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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View Comments
@JC Belgium
Shit, check out those guns, too. Now, if he was popping a wheelie like the other guy, then you're onto something.
I've found a 200m (nearly) stretch of cobbles in east london. Very tempted to go out and run intervals on it at the weekend.
Getting nervous. Need miles. May have bought a completely irrelevant frame today to distract myself from the absence of proper preparation.
@Chris - 110 rpm, sur la plaque is midway between distant memory and much cherised ideal over here at the moment...at least I can say I won't peak too soon....;)
@Joe
Hit 111rpm in 50 x 11 last night on the rollers. Briefly. It was more a question of being able to stay stable and smooth at that point than anything else.
I will peak in about two months but like you I do need miles.
@Chris
Strong work. I'm friggin hopeless on rollers, it's probably time I gave them another go.
I worry that I've left it too late - trapped in a dastardly compromise, not quite there on the bike and having neglected beer drinking enough while training to have a deleterious effect on my form at the bar also. Doubly delirious indeedy.
Might dust off the turbo for some post pint intervals on Friday night. I've felt terrible like that before. 'Enhanced' training...it might just work.
@Chris
The plural of "Nemesis" is "Nemesii."
@Nate
Sorry but it's not... it's nemeses.
Chris was half right.
Nemesis is originally from Greek not Latin.
She was the goddess of retribution.
@ChrisO
I defer to your superior pedantry.
@ChrisO
some day I'm going to call your bluff on all this medievil greco-roman linguistic stuff - meantime I'm hopelessly out of my depth so I'll keep my powder dry
@ChrisO
That's what I was going for, honest. It's my slow typing, by the time I get to typing a word at the back end of the sentence, my mind will have moved on.
@mcsqueak
When I was living in Flanders, the race hallowed routes weren't super well marked. Long rainy training rides with the Michelin map was about it. Directions from the team help got me more lost more often than not. Team recon training rides for races wasn't really done. The Kapelmuur I included on regular rides as the lead in through Geraardsbergen reminded me of a ride I did when visiting family in Oregon. I guess everywhere one goes reminds them of somewhere else? It was a ton of fun finding tiny cobbled roads and climbs to break the monotony of training rides and to get away from the canals. So many more little roads than just whats in the Classics. The cobbles weren't real practical for regular training but rather for the novelty of having been over them. In the races, approaching those hills or sections was so much faster and changed the way they were ridden. Training over them mostly just helped my wheel truing skills. If you get the chance, try the Kemmelberg. Going down that at speed...in the rain set my standard for full pucker. It's where Tscmil's career ended unfortunately. A cold hard truth falling on that descent!