Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders)

No mob of cycling fans

If you aren't interested in professional cycling or at least learning something about it, you can probably skip this blog post.  Sorry it is so long, but I didn't want to split it up into multiple posts.

Amy is the one that introduced me to professional cycling.  When I moved to Georgia she came to visit twice for the Tour of Georgia twice and then in 2009 she was on the planning committee for the final stage of the Tour of Missouri.  Professional cycling is unique compared to other professional sports because you can get up close to the riders and interact with them (although this is also seen in rockclimbing).  In my photo of the Garmin Slipstream team bus at the Tour of Missouri, notice there are not huge crowds of people mobbing it despite the fact that Garmin is a big name U.S. team and one of the riders (Dave Zabriskie) actually won the ToM that year.  Because cycling is not as popular in the U.S. as it is in Europe it is more difficult to find sponsors for these races and neither the Tour of Georgia or the Tour of Missouri exist anymore.

Christine, Amy, and I at the ToM

Dave Zabriskie

ToM Stage 7 start line

I didn't realize people still used this phrase

After our experience of seeing the races in the U.S., we had talked for years about going to Europe to see a race there sometime.  The Tour de France is obviously a huge one that even non-cyclist fans in the U.S. know about, but the classic one days races are also just as cool and crazy and you can watch several in a short period of time.  The Ronde van Vlaanderen (RVV) is one of the Flanders classics professional cycling road races that happen in Belgium every spring (and it is the "cat's pajamas" according to Ted King).

The RVV and Paris Roubaix are known for their cobbled sections that can be brutal for the riders but great for the spectators.  The cobbled sections are so bumpy it would be much better riding a mountain bike than a road bike.  To make it even worse, if there are sections with nice smooth grass that would be better to ride on, it is rototilled to ensure the riders stay on the cobbles.

This isn't even a really bad section of cobble

No grass for you

Finally this year was the year that the year the stars aligned and Amy and I would make it to Belgium to see RVV and Paris Roubaix (they are a week apart).  Once we decided we were going, the next step was to figure out how exactly we were going to view the races.  Trying to see multiple sections of the race can be tricky, especially if you are not familiar with the area and the added difficulty of navigating the roads when some of them might be closed.  In the end we decided it would be easiest to let someone else do the work, so we booked a tour with Gregg at The Chainstay in Oudenaarde.  Gregg is an American that used to race professionally and now lives in Belgium, so he knows his way around.

(I am) Ted King and I

The RVV course starts in Brugge heads south toward Kortrijk then east, with three loops on the cobbled hills, and then finishes in Oudenaarde.  The morning of the race we met up with the group outside of the Concert Hall where we would be attending the VIP breakfast.  After eating, it was time for the team busses/rider area.  Only those with VIP badges could get into the rider area, something I had not seen at the U.S. races, but there were still a ton of people.  My first task was to head to the Cannondale bus and exchange beer for swag with Ted King.  Ted had told me to go the bus and tell one of the staff member that I was there for him and my name was Robyn.  As you can imagine, the staff just looked at me like I was some crazy fan girl and ignored my request.  Finally I found a guy that spoke decent English and showed him the message Ted had sent me and he begrudgingly said he would tell him.  The guy came back and said that Ted would be out in a few minutes.  The riders don't really come out of the busses until right before they head over to sign in right before the race starts, so when Ted came he was the only rider anywhere to be seen.  I went behind the ropes to hand him his beer, get my swag (seen below, not shown is Ted's signed number from Three days of De Panne), and take a photo.  I am sure all the other spectators were probably thinking "why the hell does this American get special treatment?"  The answer: social media and beer!  It was definitely a worthy exchange and Ted is a super cool guy and one of my favorite American cyclists.

Fabian where are you!?

With the beer exchange complete, we were now free to take full advantage of the rider area.  Amy really wanted to head to the Trek team bus because of Fabian Cancellara  (aka Spartacus).  Fabian is a two time winner of RVV, three time winner of Paris Roubaix, all around bad ass, and not too bad to look at either.  It was nuts at the Trek Team bus, everyone and their mother, sister, aunt, and cousin wants to see Fabian.  Amy stuck it out, but I hate big crowds and decided to wander around at check out the other teams.  I headed over to the BMC bus with the hopes of seeing Taylor Phinney, a hilarious guy and one of the three Americans in the RVV besides Ted King and Tyler Farrar (I am not really much of a Farrar fan so I didn't go to the Garmin bus).  I planted myself next to where Taylor's bike was and ended up getting his autograph.  We decided to stay in the rider area instead of going to watch the riders sign in and start the race.  In the end, Amy did see Fabian as he rode off to the start.

Taylor Phinney

Oude Kwaremont

Once the race started the group met back up and we jumped into the cars to go to our viewing area for the day, Oude Kwaremont, one of the cobbled hill sections and also the name of a Belgium beer.  We had to park in a field a little bit of a distance away from the viewing area and then walk over.  Gregg had sent some of his friends earlier in the day to set up our tent right on the course, ensuring that we would have a great viewing spot of the three passages of the race.  Because the RVV is such a big deal here, there are five public villages along the course with food, beer, screens for viewing the race, and bathrooms.  We were right next to one of them.

Chainstay Tent

After settling in at our tent, Amy and I decided to explore since we had some time before they riders would reach us.  We checked out the public village down the road and crossed to the other side of the road to hang out and just soak in the atmosphere around us.  These people are SERIOUS about their bike racing.  This is a national event for them, actually it is a multinational event in Europe.  It is also one big party.  Amy spotted some drunk Dutch guys and decided she had to get a photo with them.  This photo captures the essence of the experience and is one of my favorite.

Best RVV photo ever!

Still more time to kill so a photo of us!

So happy to be here!

They're here!

Finally we saw the helicopters getting closer (which means the riders are getting closer) and it was game on.  Another sign the race was getting closer is all the fancy, dressed up people in the super VIPs came pouring out of their tent to their VIP viewing area, not that most of them actually cared.

Taylor in the breakaway!

the peloton

Hey there Ted!

Can't decide if I would want this job

porta urinal

And just like that it was over and we had another 50 minutes or so (I think) to wait for them to come back around again.  We hung around at our Chainstay tent and chatted with the other folks on the tour, walked around the village, sat and watched the race on the screen for a bit, and took full advantage of the facilities provided to us.  One thing I HAVE to mention that they had was porta urinals for men.  Why have I not seen these before? It was a little bid odd and I didn't feel comfortable getting a photo so I had to download one from the internets to show you.  Why do we not have these?  How awesome would these be at running races for cutting down the lines pre-race????  Can someone please work on this?  With some more time to kill, I got a few photos of Amy on the cobbles and kissing up to the security people.
























It was getting close to the time they should be coming by again so I decided to position myself on an embankment above the road that was between where we watched last time and where our tent was.  It was a little precarious, but I had a tree to push off of and prevent myself from falling down into the middle of the peloton.  I really did not want to be the stupid American that disrupted the race.

Taylor still in the front!

Trek Team Car

After all the cyclists passed by I hiked my way back up the embankment and headed to the Chainstay tent.  We had another hour or so to kill so I ate some food and watched the race on the TV they had set up in the tent.  I decided to stay in the tent with our fun group for the final passage.

Fabian making his move on the Oude Kwaremont

Once the peloton had passed by we headed straight to the village so we could watch how the race played out.  We were pretty ecstatic when this happened:

Fabian wins!

After the race finished up we headed back to the cars and to the Chainstay in Oudenaarde.  Gregg's wife Holly prepared a delicious meal of traditional Belgium stew and the most amazing chocolate mousse ever.  We enjoyed our meal along with some Belgium beer (of course) while watching a replay of the race and enjoying the company of our fellow cycling enthusiast.  All in all, it was a great day.  Gregg and the Chainstay crew did a great job and we were looking forward to going out with them again (and all of the other folks in the tour group) to watch Paris Roubaix the following week.