For those who dream of the glamor of the northern classics, I want to remind you that Flanders is a rather gloomy place, and bad weather only exacerbates melancholy and dullness. Even the Tour of Flanders race itself was originally invented in order to brighten up the hopelessness of the everyday life of local peasants. If such a performance did not scare away real lovers of beer and bicycles, then I invite you to watch the video below – I do not promise high cameramanship, but I think I conveyed the atmosphere of pain of suffering in full.
Logistics
Unlike the traditional 140 km race that starts and finishes in Oudenarde , the 240 km race starts in Bruges . At the same time, you need to have either a personal driver who will pick you up at Oudenarde after the finish line , or you will have to rely on the buses of the organizers, who will take you back to the starting point with the bike.
To all these inconveniences, one must add the fact that the starting number the day before can only be obtained at Oudenarde . If you get a number on the day of the start, then this will also have to be done not on the main Markt square in Bruges , but on the outskirts of the city.
Accommodation is always a problem on the Tour, and this weekend it’s also Easter. Saved as always by AirBnB, which found a rooming house, but only on the outskirts of Bruges – Oostkamp . So before the official start, I managed to roll 10 km.
I was lucky because I was driven by Lan, who got her license just a month ago, but quickly got used to the behavior of Belgian drivers on the road. For those who are not in the subject of European automotive passions – in Belgium, driving lessons are given by parents and friends, not specialized schools, so in all border countries – like Holland, Germany, France, common sense says that cars with red and white numbers pose an increased risk on the roads.
Weather and technology
The weather forecast promised rain from the start, but no one expected four hours of drizzling rubbish. As a result, all the grease was washed out of the chain and for the last 100 km I listened to all kinds of squeaks. In addition, the 25mm Conti GP4000 tires seemed to fit pretty snugly into the Cervelo R3 fork , and when it came to the muddy cobblestones, the wheel started rubbing against the dirt stuck to the crown. I had to stop several times and pick out this dirt. How they manage to ride this Paris- Roubaix bike – I have no idea.
When it comes to tires, the beloved Conti GP4000 , which proved good grip on wet roads , decided to add epic to an already hard day and made me change the camera three times. Once I caught a glass shard, and then two more times I caught a snakebite on the paving stones. One of the bites even left a very noticeable chip on the rim.
You can always buy a fresh spare tire at food stations, but I had two punctures with an interval of five minutes. I had to stand by the road with a raised camera in my hand and hope for the solidarity of other
