I didn’t actually intend to win a bike but I rather fancied the full on Tour of Flanders Granfondo experience BMC was offering as a prize (him indoors having conveniently found that he would be ‘travelling for work’ so unable to get up at the crack of dawn and ride 240km on the 5th of April).

So, 150 words about my love of cobbles, 5 photos loaded onto the BMC website and then, amazingly, I get a call. Off to Belgium and a serious dose of cobbled climbiness for me next month. Hip Hooray! And to boot, this morning I collected this:

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BMC_GF01_one by BeateKubitz, on Flickr[/img]

OMG. Light as a feather, feels like it was made for me and all Ultegra Di2 and mint loveliness. I am in awe that a bike can feel so good. Never mind a road bike. Proper spec here. I am actually speechless and keep making inarticulate squeaking noises. As everyone I live with has now heard them ad infinitum, I thought I’d better share with the internets.

BMC picked 6 winners who waxed lyrical about their love of pain / cobbles / bikes in general. I read pages of entries and found that the number of women entering was minuscule so I thought I’d better help even it up a bit. To their credit BMC picked 2 winning women and managed to squeeze winners out of three continents. So it’ll be a fun group hitting the cobbles. I’m the only Brit so, as one of my friends pointed out, I have to uphold the honour of British cycling. No pressure then.

Anyway, this prize turns out to be quite hard work. Terrahawk has put me on a training plan and I am a shadow of my former self… I think he made me ride two hundred miles last week. But I am completely determined to conquer the cobbles so I’m trying to do everything he says. If you want to share the pain (actually, it’s not all pain, not only have I won a bike but the last few days have been pretty sunny) I’ve been keeping a diary here. Ooh and I know a few people on here are riding the Tour of Flanders so if you see me in my BMC kit (!) please say hi.

Absolutely brilliant!! Good luck on the cobbles. Not sure I could be moar jealous!

Nice! 😀

Nice work!

Excellent, feeling very jealous!

Nice one.

Fantastic, well done!

Well done, young lady. I entered that comp too so I am extremely jell!

Yay you !! Not often you hear folks winning stuff 😀

Ooh, you can have a go on her MrSparkle! The bike bit has only sunk in very slowly and I’m trying hard to deserve such a beautiful piece of engineering.

Well done that lady. 🙂

Lovely bike, well done! Have fun on the tour.

Maybe we need a Monday night road ride when the lighter nights are upon us? 🙂

Flipping brilliant.

Thanks Beate but that’d make me jealouser! ;0)

HA! You can’t even ride it, sgot no pedals!

So no Monday Night Pub Road Ride then? 😉

Well, I thought the pub bit went without saying 🙂

Your lucky pitch!

😆

It so has now egf but the kitchen isn’t tidy enough for photos 😉

Well done B.

Enjoy.

Lucky, granfondos are lovely to ride. Not sure I’m so jealous of the cobbles though….

Thanks 😀

I loved the cobbles when we did the medium Tour of Flanders. Slightly worried that the 100km before them will be a bit wearing. But I’m on The Plan so I’ll be up to it.

Fantastic, well done B!

A few more commutes over the hills to & from Buxton needed… 😉

Brilliant well done! Best of luck with the Tour….go show them what the British ladies can do !

Wonderful! Good luck with the tour, I hope you have the time of your life.

Superb!

Well done, enjoy the cobbles.

Well done, enjoy. 😀

That’s ace, jealous.com – nice one! 🙂

Great stuff B!
Enjoy.. Looks ace!

So people can actually win stuff, what a great prize lucky you!

Where can we read it then?
Chapeau

Hey Crazy Legs, I’ve ridden in a couple of times then last week did a there-and-back on Wednesday. That was pretty killing. Might be riding back on Wednesday if you’re interested in coming along for part of the ride?

Minion? Yes, I am now slave to the dark side. Although hoping that trading my soul in to it will make me super fit so I can rule the trails all summer….. 😈

Might be riding back on Wednesday if you’re interested in coming along for part of the ride?

I’m off work all this week so yes, should be up for that. I’ll have to clean my bike up so it doesn’t look scruffy next to yours though…

😉

Boxelder – this was the lucky pitch.

Just thought, this is the first time I’ve beaten MrSparkle at anything 😉

Just spotted this on my Facebook feed… another GF01 is up for grabs. You (just) need to be entered for the Tour of Flanders and to enter here:

BMC GF01 Competition

Good luck MrSparkle! And anyone else who has a go. It’s completely worth entering 🙂

Bump – still time to enter your Ronde Rider no. & win a BMC 🙂