Last weekend my metric
Last weekend my metric century was the Ronde van Vlaanderen, 140km route.
Started off a little cold but warmed up to a nice riding temperature. Sun came out for the Muur-Kaplemuur climb and into the finish. 19,000 riders all told, of which 3,500 did the full 269km route. It was reported that 700 travelled from the UK. The roads were full of riders and my mate and I ended up walking the Molenberg (climb 1) and Koppenberg (climb 5) due to the narrowness and mass of riders. The cobbles were incredibly hard, much harder than I anticipated, and going down was worse than climbing. Many bottles and a few pumps littered the road, our only minor problem was some bottle cages working loose.
Finished in 6hr 10 minutes somewhat slower than I hoped but there was a number of slower sections held up with other riders. A wonderful experience and the opportunity too see the pro’s the following day. We saw the womens start (including the Road.cc rider of the year) the Molenberg and Ten Bosse and the women approaching the Koppenberg.
A fantastic weekend and easily done from the UK.