After the craziness of chasing De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Mark McGhee goes for a ride to find a different craziness… the craziness of Belgium, or more precisely, Flanders. On his 100 kilometre ride, Mark takes in some of the iconic climbs and cobbles of Flanders, all in preparation for evening of Belgian food and drink and our voyeur pleasure of course. Like everyone else, I thought I knew what Flanders was all about. Id heard about cobbles, Id heard about mud, about rain, wind, the bergs, the mad Belgian crowds and everything else that goes towards making these Spring Classics into the very icons of a sport that we all think of as our own. But I was wrong. If youve only ever experienced these monuments via websites, newspapers and magazines, television or video then you may think youve managed to get a handle on how hard it is but the reality comes nowhere close.What is it about a cobbled road that fires our imaginations, and that produces some of the very best performances to be seen in cycling? Weve all ridden on cobbles somewhere, right? Well, Id love to say take it from me but I suspect youre not going to because I never did. These tracks are the singularly most difficult rides Ive ever done in my lifeand Ive done some mega-routes over the years. Lets take a relatively easy aspect of a cobbled sector like the Haaghoek. Its 2.5km long and starts with a downhill run-in but...
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