A day on the cobbles of Flanders with the An Post-Chain Reaction team

By Graham Healy

The Irish Continental team An Post-Chain Reaction decided to have a team launch with a difference this year, whereby sponsors and press were invited to join the team on a recce of part of the Tour of Flanders route, just a few days before the actual race took place.

The cycle turned out to be a great idea and was a less formal way of talking with the riders than the normal press conference or Q&A session.

On the morning of the ride, we woke to very heavy rain outside our hotel in Ghent and the thoughts of tackling the cobbles in the rain didn’t fill anybody with enthusiasm. Team manager Kurt Bogaerts made the call to defer setting off for an hour or two based on the weather forecast. And it was a good call too. When we did set off, the roads had dried out considerably.

We were also getting the opportunity to use the team’s Vitus bikes, and I was given World U23 TT silver medallist Ryan Mullen’s spare bike.

Our planned route would take us south from Ghent towards Oudenaarde. There would be no gentle introduction to the climbs as our first of the day was the Koppenberg with it’s maximum gradient of 22%. Following on from that we would tackle the Steenbeekdries, Taaienberg, Kruisberg, Oude Kwaremont and finally the Paterberg.

It was a nice steady pace rolling out of Ghent, and I found myself on the wheel of one of the team riders Conor Dunne. Nice wheel to follow as we had some strong crosswinds on the exposed main road to Oudenaarde. I had a chat with Conor shortly afterwards, who was telling me he had a pretty busy start to the season, and could feel the racing in his legs.

Shortly after passing by Oudenaarde, we turned onto quieter roads leading towards the Koppenberg. One of the journalists came down on a slippy corner not long before the climb, but he was unhurt. Soon after, we turned onto the climb. The pavé was still slippy, and I pushed on as far as I could, but had to dismount.

I wasn’t the only one though, as it seemed that nearly all of the rest of the group were also forced to walk. I didn’t feel too bad about it then. Even walking up the slippy pavé was difficult. From looking at photos later, it looked like the young Ulster rider, Jack Wilson, may have been the only one of us to cycle up. Photos from that day also showed the likes of Heinrich Haussler and Sylvain Chavanel also walking up.

As we regrouped at the top, a few cyclists went past us wearing BMC kit. Sean Kelly let out a shout to Greg van Avermaet and a bit further behind was Daniel Oss.

Descending the Koppenberg, I had a chat with Jack, who was starting to tell me about how his season had been going so far. However, as we rounded a bend, there was somebody in the ditch. It turned out that it was the motorbike with one of the photographers who had gone off the road. Luckily enough, nobody was hurt though. They pulled the bike out of the ditch and were able to set off again.

Next up was the Steenbeekdries. Another journalist went down on the pavé here, but once again, there were no serious injuries and he continued on. I stayed in a big gear and kept my hands on top of the bars without gripping too tightly, but even still, the vibrations made it pretty uncomfortable. The slight descent on cobbles was particularly tough.

On the Taaienberg, nearly all of our group moved to the right-hand side, into the gutter where Tom Boonen is guaranteed to attack from. One of the few not to ride in the gutter was Niko Eeckhout. Maybe he saw it as a sign of weakness to ride on concrete when there were cobbles available.

The pace went up after the Taaienberg and a number of our group slipped off the back. I was now sitting last man with a particularly tough crosswind, with Seán Kelly just ahead of me. A small gap started to grow when Seán shouted back, “Don’t get dropped.” I took it as an order rather than advice and stayed in with the group.

Next up was the Kruisberg. Gaps started to appear again as soon as we started the climb through the town and I made my way past some of the other riders so as to try and stay with the group. We turned right at the top, and despite having finished the cobbled section, it didn’t ease off too much. As we kept a steady pace up the incline, a rider from the Etixx-Quick Step team flew past us. We weren’t sure who it was, such was his pace, but we thought it might have been Niki Terpstra. It seemed that a lot of the big names who weren’t racing in De Panne were out on the course today.

We made our way along the main road and could see the Oude Kwaremont over to our right. The marquees were being set up in advance of Sunday’s race. As we turned onto the road leading to the Oude Kwaremont, we flew past others who were also riding the route. As soon as we hit the pavé, the group splintered. The cobbles here were a lot rougher than when I had ridden up the climb a few years previously, and needed some careful negotiation in parts.

We regrouped at the top and descended towards the Paterberg, our final climb. On the way to the climb, we could see banners being set up in advance of Sunday’s race. However, when we got to the climb, there were a number of cars and vans stopped on the climb and we were forced to dismount. That was the cobbles out of the way.

On our way back in from Oudenaarde, we were pulled in by Kurt near the village of Nazareth. Much to our delight, he produced crates of beer from the back of the car. Aptly enough, the beer was the 6.6% strength Kwaremont, which also happened to be the gradient of the climb. The riders seemed completely taken aback at this, as Kurt normally seems to discourage any alcohol.

At the beer stop, I had a chat with Jens Vandenbogaerde and congratulated him on his win in a kermesse the previous weekend. He was happy to get a win so early in the season. The previous year, he had taken his first win a month later, and still went on to claim ten victories, so he was hopeful of even more success this year.

I had thought that after our beer, it might be an easy enough ride back to our hotel, and we did initally set off at an easy enough pace. However, in the last ten kilometres the speed really went up. We raced through roundabouts as cars gave us right of way, and some of our group started to struggle and get tailed off. I had to fight to stay with the group, and it was a relief to see the outskirts of Ghent. We took it easy for the last few kilometres through the city.

Riding the cobbled climbs of Flanders is definitely to be recommended and a must-do for cyclists when they get a chance. The day gave a great insight into what the riders have to face on the Tour of Flanders.