Belgium
Liège-Bastogne-Liège team presentation
By far, the most formal team presentation I've seen to date: a tent, a band, even chairs for the spectators! Of course, I stood by the fence where I figured I'd have a better shot of saying hi to the riders. Cofidis. Lotto Belisol. Trek Factory Racing. BMC. The crowd … Continue reading
Flèche Wallonne
A race two-for-one! The women raced up the Mur de Huy twice and three times for the men. Tip: Google maps doesn't like it when you call this climb the Mur, so use its other name, Chemin des Chapelles, for all the little chapels along the way up. When you say, “oh, it's … Continue reading
De Brabantse Pijl
Race organizer from Leuven #1: Hey, let's have the riders sign on in the shadow of our ridiculously beautiful Town Hall! Race organizer from Leuven #2: Great idea! And so it was. It's possible the parking lot wasn't well marked or several of the bus drivers had heard about the beauty of the Town … Continue reading
A little more Ronde van Vlaanderen
On this, the eve of the Hell of the North (officially known as Paris-Roubaix), I'll share a little more of last Sunday's Ronde van Vlaanderen. First, a few photos from a spectator who found me through twitter to share these photos. Adrien Petit. Jan Barta. Hugo Houle. Antoine Duchesne. … Continue reading
Scheldeprijs
If it's Wednesday, it must mean cycling in Belgium! Today was the 102nd Scheldeprijs, won by Marcel Kittel the last 2 years. Sign on in Antwerp! Maple syrup's unofficial spokesman, Ted King! Peter Sagan. Greg Van Avermaet. Marcel Sieberg. Gatis Smukulis. Geraint Thomas was interviewed by a scrum … Continue reading
Bruges/Brugge skyline
One of the prettiest I've ever seen.
98th Ronde Van Vlaanderen
Just after 6am in Brugge. 8am. And the square was full of too many people by the time the sign on began. Topsport Vlaanderen, the first team to sign on. I'm super excited to have a new Canadian riding on a pro team. Last year I saw Antoine Duchesne (below with … Continue reading
World Championships: rest day
Just because there were no races today doesn't mean there wasn't cycling to watch. With the road races starting tomorrow, today the national teams got to scout out the course on traffic-free roads. The Algerian team stopped to discuss the morning's ride. The 2 minibuses carrying the Canadian team drove right by me … Continue reading
The Koppenberg & Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen
Another famous Belgian cobblestone climb is the Koppenberg. The name comes from kinderkoppen, or children's heads, as cobblestones are known in Flemish. That's a nice piece of imagery. The iconic hill has been used in Ronde van Vlaanderen over 20 times since the mid 1970s, though it was excluded for 15 years after the … Continue reading
Eneco Tour stage 7
It felt strange to be absent from the sign on this morning but that was the plan all along. We were headed to the Muur, a famous cobblestone hill with an average gradient of 9.3% and a maximum gradient of 19.8%. In other words, it’s steep! The Muur is a fabled climb in the world … Continue reading