The Tour of the Tour of Flanders - Project Log

It's hard to say...my heart and soul will probably always be road riding, either fast group riding, or long single-day rides. This trip can be considered an alternative way of doing a destination sportive...I could quite easily plan it entirely via train/ferry without the 200km transfer days. While I've done LEJOG both ways, I think my mental limit is 6-7 days of long distance riding. I've had NC500 in the back of my mind for a while, but that would almost certainly be another step up, with camping gear and carrying multi-day supplies, as well as a real shift in mental approach to cycling. Maybe one for retirement.

I have some club-mates who do stuff like Via and Transcontinental. That isn't appealing at all. Then there are Audaxes and PBP but I don't really have the mentality for those right now, riding massive hours slowly and sleeping in church doorways.

I love that cycling has these varied options available, but I think the single day 3-5 hour ride is my physical and mental sweetspot.

5 Weeks to Go

Limited chances to get out on the tourer, a combination of club rides, reli rides and poor weather. I did do a 90km test ride with about 5-6kg of luggage (towels and hoodies). Bike rides well on the flats, can feel the weight on the climbs. Out of the saddle the tailpack wags a bit, but generally fine. Biggest concern is the clearance from handlebar bag to the front wheel...maybe 2cm? After some discussion with some more experienced bikepackers this is not uncommon, and having something firm/structural inside (cardboard or magazine) can keep the bag from drooping. Gearing was fine, and the first part of the ride had some ramps to test that.

Done some more route-planning;

• Harrogate -> Hull (Day 1 Plan A, can be reversed for Day 7) - https://www.strava.com/routes/3455588074118101826
• Rotterdam Central -> Rotterdam EuroPort (Day 2/Day 6 Plan C) - https://www.strava.com/routes/3455597017431475010
• Waregem -> Breskens (Day 6 Plan B) - https://www.strava.com/routes/3461788838141530054
• Vlissigen -> Rotterdam EuroPort (Day 6 Plan B) - https://www.strava.com/routes/3461800781729864460

The route from Vlissigen to Rotterdam looks wild, riding along the coastal defenses of Zeeland...but if it's windy (and on Google Streetview there are plenty of wind turbines!) it would be a brutally hard 100km.

In terms of bike shops in Rotterdam...there are loads, however it will be hard to determine if they can deal with my bike. Most are very much citybike places. Likewise there are places in Waregam and Oudenaarde (as well as mechanics available for the event, but having seen the queus for those before, better off being self-sufficient). I've purchased some spare TPU tubes and tyre repair worms.

Physically, been feeling a little fatigued. Training volume has not been massive, but not had much lower intensity stuff. I respond to long, low intensity rides, and the club rides and reli rides have not been low intensity.

The sportive route has been released as an image and a list of climbs, which I've had a crack at mapping into a route, but awaiting the final route. I can expect 160km and about 2000m of climbing. I've done worse.

It's definitely sturdy stuff, I'm not worried about it coming off!

You need to go through the videos on how to fit it, as there are a lot of straps, buckles etc. It can be a bit fiddly making sure they are all secured (flappy straps being pretty dangerous around open gearing).
Definitely pay attention to the measurements and recommended spacings on the bike. I am very close on the bar-bag, and when I measured it I had a bit more leeway.

They (Restrap) recommend a Big Three combo of tailpack, barbag and frame bag. I decided not to go with the frame bag as I'd then have to also get side-mount bidon cages (which really upped the cost per litre of carry ability), which I'm not a big fan of...partly as I'm very used to normal cages, and partly as this bike will be ridden over cobbles, and I don't trust side-mount cages to hold the bidons in place. The larger toptube bag was a replacement, and that will be handy for tools, food, phone etc for when I'm riding.

I got their frame protecting stickers for where straps were going on the frame,or obvious rub points, to stop scratches etc. You could also use helicopter tape.

2 weeks to go

I've been very much busy doing other bike-related things, so this has taken a bit of a back seat. I'm just back from Spain, having done a 10-day endurance block of training, including some long, hard days in the saddle, so fatigue levels are sky high right now. Fatigue can be determined mathematically (a factor of training over the previous 5-7 days)...normally I have a level of 40-60 day-to-day...right now it's at about 140. This time next week it will all be gone, and I should be feeling the benefits of the training block. In that time I'll take the opportunity to get out on the tourer for some short/medium rides, and get a feel for it. It's now light enough in the evening that I can get out after work...which is a vast improvement on slogging my guts out on a Wattbike in the garage.

I'm going to swap the saddle, taking the one off my winter bike (which is the same as my summer one).

This time next week I should start to have an idea on weather, and that will heavily impact the clothing packing list. Generally weather in northern europe follows similar patterns to the UK, albeit without some of the protection of the highlands we have (Lake District, Dales, Moors). My main concern is strong winds, especially from the south. Riding 200km on flat, exposed roads into a blistering headwind will make for a tough day!

The organsiers have not yet released the final route, which I'm waiting on to load onto my headunit.

So how did it go?

Day 1 - Harrogate to Hull (120km)

I'd planned to set off about midday, with a target ride time of about 5 hours. I got about 100 metres when I discovered that my fancy electronic shifting had a flat battery. I'd been so busy packing, and checking the brakes worked that I hadn't put them onto charge. I put them on charge for half an hour while the builders laughed at me, and when they got to a reported 20% charge I set off. Fortunately, favourable winds gave me a mild push, and got to the ferry with plenty of spare time. I had thought my bike was going to be in the cabin with me, but it was locked up on the car deck, so no opportunity to charge the gears up.

What is the Hull to Rotterdam ferry like?

It's the shittest cruise ship you've ever been on...but decent enough for a ferry. I damaged the buffet, sorted out my kit for the next day, changed everything up (apart from my gears), and slept in my tiny, tiny cabin.

Day 2 - Rotterdam to Waregem (210km)

We docked about 8:30am (local time). You're not allowed on the car deck until docking is complete, so I only had about 10 minutes to put some juice in my gears (via a battery bank) before disembarkation. There were 7-8 other cyclists, some heading down to Flanders, some off for a long Easter weekend bikepacking round the dutch cities (Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam). After getting through border control (fingerprints taken all round), I started off for a couple of km with another chap who was heading down to Flanders, but only to watch the pro race on Sunday, so was taking his time, and going via Rotterdam Central. He was slightly horrified when he found out I was planning on doing the full distance that day. We parted ways as I turned south, and I set off into a fairly persistant drizzle, and a cross-head wind towards Antwerp. It was never wet of cold enough to bring out waterproofs. I had a thermal gilet on, armwarmers and 3/4 leggings with waterproof overshoes, and that kept me warm. The pacing strategy was to roll along in zone 2, and if anything cooler temperatures helped with that.

The ride though South Holland and Zeeland was really quite nice. Plenty of small villages, and nearly all the riding was either on fully segregated cycle paths (proper ones, wide and fully tarmacc'ed) or "Fietstraat", where cyclists have priority over cars. The majority of roads in towns were these. Typically, the roads were a single lane, with wide cycle lanes both ways. Cars passing cyclists have to fully leave the cycle lane, giving plenty of space. Generally, not many cars anyway, and all gave plenty of space.

As I approached Antwerp the scenery got a bit more built-up. I rode with a Dutch chap who was heading home after a club ride for a bit, and then joined a cycleway that went along the main trainline into Antwerp...and now was seeing more cycle-commuters. eBikes predominated, and the majority of people were wrapped up in coats, cheerfully rolling along at 25km/h. Barely anyone lycra'ed up. Lots of cargo bikes. As I got into the city the amount of cycle infrastructure increased, and I was often riding in groups from traffic-light to traffic light. It as then that my gears died again, as the small charge I'd been able to squeeze into them died. I had to cross the river in Antwerp via the Sint Annatunnel, and took this opportunity while out of the drizzle to get another 5-10 minutes charge into my gears while we waited for the lifts, and rolled along the riverbed.

The rest of the ride was almost exclusively cycle paths alongside canals or railways, with a brief urban section through Ghent (which has by far the most cycle infrastructure I've seen...to the point that driving a car through there must be very hard). My gears died again just before Ghent, and knowing the final route was really flat, I decided to single-speed it, rather than try and find somewhere sheltered to stop for 20 minutes. I rolled into Waregem and found my hotel mid-afternoon, having covered the distance in 8 hours, including stops. I thought I'd booked a shit hotel at a high price (I'd struggled to find anywhere not booked out), but it turned out I'd booked quite a nice hotel at a fairly reasonable price. I treated myself to a bath to soak away from of the fatigue, hit the restaurant, then crashed out for the evening.

Day 3 - Registration (35km)

Basically a rest day. I rolled over to Oudenaarde, where the Tour of Flanders is based, and registered (basically getting an RFID tag for my bike, and a free gilet). There was an Expo, but it was nothing too useful. Rolled back to Waregem via a small cobbled climb in Nokere, went to the local Aldi to stock up on food (as I'd be leaving before breakfast was served), and generally had a lazy day, stretching legs and recovering. Waregem is a fairly industrial town (as most places in this area are...either agriculture or industry along the canals...the Tour of Flanders is the big tourist event of the year, and is very focused on Oudenaarde).

Day 4 - We Ride Flanders Sportive (Ronde Van Vlanderren) (160km + 35km there and back)

A nice early start, eating breakfast at 5:30am (croissants and tea), before heading at at 6:30am. I reached the start line in Oudenaarde just after 7am, loaded up the route onto my Garmin, and set off. Pace plan was "tempo", saving efforts for the many, many climbs. Unlike the riding to get here, the area around Flanders is hilly...never high, but lots of short, sharp climbs (bergs). Many are cobbled. The spring is famous in cycling for the Cobbled Classics, many going through this area, and into Northern France (Paris-Roubaix is the other big one, which is always the following week to Ronde Van Vlanderren).

My first suprise was that it wasn't closed roads (given thousands of riders do this event). Some roads were closed (hell, some never allow cars, like some of thecobbled sections), but for many sections we were simply using the existing cycle paths....which is interesting at 40km/h in bunches. There were loads of marshals, police and army to stop traffic at junctions, and generally it was fine. Occasional cars coming the other way, but the groups were never big enough to make that a problem (the terrain meant big groups never stayed together for long).

The first cobbles were longer, flat sections...and it quickly showed that I'd brought the right bike. I have zero skills on cobbles, but was whipping past people in short order. Wide, low pressure tyres and the shock-stem meant I wasn't getting too much rattle, while people on normal road bikes were chittering all over the place. Once we hit the cobbled climbs it became more pronounced, and I was tapping along at a comfortable pace, and without building up much fatigue in the legs or shoulders. I got to ride up an (iconic to me) climb of Muur van Geraardsbergen, which always sticks in my mind as a Pro rider once went up it in the big ring, and when asked about this later simply replied "of course, why would I choose to go slower?". After this the route headed back towards Oudenaarde, and the shorter routes rejoined, before the really very famous Koppenberg. This was to prove my undoing...not my fault though. With all the routes back together, the roads were more congested, and (trying to be polite) the overall standard or riding went down. There were now people on shoppers, tourers, mountain bikes etc. Plenty had no plan on riding some of the bergs, and were walking from the off. This left little space to ride. As I was going up, and the gradient increased to 20% a chap in front of me lost traction, span his rear wheel and crashed, lying scenically across the entire road. I had no choise but to stop and put a foot down, and that meant no hope of starting again (steep, greasy cobbles). I'm 99% sure that I had the grip and power to get up, just ran out of space.

After that the climbs came thick and fast...most of the cobbles were back-loaded, finishing on Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg (which has a great story...a local farmer wanted the Ronde to go past his house, so built a cobbled road next to it in the 80's...it's now a nationally listed monument...Peak Belgian). The finish was a tailwind dragstrip, which I did with 2 other guys at about 30mph. All good fun! Loved doing the event, and riding climbs that I've seen on TV with pros doing it so often. After downing some chocolate milk and recovering, I crept back to the hotel.

Day 5 - Watch the Pros (35km)

Another "easy" day...riding back to Oude Kwaremont to watch the pro race. They did the climb 3 times. It was windy, cold, occasionally rained, and a great experience. The crowds were more akin to a football match, with chanting, at least one guy medivaced for partaking of too much of the local beer, and lots of cheering. The pros made the climb look easy, with the 2 key moves happening on passes 2 and 3. That done, I rolled back to base, and prepared for the ride back north.

Day 6 - Waregem to Rotterdam (210km)

A minor drama at the start...it was easter Monday, and the hotel planned on serving breakfast late. After a quick explaination that I really needed to get to Rotterdam by bike (and without telling them, at early start would give me favourable winds), they prepared a quick takeaway breakfast for me. I got on the road by 7:45am...a chilly, misty first couple of hours back along the canals to Ghent, and then onto Antwerp, where I was able to swap to fingerless gloves. Out of Antwerp I took a different route back, heading more directly north through the docks. This, in retrospect, was probably not the best move, as the docks are immense, and as it was a bank holiday, completely deserted, with some drawbridges left up. If you like industrial landscapes, it was epic. There were also roadworks causing some diversions.

Once I crossed the border back into the Netherlands the scenery improved immeasureably, with plenty of locals out on day trips (mostly on bikes, or parked up by canals having picnics). Tulip farms were scattered around, with big stripes of colour in the fields. The more directly northern route meant I had a cross-tailwind (the route I took it would have given me a more cross-headwind), so was able to keep the pace up despite some really rather tired legs. I rolled into Europoort about 3:30pm, and joined the queue to embark. You could split the passengers into roughly 3 groups;

• Families on weekend trips
• Petrolheads who had been to Nurburgring
• Truckers (who had their own entrance)

The handful of cyclists were allowed to board first (probably as they all wanted a laugh at us getting up the 11% ramp into the ship). Once there, it was again the routine of clean, stretch, feed and recover. I was properly exhausted at this point, and was fairly certain that I'd be taking the train back from Hull the next day.

Day 7 - Hull to Harrogate (120km)

Some peer pressure, and a favourable tailwind got me to commit to the ride home. I had a route mostly on larger roads, to allow me to just get the bike into cruise mode. Once I was out of the Hull urban area (stop-start riding, with some short ramps to sap the legs) this worked well, and I was able to mostly cruise back through the Vale of York. Once I hit Wetherby the climbs started, but this was "local roads", so I just paced my efforts. I rolled into the cycle cafe about midday, a wise move as I knew that the kitchen at home had been disassembled over the weekend. Tour of the Tour of Flanders done.

MVPs

First and foremost, there is no way I could do a trip like this without a GPS headunit and route-planning tools like Strava. The cycle infrastructure in Belgium and the Netherlands is superb, however if you don't know what you're looking for it would be easy to miss, and end up sharing roads with cars...which they don't like (fair enough, there is a huge amount of cycle-only routes, you're expected to use them). Having hundreds of miles of route planned in advance meant I could concentrate on the pedalling part.

The changes I made to the gravel bike worked perfectly. The tyres in particular were excellent. They got plenty of comments from a few people on the ferries. Zero punctures, and made the cobbles much easier. Being able to cruise at 28-30km/h on the flats while offering that amount of pneumatic suspension is a rare combo.

Quite boring, but I spent most of my time wearing Spatz Aquasockz. I hate cold feet when riding, and on the way down when it was drizzle, and the way back in mist, that could have been tough work.

Equally boring, some foldable reading glasses meant that I could deal with paperwork etc at hotels and registration without drama. A proper old-man thing, but perfect for throwing in the top-tube bag.

I think I packed correctly. On the Wednesday morning I left I had a harsh cull, removing some items (leg warmers, long casual trousers, a thermal jersey) based on weather forecasts. I had;

• 2 sets of normal clothes (t-shirt, shorts, underwear)
• Lightweight hoodie
• Pool shoes
• 3 sets of kit (jersey, baselayer, shorts, socks)
• Gilet, armwarmers and knee warmers
• Waterproof jacket
• Minimal toiletries
• Charger and cables
• Isotonic drink sachets and gels
• 360 camera and short selfie stick
• Battery Bank
• Electric mini-pump

All the clothes were in ziplok bags by outfit, so I could quickly unload and reload without having to sort through too much. Everything was used apart from some very strong painkillers I took with me "just in case". I wouldn't have wanted to ride on them, but they would have been OK for a Plan B/Plan C train trip if I'd had an injury.

I'd definitely do something like this again...maybe with slightly shorter transfer days. The only thing I might change with the bike is swapping the L-Twoo groupset to something more known. It all worked, but the lack of battery warning caught me out, and by the end the brakes were losing power. That could well be crap brake blocks, but I suspect it's all the bouncing moving air into the shifters, or possibly a dodgy seal on a caliper.

I think longer but less sportif'y would be Lands End - John O'Groats, and I found (both times) that my motivation waned about 5-6 days in. I found that it takes one nights poor sleep, or one nutirition/digestion issue and the rest of the ride can become a real chore. Having it instead focused around an event made the structure far easier....I could give myself those 2 easy days without any "I'm not making progress here" feelings. There are loads of sportives in northern Europe, and building a trip around one of those makes a lot of sense to me, gives the trip structure and goals. Flanders specifically is almost a pilgrimmage, in cycling terms it is (maybe) the most famous one-day race. The other biggie is Paris-Roubaix...that also has a sportive, but logistically it's more complex (involving shuttle buses at 4am as it starts and finishes in separate places...neither of them Paris surprisingly). I have a feeling the cobbles there may be too much for me, I had a club mate do it last year and came back sans skin on his hands. The biggest stress days for me were days heading to the ferry. I have a hard deadline, and I always mentally add contingency time in ("I might get a puncture", "I might crash", "I might go the wrong way"). Both times I ended up arriving a good 3-4 hours before the cut-off time. Shorter ride distances on days like that would make for lower cortisol levels.

The bike generally is far more relaxed geometry than my normal road bike (mostly a slacker head tube angle, putting the front wheel futher in front of the steerer...seated position was very similar). This means it's more stable/slower to turn, and I could definitely feel that. My centre of mass was basically the same as a road bike (pretty neutral between the 3 contact points of feet, bum and arms), I'd made sure of this to avoid any sort of injury. This meant the overall system centre of mass was fairly low already. I tried to keep the luggage weight distribution equal, but narrow handlebars up front (36cm, my preferred width) meant that I ended up probably at 40%/60% front/rear.

I could feel the weight on the rear when I was out of the saddle, and climbing (fortunately limited when loaded up) was a bit more of a grind. I only really get out of the saddle to stretch the legs, otherwise it was seated, and often on the drops. I'd gone for the 18-litre Restrap saddlebag mostly as it had double-seatrail straps, and general opinion is that it's better at handling sway...fortunately when seated I tend to keep the bike pretty vertical, with very little lateral movement (this again goes back to bike fit and pedalling action). I didn't really ride differently, other than capping effort levels to a sustainable pace for all day. I didn't have a power meter on the bike, but pretty chuffed that on both long days average heart rate was around 110bpm, and didn't go above 134bpm (my theoretical "all day" heart rate is about 135-138bpm, so was riding well within comfort levels, and not doing spiky efforts, which is a great way of killing the legs off). Compare this to the event, where average heart rate was 125, and peak was 157. My observed max heart rate in the last year has been 172bpm (and resting is about 40bpm).

The combination of shock-stem and high-volume tyres meant that I didn't really get any road buzz, and that resulted in almost a feeling of disconnection between the tarmac and myself. It was almost too smooth. That took some getting used to, I kept thinking I had a slow puncture on the rear and was riding soft.