It’s so close I can almost taste it. The mud. The dust. The heavy Spring air, turning to rain, blown across the fields of Flanders, where many a battle has been fought, in trenches and on wheels. Battles fought against other men, battles fought within each man. My own mind is in battle; am I worthy? Will I be prepared for the beating my body will take, and will my mind deal with it? Well, I’m not going to my own grave without doing this. I will survive on V.
The Keepers Tour just gets better and better. The team at Pavé Cycling Tours should be known as the Mailmen of Flanders, because they just keep on delivering. It seems almost every day there’s an email informing us of an addition to the tour, and our responses are more and more ‘screaming teenager’ than composed adult. To say we’re excited about this trip could be the understatement of the year. We’re excited.
The latest gems from Alex and William include;
Of course, this is all in addition to the already confirmed awesomeness of riding with The Lion of Flanders Johan Museeuw, touring the Eddy Merckx factory, riding on the Gent velodrome, touring the Brunehaut brewery (where our organic Malteni beer is produced) and another cycling museum visit in Beveren. There’s a heap of other activities confirmed too, so email us for the full presentation.
And the best part? All of this is included in the super low price! Everything. All meals, all accommodation, all drinks (yes, beer!) and hanging out with a cool bunch of like-minded bike nuts.
Sell your first-born if you have to, but don’t miss out on a week, or weekend of pure Classics bliss. There are still a few seats available, so book yours now.
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@Bianchi Denti
Awesome article, wonder if Fast Eddy frequents this site. Character might not be measurable, but it can be categorised Anti-V, Nil-V or V-Neutral, V and Morest Biggerer V.
@Chris
we will do well to remember this at 100Km done and 80 to go, when the pain sets in - we can't pay cash for the completion of our challenge.....
@Dr C
Are we doing 180k now?!
We can pay cash for a fat belgian bloke on a derny
@Chris
That could well become the lexicon definition of anti-V!
@Dr C
These European units confuse me, isn't it about the same distance as Bordeaux - Paris and the pros used to get pacers for some of that? (Bordeaux and Roubaix are both on the edges of Europe and Paris is obviously the middle)
Bordeaux in in the south of France, and Paris is much closer to the north of France and the Belgian border where Roubaix is. BP was around 600km, and Paris-Roubaix is "only" about 260km.
@Oli
Thanks Oli.
@Chris
How terribly Francophile of you - are you sure you are not actually a Frenchman masquerading as a English Country Gentleman?
The P-R is 288km I believe, and the first 100km is cobble free smooth tarmac, the last 188km isn't
I have volunteered Fronk and @ChrisO to do the full run - so they will do overnight circadian clock confusion thingy, arriving Lille at Belgian Beer O'clock, then instead of pyjamas and a good book/boke, it'll be lycra and a bus trip to the start line near Paris (can't be arsed to look up the name of the start village, Campeigne or summink, no respect at all...) - meanwhile I, and I strongly suspect you, will be having a good snore, followed by a hearty breakfast at not too stupid o'clock and off to the 100km mark, to suck their wheels to Roubaix as the yawn past us at 35kph
Seem like a plan??
@Dr C
Ce n'est pas bon! I'm afraid I'm most certainly not a Frenchman and if I'm an Englishman it would seem that I'm a poorly educated one at best! All roads lead to Paris but it would appear that some are longer than others and Paris is not at the centre of the known universe.
I'm sure @Fronk and @ChrisO will be deighted to be nominated as pathfinders but I'm not convinced that we should give them the chance to loosen their guns before we join them.
There are a couple of things that I'm not sure about though:
(a) what is a boke? Internet research tells me it's a form of Mongolian wrestling or "street" round your parts for vomiting. We haven't been issued with an list of essential equipment or clothing yet but should I be bring a Borat mankini thing or a bowl?
(b) correct me if I'm wrong but we're staying in a B&B on the continent which means that we'll most likely be dipping flacid pastries into bowls of milk coffee for breakfast. Hearty, in the form of a full English (or Irish) it will not be.
@Chris
Street only bro
I was kind of hoping Fronk and ChrisO's natural competitiveness, and combined overexcitement, will result in them yahoo firing off all their rounds before they reach us, so they will be in reload mode by the time they reach us at base camp - either way we will need a proper breakfast to prepare us indeed - I worry they will not have the frites on at 7am
Perhaps we should import some unhealthy fat and bone-scraping filled pig intestines, eggs, sliced serum and blood clots, and a bottle of cholesterol to incinerate them in, to warm our finely tuned howitzers in preparation for the scouts arrival?