TdE - Day 43 Elewijt - Tienen

Route: Elewijt - Huldenberg (World Championship) - Tienen
Distance: 61 km
Elevation: 521 m
Duration: 4:00 h
Weather: very sunny, 20 C (but felt hotter in the sun)

Somewhere midway through my cycling trip through Europe I learned that this weekend there would be the World Championship of road racing in Belgium!

Marianne Vos, would ultimately be just second and be really disappointed 

… And I was most likely going to be in Belgium at the time. I no longer got a as room at Leuven, but Tienen isn’t far away and has a direct train line to Leuven, which I plan to take tomorrow (to watch the men’s race in town), but today I went out to what is called the “Flandrien circuit” a bit to the South of Leuven in a hilly part around Overijse (a name I first heard about half a year ago when watching my first cyclocross races - from the comfort of my sofa). 

Today I planned my day MUCH better than yesterday, and arrived with ample time in the area of the circuit. Actually I thought that I arrived with even more time to spare than I actually did. I hadn’t realized that they close the course more than 2 hours before the riders would come through. 

Initially I had planned to view the race from the Smyesberg, the only hill the women would do twice…

…but when I came there, there were no spectators yet lined up, so I just went up (pushing the bike) and over it, following the official route. But already at the next climb, the Moskesstraat, the route got closed off. But this was actually great timing, because  this was such a Flandrien climb: short, sharp, cobbled and narrow (and crucially for me: in the shade), so I decided to stay there. 

When I decided to stop, I was virtually the first spectator on that hill. And that was totally fine with me. I had enough water on the bike (for which I found a good enough space along the climb) and I had bought a sandwich shortly after my hotel, and I even found a reasonably comfortable twig on which to sit… so I relaxed at the wayside, observing the preparations until a few more spectators arrived:

And the second mechanic of the Swiss team with two replacement wheels, but no Allen key, which he borrowed from a spectator.

Then at some point also the official photojournalist arrived and searched for the ideal place where to stain themselves. And after even more time, finally the peloton: 

The peloton did not pass without difficulties this climb. Demi Vollering had gearing issues and needed to push up her bike! 

What was interesting on this second hill of the Flandrien course, the time difference between the first and last rider was probably something like 3 minutes. Compare that to the time difference at the end of the Flandrien circuit. 

When all had passed I slowly took my bike, pushed it up the rest of the hill and then set course towards Tienen, but after not that much I crossed again the course and the professional cyclists hadn’t arrived yet! So I waited with some other spectators there. This was after all the Flandrien hills and from there they would head back through relatively flat terrain to Leuven for the final hills. What was surprising that by then big distances between the different groups on the road had opened. By then the peloton was split in several groups (echelons, only that it wasn’t really windy) plus a good number of solo riders struggling to find a group with whom to ride. I think the time difference at this point was more like 15 minutes between first and last rider. Waiting for them to pass I also was again very happy about my prior decision to have the main view on the shady cobbled climb. In the plain sun it was really hot! 

Once all of the riders had passed, we, the spectators got on our bikes and rode on. 

The second part of my ride was much like a Paris - Roubaix with a lot of cobbles and even some gravel roads, but that seems to be the price to pay in Belgium for cycling on roads with little car traffic. 

When writing this post I was really surprised about the elevation, over 500 m! Really? Yes, there were the two climbs of the world championship (that I pushed my bicycle up), and the terrain was a bit rolling… but 500 m ??? Either it is wrong, or it says a lot about just how flat the Netherlands are. Not sure I will enjoy riding in that flat terrain again just as much as I did before setting out for this 5+ week trip through Europe.