We are doing Flanders and Roubaix next year – Airbnb in Ronse booked for 10 days – on the rvv route and about 10 minutes on the train to oudenaarde. Then drive over to Flanders on the 2nd weekend. We’ll be going on the hull Zeebrugge ferry.

I think in some ways I’m giving the location a bit too much thought as to where. Whilst it would be nice to walk to the sportive or pro races, it’s hardly essential. No reason we can’t cycle to them of course or even drive it.

Our 3rd mate has bailed so it’s just the 2 boys. Which I’m completely fine with.

Training has begun now and back on the 5-2 for it too. Need some spare time out on the CX bike over the coming months to get used to the weird bike.

If you’re in Flanders, visit the RvV Centrum in Oudenaard and pick up one of their route maps which links together all the classic Flandrien roads / climbs. Stay in Belgium, not France – Roubaix is a horrible, industrial suburb of Lille with few redeeming features apart from a velodrome.

Well that’s that then…. booked 🙂

https://cyclinginflanders.cc/event/gent-wevelgem-cyclo

We’ve gone for the earlier weekend taking in the E3 Harelbeke to view on the Friday along with the Gent/W-V ride on the Sat and watching the pro race on the Sunday. Then shooting back home on the Monday.

Can’t wait now 🙂

Thanks to all for the tips and advice, sorry if we comepltely ignored some of it 🙂

Let the training begin !!

I did Ghent last year, so well organised and stopped in Kortrijk, we like a beer too….
Left Staffs at 7 am Friday, eurotunnel and at our accommodation for just after 2 pm-we used an airb and b type thing, perfect for 6 of us, room each in the town with parking .

cycled out Fri aft to sign in, stopped at a few bars on way back then out into the square for fillet steaks. 170km sportive saturday, brilliant course, out for fillet steak saturday. Sunday ride out to watch the pros do the Kemmelburg, race back and watch the race on the big screen, few beers etc, when they were 5km out we went to the finishline and watched them finish. Great weekend under 200 quid each in total, could have stopped in cheaper accommodation, but couldnt fault it. Kortrijk has everything for a good beery foody weekend.

That sounds perfect matey 🙂

how far from Kortrijk to Kemmelberg ? Your plan sounds very very much like ours. We’re debating whether to get up earlier on the Friday and do a bit of a ride on Friday afternoon, but arguably makes more sense to not and to just rest the legs a bit.
It seems to be 6km from our accomodation to the finish at Harelbeke which is perfect i guess.

Well my plans all kinda changed. I bought the Merida CX from Nobeer on here, but after 4-5 rides and a few issues i decided it’s gone and it’s history.

However that hasn’t affected my desire for the event, so i’ve booked the Eurotunnel and the PRemier Inn for the night before we go. Our accomodation in Kortrijk is all sorted too, so we’re all in.

So what bike am i taking then… Well the answer to that is, an On-one parkwood ..Yes really.
It’s getting a few changes to hopefully give it a bit more speed, but keeping it simple, safe and comfortable too. Sure it may not be optimal for speed, but i’ll come to terms with that and go with it anyway.

And

Between the 2 of them I can dump 1.9-2kg off the Parkwood, add that to fitting my lighter pedals and the carbon bars I have, we’re now into 2.3kg off the bike.

Currently I’m on the 5-2 again which is working, slowly, slowly slowly. But the plan is to drop 5,6,7kg of rider weight too.

With all of these in place, I should be sweet.

I don’t know how many miles I’ve done on the Parkwood over the years, indoors, outdoors, winter, etc, it’s somewhere in the 10,000miles + bracket though I know that for sure. I’ve done long days on it and long rides. It will do the job nicely.
I’ll need to consider what gearing to use on it, I’ve got a 42T on at the moment but that gives a crap chain line and can’t be used outside but I’ve got a 38T but unsure if that’s good enough for the hilly bits, so I’ll need to test it first a few time and possibly even go 36T.

Forks will take a while from China, but not hurry yet.

Entry not open yet, but the info is here

https://www.sportive.com/events/gent-wevelgem-cyclo-sportive/2020-03-28/5171/cycling

That’s as much for me as for you lot but has some info

Distance: 136 km (85 miles)
Climb: 1296 m (4252 feet)

The Mont des Cats in the municipality of Godewaarsvelde in French Flanders is 2650 m long, with an average gradient of 7.6% and maximum incline of 19%

This “black hill” (Mont Noir) is located in French Flanders, at the border between Westouter and Sint-Janskappel in Belgium and the French domain of Boeschepe. It features a 2500 m climb, with an average gradient of 4.8% and maximum incline of 9%

The undisputed highlight of Ghent-Wevelgem is the Kemmelberg, a real cyclist’s nightmare. With a maximum incline of 23% and paved in cobblestones, it’s immediately obvious why the Westhoek’s best-known hill inspires such fear.

I’m actually wondering if fitting a double on the cranks may make some sense, maybe something like a 42 on top with a 28 granny.

Dunno if 23% is really compatible with a single ring, along with flat speed etc. The most comparable in incline I can think of locally is Streatley hill, that seems to peak at 19% and whilst I may get up that on a 34T for example, I’m thinking on the flat in Belgium I may want more than say a 34t
.

Roubaix is actually quite an interesting town and has a fantastic art gallery La Piscine which incorporates a 1920s municipal swimming pool. We did P-R 5 years in a row and always made time to go there on the Friday afternoon. There’s also a nascent fashion industry there.
You can go for Le Welsh after the ride on the Saturday just off the main square.

Wasn’t sure if this was the right place for this but it’s all part of the ongoing changes to the Parkwood for the ride. Task is to make both myself and the bike lighter.

So I bought the with cross boss tyres and some Chinese forks.

So for my own amusement I fitted the with cross boss tyres along with using my lighter rear wheel which is about the same as the one I’ll run on the trip.

This also takes into account the lighter pedals I fitted

Starting weight
13.51kg

Current weight
11.97kg

When you factor in I think I’ll save another 1.3-1.5kg by replacing the forks, we should be tipping the scales at a fraction over 10kg. Which all things considered, isn’t bad at all. The tyres look pretty amusing on a massive fork and considering what I’ve taken off, but in reality they’re not that small. They’re 35c which is a normal sort of size. Went up quickly and easily though tubeless.

Both tyres now fitted and happy tubeless. They look daft to me, but i guess in many peoples mind they’re normal.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hp7eLN]2019-10-02_01-56-40[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hp4sY1]2019-10-02_01-56-32[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hp4sRH]2019-10-02_01-56-22[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Looking good weeksy. How does it ride now?
Are the bars and steerer sacrificial? I’d probably chop the bars and the top of the steerer to save some additional weight, possibly also worth looking at options on the saddle post and saddle itself?
Are you planning on using the CX tyres for the ride or just training over winter? Good GCN video showing the difference between a wider knobbly gyre and a normal tyre. I didn’t think there was any grip benefits with having a knobbly tyre on road.

\thanks for asking

So today i replicated a ride from earlier this week, but with the Parkwood now in lighter/faster mode.

I was trying to keep to the same sort of HRs but as you’d expect, when trying that i got most wrong LOL.

Anyway.
Earlier this week, 1hr 14min 19s.
Todays time 1hr 05min 49s

Average HR first time, 143bpm. Average HR today 155bpm. So clearly i pushed harder… But i’m still more than happy with an average speed of 25.5kph. Not bad at all.

The week before i averaged 24.6kph on the Merida, but sadly i didn’t have the HR monitor fitted for that to give us any indication.

So not terribly scientific at the HR gap was arguably too large to compare fully… But still, it felt quick enough.

The forks will be swapped when the carbon ones arrive so i’ll trim closer to flush once i’ve tested the height etc.

Regarding tyres over winter, i’m not convinced this will get ridden again outdoors until the middle of March for a shakedown test. It will be ridden mostly on the turbo

Well the 42T Sunrace cassette finally arrived.

Fits fine, then was too tight on the chain, but that’s ok, I have a brand new one in spares, weirdly though my 10s quick links don’t fit it, it’s a Shimano hg-x and they don’t fit through the holes. So I used the Shimano joining link and it’s fine.

Next was trying the gears, as expected I got some rubbing so 6 turns of the B screw saw it 100% and then a couple of turns on the barrel adjuster saw the indexing perfect.

Will give it a test later this week and then remove it all until Belgium so I go with nice new chain etc.

2019-10-14_06-40-29 by Steve Weeks – Flickr2BBcode
H8216, undefined@4.4 mm, f2.0, 1/16s, ISO250

2019-10-14_06-40-20 by Steve Weeks – Flickr2BBcode
H8216, undefined@4.4 mm, f2.0, 1/16s, ISO400

2019-10-14_06-40-02 by Steve Weeks – Flickr2BBcode
H8216, undefined@4.4 mm, f2.0, 1/16s, ISO320

Well that was a lovely little test ride. Legs were not feeling a Zwift race today, so thought i’d jump outside as the sun was blazing even though the roads wet. Rain on the forecast after 10, so a quick scoot out was in order.

Wanted to test the gearing so went up Apple Pie Hill which is i guess the closest to the Kemmelberg i can think of. Was all great, no changes needed and all the gears are smooth as silk, no missing, skipping etc, perfect.

Made sure i wasn’t pushing hard for the duration and ended up with 22kph average for the hour, which is about my target. I can sit at 87rpm which seems to be my cadence sweet spot and that gives me about 38kph on a 2% descent, to be honest i don’t see me needing more than that on the event, so the gearing is fine for that side of things too.

The bike is completely silent too, not a whisper apart from the wind going by 🙂

Well that was interesting. Out with 4 of the locals today on a road ride. Sadly the rear isn’t tubeless as I simply cannot get it to work with my rim, so that needs consideration. But anyway.

The ride went off at a quick pace I felt, we hit the first hill and boom! Out the back. Now I don’t know why really, is it rolling resistance or poor fitness or a bit of both, hmmm not sure.
On the flat sectors we were bowling along at 30-33kph and my HR was sitting happily In the 130s, but hills, man they were not friendly.
I did 1 by Crosshairs he’ll know and again I lost ground to the lads. It’s only 10-15s but enough to make me unhappy. However, not a lot more I could have done today.
After Swinley yesterday and a road ride in Friday I guess some parts of today we’re going to be tough, but I came back slightly disappointed in my hill performance today.

All in all it showed me the Parkwood can hang in on the flat, which was the main goal for today, so all good really

Must admit I was quite surprised on the uphill sections yesterday that I struggled. Starting to doubt bike and tyre choice now. Rather than just doubting myself of course 😂
So I did some self Strava stalking. Well that’s blown out that theory. I just checked when my fastest time for the section from east ilsley to stanmore was. Yesterday’s time 9min 16.
Best time ever, 8min 29.
Bike that day, the blue t130

2nd best time ever was on the Isaac at 8min 43. Sadly for the other rides I wasn’t wearing a HR monitor.

So it seems that I’m simply slower than at my best lol. It did flag yesterday for it as an average HR of 163, I’d have possibly expected higher. The main climb averaged 169 though which is more like I’d expect.
Just me being slower then lol.

I’ve ridden the RVV/Flanders for the last two years and will probably do it agian in 2020.
yes it is indeed awesome and lots of riding, lots of cobbles and lots of beers are involved.

Do it – it’s brilliant. A video of my day is available if you are interested.

I read your post as more asking about the logistics. It’s fairly straightforward, in fact I organised for 18 of us to ride it, stay in the same hotel and all have matching kit this year. The main logistics are:

– ride entry. entries will open soon. its a simple online entry, your only decision is which length route you will ride. Circa €40 for the ride
– hotel. there are loads of places in the area to stay. I simply contacted the place we stayed in last year via email and requested a block booking for the weekend (Friday and Saturday evening). they were more than happy to oblige
– travel, split up into a number of cars with bike racks. book the Eurotunnel and away you go. I’m 90 minutes from Folkstone and it’s a couple of hours the other side. a pretty straightforward journey
– registration. Present your reg number at the event site the night before (preferably) and collect your race number etc. a bit like the Ride London thing but much easier than dragging your butt over to the Excel centre
– the ride. It’s great fun. Quite tough on the climbs and the cobbles take a while to get used to but it’s fun. I’m fortunate that it’s been dry both times I’ve ridden it. It will obviously be a different proposition in the pouring rain.
– post ride. Oudenaarde has your typical northern European massive town square and the whole square is given over to the consumption of beer and frites without any of the aggro you would expect in say Britain. Much better than post-RL100 once again
– the pro race. Sunday is the pro race and you can head up to the top of the Koppenburg on the free bus and take your place at the roadside whilst your mates bring a steady flow of more beer and more frites
– Sunday arvo; head home

it really is great fun.

alternative bucket list also ticked off last year for me was the Cingles du Ventoux. An amazing day on the bike.

Thanks matey.

Apart from entry, we’re all good, booked and paid.

Video would be cool yes. We’re staying just outside Wevelgem.

You really are over thinking this. Go, ride, enjoy. You won’t be the fastest and you won’t be the slowest. Stop at every feed stop, eat the waffles with honey. Enjoy a few Belgian beers afterwards. Cracking.

You really are over thinking this

This is stw, it’s the done thing here.

Whether I think or not, I’m still going

I still think what you need is a road bike and some decent hours on it. It will be much harder on your Parkwood than it needs to be. I expect you were blown out on the hills as you were putting in more effort on the flat.

First hill was 6 mins into ride!

You’d be right in some ways yes, that would be optimal. But ain’t happening

I can recommend Harry Pearsons recent book about spring races in Belgium as a pre trip read to get you in the mood. The Beast, The Emperor and The Milkman.

If you refuse to use the best tool for the job then you must accept you will be overtaken by Belgian pensioners in full replica team kit.

If you refuse to use the best tool for the job then you must accept you will be overtaken by Belgian pensioners in full replica team kit

That depends on your interpretation of ‘best’. Sure it would be the fastest assuming no punctures etc. But most comfortable, easiest to brake/corner on etc, hmmmm Not IMO.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2014-Giant-Defy-3-Road-Bike-Size-M-L/163907683474?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2748.l2649

Funnily though, i ought this last night, likely for my mate, but may be too big for him 🙂

But at £190 its a no brainer

Video would be cool yes. We’re staying just outside Wevelgem

Here you go – two for the price of one:

Little Uneasy

The Distance

both shot this year on the 179km version of the route. Great to see you have booked it.

There was only one climb where there was a hold up (can’t recall which one but it’s the hardest/steepest one) and as mentioned above there was a bit of a wait as they monitored the number going up the climb and then roped it off every now and then to let everyone clear it.

It doesn’t detract from the day. The best thing is that unlike RL100 where you have to arrive eleventy-seven hours before your start time and f@rt around for ages in pens ‘n stuff before finally being let off, here you just rock up to the start line and start whenever you want.

Cheers buddy, watched and enjoyed 🙂

Interesting afternoon. Got home handy and my boy is away for a few days so jumped on a borrowed super light and fast carbon road bike and did what has now become my test loop. It’s a nice quiet loop, some up, some down, flat etc, nice mix.

First thing I noticed was how rattly they are lol. Clatter clatter everywhere. I don’t know if it’s down to the internal cable routing or what, but meh.

Riding along I was aware it was a little too big but not ridiculous. Long stem on there too. But trying to get a decent aero was tricky, I’m just not built that way and probably lacking core strength.
Other thing I noticed was just how sketchy it is, even though the brakes were good, I was still lacking in confidence.

It’s impossible to gauge speeds out there as I can’t say what I was doing at a given time on the other rides. So I was just getting on with it and trying fairly hard.

Strava comparison shows this then
Parkwood, MTB setup. 22.5kph average
Parkwood, CX setup. 25.5kph average
Race bike, 26.0kph

Now it’s not scientific of course due to efforts not being measured with a power meter etc, but it’s all I’ve got and the HRs were very similar in the measured segments etc.
It’s answered all of my thoughts and questions though and putting into context how at home I feel in the Parkwood, uphill, downhill, turning, braking, it’s a no brained that the Parkwood is the tool of choice for the event. I’m very glad I did the test though as I’ve been hovering over the buy it now button on a few bikes. I’d have ended up quite disappointed.

Chinese forks arrived, need to get a star nut in them and we’re golden.

Following this with interest, if I can’t afford the lovely Orbea Terra that I have my eyes on, I’ll be converting my Trek Superfly for the Paris Roubaix.

It’s already my CX racer but I’ve got butterfly bars on it right now as I recover from a herniated disc.

Higher gears and nicer tyres would be all I need to change. Would weigh in approx 11kg so not getting too excited about weight or sprinting ability in the velodrome, but I bet it would fly over the cobbles!

Am having fun plotting some lunchtime training loops on the Edinburgh city centre cobbles, lots of wee streets I never even knew about!

The Chinese super special carbon forks arrived and are test fitted, obviously at this stage it’s all a bit of a work in progress thing, so don’t mock too much. I need to get the steerer trimmed obviously and a star nut fitted and will then start looking a bit more normal. Will also get the turbo wheel off of course 🙂
Forks seem a bit lower than even the weighted suspension fork, so will leave a couple of CM on the steerer in case i want to lift the stem a bit. But i guess the lower front end would help with the aero.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hE3YxC]2019-11-02_01-32-15[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Starting weight
13.51kg

Weight with lighter wheels and CX rubber
11.97Kg

Current weight
10.30kg

That’s not a bad weight i think. I’ll get it down even to 10.2kg with some lighter pedals i think.

Obviously it’s currently a work in progress as it’s a bit colour challenged 🙂 But i’ll resolve all of that before the trip anyhow 🙂

Hopefully will get some testing done later next week and see how it rides.

You sure that should be a star nut and not a bung/headset doctor thing?

You are of course correct as a guy pointed out in another forum.

Steerer now cut by my lbs. Waiting for bung to arrive so I can test.

Chinese sent me a 15*110 axle not 15*100 which is a pain, but I have one I can use for now

I really want rain for Roubaix this year- make it a proper ride 😅

Gonna do the long one this year and put up with the faff getting to the shuttle.

Zissou, hopefully see you there!

That shuttle was one of the coldest times I can remember. It was 2 degrees and we waited in Lycra for well over an hour. Get there early !

We did the medium due to logistics and riding along a canal from our air bnb I was so cold I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to ride 😅
Hand warmers next year!