In between proving a cycle hire service for the Ronde Van Vlaanderan/ Tour of Flanders I managed to get out and ride the middle distance 130km event.
The race starts and finishes in a business park on the outskirts of the rather delightful town of Oudenaarde in Belgium. Oudenaarde really is worth a visit in itself while you are there. It also features the Flanders Cycling Museum which is worth a couple of hours of your time.
The event itself was well organised with 15000 rides and the general consensus was that the 130km event took in all the major cobbled climbs, such as Koppenberg and the Paterberg, and was the one to tackle. There were certainly some tired faces at the end of the longest event with most people spending at least 11 hours in the saddle
All the road junctions were well marshaled by the Police and volunteers and the feed stations were well stocked with food and energy drink plus loads of toilets !
The event was only spoiled really by the cold rain in the morning which obviously was not the organisers fault !
The great thing about doing this event is that on the next day you can get to watch the Professional Race
PROMPT CYCLE CULTURE 