Oslene-Roubaix-Oslene, the legendary Hell of Belgium

So its been 4 days since my last post...sounds like the beginning words at an AA meeting or going to confession. Actually its just the number of days since I last wrote words of wisdom on the information superhighway. What's my delay you ask? What could he be doing this whole time? So I apologize for keeping you all on the edge of your seats or creating a Harry Potter euphoria =)

Training today started a little later than normal. I didn't leave the house until 11:27am which is not like me at all. But the morning was spent consuming coffee, fruit museli, and some flour tortillas with jam(out of bread). Cyclists are quiet adaptable. My training plan for today was to go for 3 hours. I decided I would head south then east and try some of the ardennes that I hadn't ridden yet. after taking the wrong side of the canal and having to backtrack several kms I was on my way to Kortrijk and feeling pretty good despite too tough days back to back of racing. Rode through Kortrijk downtown which is probably one of the more affluent cities in the region and has a french flair to it. Mom, you would definitely like it, great old world stuff with nice cafes and shopping. Some pretty girls out too for lunch, but I was training and such thoughts don't enter my head...riiigggghhhht. Continued riding south and got into some nice countryside. Riding in belgium is like this, one minute you are in hustle and bustle the next you are on a 2.5m wide road and cruising through with no life within shouting distance. i saw some church steeples in the distance and thought I would head that way. When i am lost, which is basically every time I go training at one point in ride I look for my Mecca of direction. In Belgium its the church steeple which is at the center of every village.

I wound my way through some roads which only had the sign that said, "cows" in the illustration. Sure enough there were cows and lots of dirt and manure on the road. Each time you go down one of these roads its a total gamble b/c you don't know where it ends, you only hope that its not a dead end. Its pretty much a adventure, so you could say I am the adventurous type if you were creating a fbi profile. Rode through lots of dirt, gravel, and cow dung but made my way to a road with a bike path. I went east, I think so, and caught the signs of my new destination and the turnaround of the legendary Oslene-Roubaix-Oslene. I start cruising nicely in the 53x15 with a steady tailwind to Hershoux. The turnaround was getting closer as the words began to take on different characters. Almost there...and then I see it, a blue sign, very big and along the 2 lane road, FRANCE. I crossed the border with legs spinning and adrenaline pumping, you see b/c i had just illegally crossed the border without passport, without id, and I was setting a new record on the Oslene-Roubaix-Oslene parcours. I had never been to France before. the atmosphere was a little different, snotty attitudes and not enough bikes on the road lol. Just kidding. I wound my way through the city following signs to the velodrome for the turnaround but always keeping the signs for Hershoux in sight. Being so far ahead in the race and without a proper follow vehicle or motor escort I had to battle my way with french drivers and the lack of suitable signage. Rode past a sketchy housing section and was following the signs to the velodrome but it ended at a roundabout, those fun euro-driving things. I decided this would be the new turnaround point and headed back. I only had 1 banana with me and didn't want to bonk.

The return route took me over through Dinslig(sp?) and on the N50 to Kortrijk. I stopped just after Dinslig and grabbed a coke from the machine. It was super tasty and the perfect boost for a strong finish. Try drinking a coke and running, no dice, but cycling and coke are platinum. Rolled nicely through Kortrijk, taking in the cobbles so I could check out the chicas in the cafes, unfortunately lunch was over and it was only older people, no offense to my older viewers =) Cruised back home but battled some IT Band(illotibial band) problems over the last 15km. Missing my foam roller. Rolled first at Oslene and carried to famed Bowl of Pasta to the plate and into my stomach as the winner of the first Oslene-Roubaix-Oslene winner, 4 hours, 112km over a blistering course that saw cobbles, dirt, dung, gravel, pavement in 30C temps.

It was a great ride. The past two days have been mentally draining on the racing front. I raced Sunday and legs were just no dice. Course was tough and windy with some sharp turns that lead to several crashes into ditches. I nearly went down as the field came to a dead stop and I was elbowing for room but my front wheel was going into the wheel in front of me. I thought for sure I was going down but I managed to keep it together. A gap opend on lap 4 and I couldn't close it fast enough. legs were just done. The course featured about 1.2km of straight cobbles. it was gnarly. Maybe it was the big pasta and tuna lunch i had then the ~40k ride to the course. So I pushed on home at the conclusion of the race for my ~40km back home. While I was waiting for the end b/c you can't leave b/c of doping controls I spoke with a nice Belgian couple. They are hosting an aussie rider I met a few weeks ago. Very nice couple. He wrote a play about the Tour of Flanders. They invited me to stay with them if I ever visit again. Very nice people and gave me a coke which was tasty on the super hot day.

Monday i gave it another go in a kermesse in Ooigem which is just 12 clicks away. My plan was to stay near the front so i kept following the moves as they went up the rode. ended up flatting at minute 45. Not very happy about that. so my race was over at that point. I did get a free coke from the race announcer so all was not lost.

As I have written before, the Belgians love bicycle racing. For all the people to show up on a weekday midafternoon race is so amazing. If we could only get 10% of the support in the US, bicycle racing would great by 500%.

The Belgians also look out for cyclists and treat them at a the level you would experience as a top football, baseball, or basketball player, even us amatuers. The nice couple I met on saturday are just a small example of this. they see you racing bikes and they know how hard it is and they want to make everything during the race, before and after as easy for you as possible. For instance, providing a chair for me to sit in after my race, a coke, then giving water bottles and filling up water bottles for riders they didn't even know. I can't tell you how important it is to have this in a race. Jesse Bastide and I struggled trying to get a bottle from the so-called Neutral Water at the Tour of the Gila. Both no dice. Here, its automatic. People just want to see you race and race hard. Sometimes its amusing b/c you see parents or girlfriends rubbing the legs of their boys with mysterious oils. I won't get to that level, but its all part of the support that goes with cycling here. I guess you just to have raced here to understand. Education is definitely something I have gotten here.

I am fast approaching my return to the motherland. yes, I am returning, but I am heading down to the French Alps on thursday to do some training over the many cols around Grenoble. On Saturday, I am going to compete in the La Mure cyclosportiv. i will write more about this in my next entry. Then I will be training over many of the cols that dictate Le Tour each year and finally competing in the Vaujany cyclosportiv, one of the Trophee premier events on the calendar. It will be a real test, 174k with 3500m of elevation gain over 5 cols including Le Alpe d'Huez. i can't wait!

Chow,
Matthew