Surferbruce

Just back from a week up north. Best cycling experience of my life. I could on and on, but I'll let the pics do most of the talking-

outside the cycling museum in Oudenaarde




Museeuw's Time


Koppenberg


20% cobbles of the Koppenberg



perfection


streetside betting in Wevelgem-only in Belgium


Boasson coming in for the win



Big George finishing a long day at the office



Hagen- man of the day

Surferbruce

Belgium power food


Alisa firing the Bosberg


top of the Muur




climbing the Muur


a little posing was in order



as was some glycogen replacement

Surferbruce

Easter Sunday. We started in the Arenberg.



the feared pavé of the forest


the fans getting warmed up







there go the orange Oakleys..

Surferbruce

Next we jumped in the car and blasted to sector 13

Surferbruce

Finally it was in the car again to race to the velodrome


the last sector of pavé is just outside the velodrome








i'll take one please



the bar in the clubhouse




Hoste post race



the Specialized rigs were insane




especially the new 28mm herringbone rubber-SaxoBank had to file down the brakebridges to get them to fit

Surferbruce

Why hasn't an American won yet? Let's put it this way-on weekday mornings in Ghent, kids ride double paceline to school, no joke








I happened to be in the right place at the right time...Tom coming in off the track


I actually patted him on the back right after I snapped this- as the old guy beat me back


entering the clubhouse


Back to the waiting fans at the bus.

Surferbruce

Hope you enjoy

botto 

you really covered a lot of ground on sunday, compared to my sit, wait, and drink experience.

were you with a local, to find the shortest route, or did you have it all planned out?

cyclezealot

Super photos. Really do appreciate the close up of a favorite. Hincapie... Who would not readily recognize his trademark sunglasses .

Surferbruce

we had planned to just stick to the Arenberg, but got great info on how to jump around from the guy who runs the American cycling house in Oudenaarde (forget his name but his site is www.chainringtours.com huge thanks for all the beta!)

Surferbruce

oh yeah, got it...thanks for everything Gregg!!!!

rollin

Oh thank you, thank you...

As I've said before, Living the Dream, you're doing it right!

oh and thank you.

roadwarrior

Great photos...

Read the comment about the kids riding to school...those kids race more miles than adults here do.

BTW...I loved the long shot of the Koppenberg. First time I saw that I thought, "that's not so bad..."

Then you hit that center section.

botto 

one of the friends, who took me to see the race on sunday, told me that when he was 11 his gym teacher had the class ride the ronde.

roadwarrior

I used to have a link to the KBWB that had the mileage breakdowns by age. For example if you are 13-14 you can race "x" miles before June 1, then "x+" after June 1. It seemed to me that young kids were racing 30-40 miles, teens up from there. I used to show it to friends that had kids racing here to show them what the competition was doing.

Their eyes got real big.

It's the difference between racing clubs (where they teach you as a kid how to race and bring you up through mileage as you grow stronger), and the "teams" here (Which is mostly riding around and hopefully one ot two people know what they are doing and the might tell the others). I was fortunate to be from the club environment back east.

botto 

thing is, my friend was never a racer. this was a normal grammar school gym class that had to ride it.

roadwarrior

And they actually had to do it...not like here where they'd ride it on the Xbox.



BTW...as I sat on my computer watching the race. I looked for the big Botto sign in Roubaix...didn't see it.

LOL...

classic1

Post of the month.

botto 

i was about 1/2 km from L'Arbre.

coasting 

fantastic pics. more more!

LesMcLuffAlot

Thanks for sharing. More stealthy euro babe pics please.

roadwarrior

Yeah, I just looked at your photos in the thread and on your blog. Looks like you had fun...I really laughed at the guys in the field. All that beer's got to go somewhere.

Carrefour de l'Arbre, I think is the toughest section. It's a five star at the end, when everyone's beat to exhaustion. And it proved to be the decider in this race...

botto 

just my luck that i forgot about that, and found myself 500 meters forward, instead of 500 meters back.

well, my friends are already planning on doing it again next year.

wanders

I think I got some dirt kicked up in my mouth just looking at those. Thanks.

patentcad

Hey, when are they going to re-pave all those old crappy roads anyway?