Belgium National Champion Stijn Devolder won with a time of 6:27, yes a full 3 hours faster than my time. He was in a break with all the favorites (Boonen, Cancellarra, Hincapie) and as soon as the charging peleton caught their break, he attached again, solo and rode away. No one chased because this guy had been in a breakaway most of the day, working non-stop and was surely out of energy. Turns out he just had the biggest balls and held off to win by 16 seconds, staying away for 25 kilometers or so.
Thanks for reading about my silly adventures around the world.
Check out some pics:
(This is when you know your big time)
(A quick wheel change, or...)
(Tom Boonen on the attack)
(Eventual winner and Belgium National Champ Stijn Devolder)
(Finally, the last climb)
