Tour de Flanders sportive 2011

Registration is open now. I’ve just registered and booked my hotel in Aalst for the weekend.

See any of you suffering on the cobbles ?

I’ll be certainly doing it but perhaps don’t count as I live there.

What distance you signed up for? (I assume with such dedication & forethought it must be the long one)

I might finally do the full course next year. I’ve been put off by the inconvenience of starting & finishing in different locations.
Last year I rode from home to the nearest point on the 155km course (<10km) & then followed it round till back to my startpoint.

I was invited to but I don’t think I am going to – plenty of MTB events I’d like to do more 🙂

I might well do if I can organise the time off from home and if my riding buddies stop sprogging. I’ve done the full distance 3 times but I might do just the 155km this time.

i’m doing the 150km loop. Far more convenient. and i fully intend to enjoy the rest of my time there rather than being knackered.

I’ve booked now cause the hotels are filling up and i wanted a decent place to stay in with the Missus

Is it true you can just turn up and ride on the day? I thought Flanders was an open event? Downside is I gather the sheer weight of numbers. Are there not around 20,000 do this?

Me and three friends are going for 5 days. doing some of Paris – Roubaix on the friday after getting off the ferry, 150km Flanders on the saturday, race on sunday, Freddys Museum on the monday and then ferry home through the night

Can’t wait!!!

Cannot wait for this, not long now until were on the cobbles 😈

i’ll be doing the 150. the longer route means getting up insanely early just to ride the boring bit. with the 150 you end up where you started so logistically it’s easier.
im staying with a couple of journo’s out there all week. taking in the Scheldeprijs midweek then riding paris-roubaix the following weekend.

press passes and stickers for the car so we can drive on the route 🙂
did this last year and managed to park up at the feed stops then follow the team cars and drive the last few k right to the team carpark.

i can’t wait, weather was a bit iffy last year on the sportive day but a great ride.

Not doing this year, which is a shame.

Have done full and 150k editions before. Full one is ace for the sheer experience and the sense of having done it, but the 150k is more fun – big groups, short warm-up and then into the bergs.

Oh, and anyone found walking on any berg – even through sheer numbers of riders – is to be flogged and hung from the nearest tree. You have been warned..!

Not this year for me – moving house and baby is enforcing time off the bike. I’ll be raising a Juplier to you all..!

if it’s a shitfest like last year then walking is inevitable, i managed all but one of the climbs by staying seated and picking a line through the nodders but a 21% gradient and a thick viscous mud had me wheelspining and forced to stop.
the pave is fun though once you get the hang of it, i don’t think you can ever forget the first time you hit the cobbles.

i’ll not forget the murr at gerardsbergen either, you see the pics of the church and tight corners but nobody tells you about the bitch of a hill through the town before you even get to the cobbles.

but nobody tells you about the bitch of a hill through the town before you even get to the cobbles

Mur de Grammont – it was once the route of the race itself, but has since been tarmacked over. The sportive follows this, whereas the main race goes through the middle of Geraargsbergen past the big screen*.

*Top tip for anyone watching the race at the top of the Kapelmuur – as soon as the riders have gone through, leg it down the hill to catch the end of the race on the big screen.

I’m doing it, just the 150.

I rode it last year and can confirm what an awesome event it is – such a variety of folks doing it too, from ex/near-pros to kids on shoppers!!Weather last year was shocking but proper Flandrian, a really well run event with feed stops etc all done, a top experience all round topped off by chips n’mayo and beers at the end 🙂
Am sure there was a mushroom cloud showing on Google Earth where I blew up on the Bosberg !
Enjoy!
Stu

11th time doing the 260k for me. I really enjoy the first bit, getting in a group of a hundred or more and bowling along at 25mph. I’ve heard too many stories of the climbs being clogged on the shorter route to want to do that. I don’t want to get to the Koppenburg and have to walk it. This year looks a good one with the first hill after only 60 miles and no pointless trip out to Ostende. Can’t wait!

Indeed. This years route seems much more pleasant. Last years visit to the coast on a very windy day had quite a few people complaining.

This may be the last year for it to finish in Meerbeke. Seems quite probable that it moves to Oudenaarde (or maybe Ronse) in 2012.

I was planning on doing the 150 but some fecker stole my road bike last week so might do the 100km mountain bike tour instead.
Either that or I’ll stick some slicks on my 29er and bother some roadies.

I got sunburnt two years in a row doing the RVV! (2001 and 2002 I think).

After last year it can only be better (please!). Never felt like turning off before but last year tested the mettle a bit!

After last year it can only be better (please!). Never felt like turning off before but last year tested the mettle a bit!

Proper Flandrian, though – wind and rain and cobbles. ****’ hard though..!

IdleJon – Member
I got sunburnt two years in a row doing the RVV! (2001 and 2002 I think).

+

ourmaninthenorth – Member

After last year it can only be better (please!). Never felt like turning off before but last year tested the mettle a bit!

Proper Flandrian, though – wind and rain and cobbles. ****’ hard though..!

I’m not sure whether I felt short changed about the sun…… 😆

But one of the best things about the RvV is the fact it’s signposted, so you can ride loads of it any day of the year (not *quite* the same as when loads of people are shouting at you as you suffer the last turns of the Kapelmuur).

So who’s actually doing this?

I’m thinking about doing the p*ssy option relative to you all, the 75km – as it’s my first road race and I’m not totally in shape.

What’s it actually like, what’s the average speed – is this an appropriate thing to do for my first road event?

Thinking about either getting the train to Ninove from Brussels (my abode) at the crack of dawn on Saturday or camping on Friday, if anyone knows any campsites in the area.

it’s not a race.
take it easy and eat as you ride and at all the feed stops.
i did 6:35 for the 150 but if the sun shines want to go under 6hrs this year.

What MrSmith said – it’s not a road race, or a race of any sort.

It’s just a sportive, and the best there is. Turn up, ride it, have fun.

And I’m jealous of you all – moving house tomorrow and will only just have Sky installed by the weekend to watch the real RvV.

😀

Thinking about either getting the train to Ninove from Brussels (my abode) at the crack of dawn on Saturday

Sounds ideal. I’ve ridden out from Brussels to Ninove (less than 30k isn’t it?) and also driven.

Do you reckon the 150km would be alright then? The longest I’ve ever ridden a road bike is 70 miles but I did that easily, making a day of it, and I was fit at the time (you can probably tell I edge more towards sharp frantic singletrack bursts than loooong all day rides). I think I could do 100 at a cruise but would have a sore ass at the end of it. Reckon the 70km would suffice to enjoy the ambience and see some of the route but it’ll be over in a flash

100km would be perfect

Entered in the 260km

Gonna be a good days riding for sure 🙂

New bike is coming out rain or shine 🙂

You will miss a lot of the Classic RvV if you take the 75km….
(also it’s a bit expensive entry for just 75km@€20 whereas the 150km is just €5 more )

As mentioned here, it’s not a race, just take your time, particularly on the first third of the 150km because it’s a comparatively soul-less route just to bring you to the link with the 150 / 260 route.
Got a heart rate meter? If yes, use it & strictly stay relaxed for the first half. Fight the urge to stay with the pensioners who are holding a steady >35kph pace. 😆

OK, you sold me, I’ll see about doing the 150km…got any tips for doing one’s first century, generally? Is it OK to have an Ipod.

i would switch it off for the steep climbs as you will not hear the shouts of oop! oop! as some pro makes their way through the walking nodders

OK, no ipod, just the drum of my heartbeat.

I’m on a compact rather than a triple but it’s irrelevant anyway as I’ll be in the big ring the whole way.

I’ll be in the big ring the whole way

Yeah baby!

(Actually, you’ll be pleased of the compact on the Paterberg, Oude-Kwaremont, Koppenberg and the Muur.)

Now my house move has been borked by some idiots, I could have gone anyway. Grr..! Even. More. Jealous.

Photos please everyone..! 😀

Big ring was probably a joke right?

Koppenberg…

Forecast is up to 20degC by the way, light breeze & no rain so at least you’ll all have nice conditions for it.

I love that kick on the Koppenberg – make that and you’ve done it, but watch out for the slight sting in the tail, just before you top out by the house/farm and the beer tent.

And then enjoy the descent but careful of the left-hander at the bottom..!

Just to confirm I’m getting the 7:07 train out of Brussels on Saturday, arriving Ninove at 8:07. Hopefully see you there (among the 20,000). I’ll be on a white Roubaix with blue gore jersey and black helmet. If anyone needs a floor/sofa to crash on in central Brussels during the weekend, drop me a line on this thread.

What else? I haven’t been able to get 25c tyres or extra bar tape and am no way race-fit so it’s going to be even more brutal – but hey I’m just going to take lots of pictures and have a go, and if I finish so much the better…

Flanders, yesterday:

If anyone wants to practice, you can join our “re-creating of the classics” Wednesday night Flanders run on the 6th April 🙂

Full details will be posted “later” (prob. next day or 2) – here

Here’s some pics of the local cobbles (round and about Halifax)

http://s1176.photobucket.com/albums/x327/jadboxer/Flanders/

EDIT – Maybe it should be “relive the pain” instead of “practice”!

Great weekend. Belgium is one awesome place and somewhere I shall be visiting again. Beautiful scenery, great people, awesome architecture and a WICKED bike race.

Not ONE set of baggies in 20k people!

WAtching it on TV was AWESOME! But we are going to Paris-Roubaix this weekend SOO OExcited about it!

MartinGT – Member

Great weekend. Belgium is one awesome place and somewhere I shall be visiting again. Beautiful scenery, great people, awesome architecture and a WICKED bike race.

Not ONE set of baggies in 20k people!

Agreed, 260k of excellent roads and weather! I saw alot of full suspension MTB’S on fat nobbly tyres too. Respect.