Riding the stones of Paris-Roubaix, in the Spring, in crap weather (it’s possible) and finishing the ride in the velodrome in Roubaix* should be enough enticement for any right thinking cyclists to jump on to this event. It gets better, watching the race in a scrum of drunken-loud-mad-fans, everyone covered in a sheen of beer, frites and mayonnaise. It’s an experience of a lifetime. Do you still need more? Perhaps riding the last fourteen bergs of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, being your very own Boss of the Bosberg and then spectating this race, again the loud-drunk-fans, the sheen, the madness. Fabian Cancellara shall pass by so close he may wink at you as he drops the hammer on Boonen, again. How about a personal ride with the Lion of Flanders, Johan Museeuw? It does not get better than this, I’m sorry but it can’t.
It can’t yet it does, a tour of the Merckx bike factory and the Ronde van Vlaanderen Museum at Oudenarde. That is correct, we are going to museums, all right, a museum and it’s a museum about bike racing. There is much more fun crammed into this nine day holiday than should be allowed, please regard the original post for all the information.
This is the fantasy camp of a lifetime for cyclists. If not for yourself, dear reader, then bestow the holiday gift to end all gifts on your mate. The Velominati are united in a love and appreciation of cycling and the Spring Classics are a distillation of all things Hardman and beautiful.
Not to belabor the awesome factor, here are just a few more items:
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*disclaimer from our legal department: unconfirmed but in the works.
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View Comments
@sgt
Actually, I'm with you. It really is not the money, it is the time (and the small fact that I'll be in Honduras on official Army business overlapping the Keeper'''sss's's Tour.
@Mark1
Welcome, somewhere, a long time ago, this fine bit of video did show up here but it always is worth a repeat viewing.
@frank
That Museeuw video is a beautiful thing. If Marko buys that Colnago Master he can get his Johan on. You are going to storm up that bitch like a madman. That hill never stops.
@Buck Rogers
Honduras schmonduras, never a better time to go AWOL!
somewhat off-topic, but too good not to share:
@sgt
Excellent. But there should be a wee blob to the left of Wiggins' haircut that says Kellyland
@wiscot
The idea that Kellyland should be to the LEFT of Wiggins is pure heresy! My word man, give your head a shake!
@Mikel Pearce
That's the left as I'm looking at it! Being from sunny Scotland I know Kellyland is off the west (right) coast. Also, Kelly was no fan of Margaret Thatcher so I'm assuming his politics were left of center - or at least left of far right.
@j.king
If I was curator of this museum I'd sure as hell make sure the bars were in compliance. Also, I wouldn't use a mannequin whose fingers were missing on both hands - poor form indeed.
OK, so I'm nervous about posting these pictures, as it makes me look a little bit like an online stalker of Frank... but in my defence, he and I have been in email contact about these very things, and whether it is 'normal' or not for two men, who met over the internet, and who are going to spend a week living together in a cottage with other men in Belgium wearing tight-fitting lycra clothing, to have the same wheels.
I'm a youngling on the Velominati journey, so I didn't build my own wheels (particularly, since Derek at wheelsmith.co.uk did such a fantastic job, and has done ever since he refused to build me a low spoke-count pair of wheels to climb Ventoux in 2009 because, in his words, "you are a fat bastard, and you'd buckle them on the descent and have to cadge a lift out").... These arrived today, which are what I'll be doing the cobbles on in April. Ambrosio Nemesis rims; Royce Hubs; old-school spoking; Challenge P-R tubs. So excited, I think I may have had a 'moment'... but, errrr, what happens if I get a puncture? anyone?
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@sgt awesome map, by the way. +1