Ardennes Classics Review

Ardennes week is over and similarly to the Flemish cobbled classics the racing in the so-called second tier events was of a higher level of excitement than those at the top. The World Tour races weren’t as good.By that I mean that E3, Het Nieuwsblad and others were better than the Tour of Flanders and certainly Fleche Wallone and Brabantjse Piil were better than Liege Bastogne Liege. I felt…

View On WordPress

2024 Cobbled Classics Retrospective

No review of the cobbled classics can start without mention of the Dwars Door Vlaanderen crash that took Wout Van Aert out of the big two races of the last 10 days. Van Aert had been soundly beaten by his main rival Mathieu van der Poel in E3 Harelbeke after a long rainy pursuit but this high-speed collision left us wondering how close he would have got in both Flanders and Roubaix. With in…

View On WordPress

Rouvy Spring into Action Classique - Stages 3,4 & 5

The last time I posted I had ridden stage one and two of the Rouvy Spring into Action Classique.Those stages were to Michelbeke over the Molenberg, and then to Pantai in Italy taking in the famous Capo Berta. We now pick up on the last stages of the event. Stage three to Neukeke was another with sectors of the early season cobble classics and was particularly challenging. Despite knowing the…

View On WordPress

Rouvy Spring Classique - Stages 1 & 2

After what I felt was a disappointing Etape challenge on Rouvy I was keen to get into the platforms “Spring into action” challenge. I entered the Classique version of that, with five spring classics routes to ride. Just quickly back on the Etape challenge. It felt like the courses were quite mixed. You had the ones in Eastern Europe and then randomly a massively hilly one that wasn’t…

View On WordPress

Only one jersey choice for this mornings training...

View On WordPress

Opening weekend 2024 is here!

So here we are on the eve of the cycling season proper. Opening weekend starts with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and finishes with Kuurne Brussels Kuurne on Sunday. Both of these are traditional long held one day cobbled classics, and for Flemish aficionados like myself, this is the proper start to the season. And I can say that whilst I’m watching the UAE tour, seeing Tim Merlier winning a sprint.…

View On WordPress

2023/2024 Cyclo Cross Wrap

Its been a funny old winter in the cyclo cross world. Where he has ridden Mathieu Van der Poel was dominant. He won with ease apart from one day where he had all seasons bad luck in one go. Wout van Aert picked up on that still crashing and breaking his saddle on his way to beat the mulleted bullet. Tom Pidcock has been there or thereabouts winning the classic in Namur but also enduring some…

View On WordPress

2023 review of my season...

2023 was a year that will have mixed memories for me. In the cycling context I had a great time in local time trials but missed the goal of riding more sportive events. Off the bike was a challenge with a lot of things that happened which impacted my mental capacity to race more. However I found a newly adopted approach of taking cycling for what it is and not stressing too much about the…

View On WordPress

How to do a European 'cross race from England

In terms of bucket list items, the chance to go to the Cyclo Cross World Cup in Gavere on Boxing Day was something long dreamed about and eagerly anticipated. TRAVEL AND ACCOMODATION Being a fairly regular user of ferries on to mainland Europe I am fairly zen about the whole “driving on the other side” thing but I know it makes some people anxious. However I can pretty much guarantee you will…

View On WordPress

Gavere 2023 Boxing day Cross

View On WordPress

Review of the year - Did Jumbo / Visma ruin 2023?

It’s been a long while since the last post I wrote and in that time I’ve been formulating in my brain how I wanted my review of the year 2023 to look. It’s a year that will live long in the memory for some things, but I’ve already moved on from a number of others. I think the first thing to note and the first thing to pay special attention to was the tragic death of local rider Gino Mader in…

View On WordPress

Despite everything, I still love cycling

It’s fair to say that in the weeks since my crash, my desire and attitude for the sport of cycling has been tested. My Nan always used to say that things that come in threes. So first off was the crash, which left me with a big lump on my hip, and lots of cuts and bruises all down my left hand side. More than that it was the hit on the head. And then the effect on my confidence in needing a new…

View On WordPress

test

<div id="fs-standings"></div> <script> (function (w,d,s,o,f,js,fjs) { w['fsStandingsEmbed']=o;w[o] = w[o] || function () { (w[o].q = w[o].q || []).push(arguments) }; js = d.createElement(s), fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; js.id = o; js.src = f; js.async = 1; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(window, document, 'script', 'mw', 'https://cdn.footystats.org/embeds/standings.js'));…

View On WordPress

The unpleasant art of crashing

Until yesterday morning I was almost 10 years and over 40,000 kms between crashes. I quite liked those odds and if I could find a way to keep that ratio going forward I will be in my 60s before another kiss of the concrete occurs. Yesterday was a ride like most others at this time of the year. Sunny but cold. Pleasant with that end of season meandering and lack of attention to the computer…

View On WordPress

Cross is here!!! 2023 version

Cyclo cross has arrived. And with it came Thibaut Nys. We all waited for either Michael Vantourenhout and Eli Iserbyt to take the opening round of the exact cross in Beringhem. But it was the man who has been on everyone’s watch list for a few seasons now Nys who beat them both. With Dad punching the barriers in excitement at track side Nys was able to out sprint Iserbyt along the finishing…

View On WordPress

Last weekend of the 2023 road season

The road season all but ended this weekend with the Tour of Lombardy and Paris Tours. I know which one are preferred out of the two. It was Paris Tours with the excellent vineyard trails around the finish town. It was played out with Lewis Askey of Great Britain off the front. But aside from the patriotism, it was more about the brilliant course and the excellent tracks that have been added in…

View On WordPress

La Vuelta 2023 Week 3 review (belatedly!)

It’s taken me six weeks to realise that there was no end of Vuelta review on the website. So here it is ! Sepp Kuss hung on to win despite the best efforts of his own teammates. Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard rode away from their red jersey holding colleague on the last couple of mountain stages. They were riding away up the road, causing a media meltdown as well as social media and an…

View On WordPress