Distance:
Susanne: 0 km
Julian Alaphilippe: 276 km
Train: 40 km
Duration: 5:56:34 h (Julian Alaphilippe)
Weather: sun and clouds, a bit colder but no rain
Today was I think the first rest day for me in 44 days of cycling through Europe, but only because I had other people cycle for me. Including the eventual two times world champion Julian Alaphilippe:
But not only him, the local hero WVA (Wout van Aert) also came by a total of 8 times…
As well as MvdP (Mathieu van der Poel) his “nemesis” from the Netherlands and not loved by the crowd along the street:
I found out about a good week ago, that the World Championships would be at Leuven, right at the time when I would be in Belgium. So instead of using a more direct route from the Ardennes back to the Netherlands (and probably just arriving back home a few days earlier), I did hang around in Belgium in the last days slowly and indirectly approaching the Leuven area.
After seeing yesterday the women's World Championship from the side of the road in the Flandrien loop, i.e. outside in the countryside on a cobbled climb, for the men's event, I decided to head to Leuven city center, where they had a loop that they would pass a total of 8 (!) times as part of a much longer race, which started in Antwerp, heading to Leuven and the first city loop, then out into the countryside around Overijse for 2 loops, than back to the city for 4 loops, back again to Overijse for a bit more hills and cobbles out there before coming back for 3 more loops and the finish line in Leuven.
I had targeted the Saint Antoniusberg for viewing the race, but it turned out that no spectators where allowed on that rather narrow climb, so I took a spot in the street on the top of the Saint Antoniusberg, just about 1,6 km from the eventual finish line.
I went to Leuven by train, which was definitely a good idea. A bicycle in the city would just have been a hindrance, although there were more than enough people around with a bike. The city was full with spectators lining the streets, but surprisingly the trains weren't that incredibly crowded. I even got a seat both on the way in and out of Leuven.
One of the riders, Tom Pidcock, after the race said that it felt more like racing in a stadium (because of the cheering crowds) rather than racing on the open streets. And yes, people were chanting a lot along the road where I was. Mainly "Woutje Van Aert", some also "Forza Remco" and others were more supportive of Yves Lampaert, but the main roar was for WVA. While when Mathieu van der Poel passed the crowd generally was booing. Strangely enough they didn't show the same animosity towards other riders of other nations, so apparently for the Flemish fans it was a Netherlands against Flandern race. I say "Flandern" not "Belgium", because I think there was not a single rider in the Belgium squad who was from Wallonia.
The peloton got smaller and smaller with each round, clearly a lot of the riders were drawing out of the race once their part of the job was done. A few rolled through very relaxed, greeting the crowd and enjoying the atmosphere... others looked utterly done in.
Julian Alaphilippe attacked right on the Saint Antoniusberg in the last but one lap and got a distance quite quickly. Already by the time he was were I was standing, maybe 200 m after the end of that berg, he was clear from the reduced bunch (of I think 17 riders, containing all the favorites), and they didn't manage to catch him in the remaining lap. The people along the street were not happy with that. Right opposite to where I was standing was a bar with a small TV set screening the World Championships, which was great, specially for this final loop. And as we watched Julian Alaphilippe staying away from the bunch, the mood got more gloomy and the "Woutje van Aert" chorus died. When Julian Alaphilippe, still the sole leader came by a last time just a bit over 1 km from the finish line half of the crowd was actually booing... while the other half (me included) was animating and applauding him. He got there first anyway.
There were however also non Belgians along the road:
BTW, this is how the ride into the city looked like when I first came to Leuven walking from the station into town:
Real cycling fans might not be surprised, but I was. Instead of using team bicycles, e.g. a bicycle of the Belgian national team all cyclists were using their "own" bicycles from their normal teams, as one can observe on these pictures of team mates from Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium respectively.
In retrospective, probably a logical thing, as you are used to THAT bicycle, and not just any bicycle, but must be a logistical nightmare for the mechanics to have that many different bike brands and components to care for.
As I didn't ride a single meter today... here the Strava from someone who did ride:
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