All Aboard The Keepers Tour: Latest Update

Rigid's gonna be there. Are you?

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;

Meeting the legendary Freddy Maertens at the Flanders Museum in Oudenaarde.
Meeting Vincent Lavenau and the Ag2R team and mechanics at their motel on the Friday before Roubaix.
A private opening of the Casa Grinta restaurant, with what is described as one of the most ‘insane’ collections of cycling jerseys in the world, plus ‘Belgian Fusion’ food.
Riding into the Roubaix velodrome after our day in Hell, and cleansing in the iconic showers. (TBC)
A musette from Pavé’s partner Ravito, stuffed with cycling badges and a cap. (In addition to the special V Musette from us containing a V-Pint and special V-Shirt, not available for sale elsewhere.)
A possible showdown with Cycling Tips blog’s own Tour, with some cool prizes up for grabs, along with a ton of laughs.
A Cogal to be held in conjunction with our ride of the Ronde parcours on the Saturday before Roubaix.

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.

Full PDF Schedule

Brett

Don't blame me

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View Comments

JC Belgium says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:26 am

@Dr C

Merckx damn you all! I hope the 'Phlegmish' weather is Flemish and the cobbles shake your b..ls out of their 'pocket'... who laughs last, laughs best!
frank says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:33 am

@Chris

This does raise a more important question, though, will there be a special subset of The Rules governing Tour Behaviour, both on and off the bike?

Just Casually deliberate, casually deliberate. If you have a tweede suite, then all the better. But I'm not hauling a suit over to Europe, so I, for one, will be wearing the special-edition, not for resale KT V-Shirt that comes with registration...

@ChrisO

He's based in Flanders IIRC and often tweets in some indecipherable combination of spitting and guttural throat-clearing, which I take to be Flemish, so I think he probably knows exactly what it means.

HEY!! Its a beautifully expressive language!
Chris says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:34 am

@JC Belgium
Phil and Paul were discussing the fact that he's a Flemish speaker at the beginning of one of the TDU stages the other day and mentioned that his wife was Flemish. Her political views may have rubbed off or he was making a statement on her behalf. Doesn't your other half chose your socks for you?
Chris says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:42 am

@frank

@Chris

This does raise a more important question, though, will there be a special subset of The Rules governing Tour Behaviour, both on and off the bike?

Just Casually Deliberate, Casually Deliberate. If you have a tweede suite, then all the better. But I'm not hauling a suit over to Europe...

And I'm not hauling a sofa around with me. That would really screw with the excess baggage. I may have a tweed jacket in the wardrobe but it'll be a bit more traditional than JV's. If training really goes to plan I could probably squeeze into my kilt but I'd run the risk of being mistaken for a Scot.
JC Belgium says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:46 am

@Chris

@Chris

No, my mother choses my socks. (wink)
I don't know his political views, nor his wife's. I am just not sure about a political purpose and see no reason why he would be a Flamingant (=activist of the Flemish movement).
and probably, he received these socks from SockGuy, his personal sponsor...

@frank

HEY!! Its a beautifully expressive language!

thank you, @frank
Dr C says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:49 am

@Chris
...kilt....yayaya

rather than bringing one, do you think we could rent an 10 seater sofa to watch the RVV roadside - and a couple of hospital beds for the nearly made it contestants - the thought of standing for more than a few seconds the day after the P-R run fills me with dread
JC Belgium says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:53 am

@ChrisO

ok ok, I found the solution to our 'Vlaamse Leeuw' issue!
Chris says:

Jan 24 2012 at 7:55 am

@JC Belgium
That's cool as long as you aren't 42!

@Dr C
I suspect sitting down may be an issue too!
Chris says:

Jan 24 2012 at 8:06 am

@JC Belgium
Hmmm, not sure about those. They'll clash with just about everything.

You can buy cycling socks with just about any flag or badge you want apart from the European flag which would be the most appropriate on that side of the channel. Don't you guys want to be European?
Dr C says:

Jan 24 2012 at 8:09 am

@Chris

@JC Belgium
Don't you guys want to be European?

touch paper lit, stand well back.....