2010 Minnesota Cyclocross State Championship

Here is the start of the 2010 Elite Men's Minnesota Cyclocross State Championship race.

I was on the team of promoters that organized the race. I am also seen starting this event. I am just to the left of the lead rider, Hollywood Jay Henderson in the black and white kit, in the blue helmet and black kit. I did not finish this race.

The promoter team arrived at the venue before 6am. The course was clear and dry with green grass in the park fields. Within an hour it started snowing. At the start of this race, the last race of the day, there was nearly 6 inches of snow on the ground. 

There was no way that we were going to be able to clear the snow before the races were set to start. We hoped that the course would get "ridden in" as the day went along but the snow came too fast and nothing more than a 12" single track strip was rideable for much of the circuit. There were a few sections protected from the weather where it was possible to pass. But the most part it was just single file riding along behind the person in front of you until you reached one of those open sections. 

I did not appreciate it at the time but it was one of the most absurd and entertaining days of bike racing that I can remember. You can see more images from this race online here. The image below really captured the day. 

Racing Cyclocross

No one in the picture, 2012

I have been fortunate enough to be able to spend this summer back on the bike, getting in some really great rides and regaining fitness after a year of medical issues. I have been asked more than a few times if I have any interest in going back to cyclocross racing.

Nope.

Watching the muddy races in Niel this morning was just one more reminder of why.

Never mind the fact that I sold off all my cyclocross gear following my wreck at the last race I took part in, 30 seconds of the January 2018 USA Cycling Masters National Championship. I still keenly recall the amount of work that goes into this discipline, especially when conditions are at their worst. I loved racing in the wet and mud but I simply do not have the energy for it any longer. I am not referring to the training that it takes to be competitive in cyclocross. I am referring to everything else.

The days before the race going over both of your bikes to make sure any mechanical issues that occurred the previous weekend are resolved. Spending a few days scrambling to get them resolved before the next weekend.

The day before the race getting both bikes and spare wheels prepped for the race. Packing all the gear that will be needed for the next day. Warm up clothes, race clothes, cool down clothes, shoes (check the cleats), spare shoes (check those too), bottles (pre-hydration, race hydration, post hydration), tools, trainer, bike cleaning brushes and bucket. Jeez...so much stuff. Maybe pack all that stuff in the car so you won't have to bother the next morning.

Pack all that stuff in the car if you did not have the energy to do it the previous evening.

Drive to the race venue. Always at least 90 minutes away. Pre-hydrate.

Register for the race. Unless you pre-registered so you could get the pre-registration discount.

Take a quick look at the course conditions to decide which tire tread to use for warm up laps.

Dress in your warm up clothes, get both your bikes put together. Decide which of your two bikes you are going to trash during the warm up laps.

Warm up laps. Test course lines. Test tire treads. Test tire pressure. Try not to damage your bike too much so it will be available for use in the race if need be which it will be if the course is already trashing your bike during warm up laps.

Clean (and repair?) your warm up bike so it's ready for use in the race. Try not to panic as the minutes slip by and your pre-race schedule is starting to fall apart.

Get out the trainer and warm up some more. Try not to panic about feeling like crap during the warm up.

Hydrate.

Pin your race number to your skinsuit if you have not done so already.

Finish warm up and put on your final race clothes. Get second bike to the pit. Ride to the start.

Second guess all of your decisions and choices...from your entire life.

Race your race and try to make equipment decisions based upon what will deliver the best race result and not what will make for the easiest clean up and repair after the race.

Following the race change into your cool down clothes, put the most functional of your two trashed bikes on the trainer and cool down. Focus on the good things in life.

Go to the podium and collect your bag of apples, which you are excited about because you can actually do something with them (apple pie).

Pack up all your trashed equipment into the car trying not to trash your car interior.

Re-hydrate. Eat the banana you brought for post race recovery. Embrace your healthy lifestyle.

Stop at the gas station to fill up the car and buy a coke, cool ranch Doritos and a king size Milky War bar because you deserve it.

Drive home. Now 2 hours minimum for some reason.

Try to convince yourself that all this trashed gear can wait until tomorrow for clean up but you know that it will be even more work to clean up all this stuff once the mud dries. So, with your legs and back and shoulders screeching at you, unpack all your gear and methodically clean it all up so you can spend tomorrow actually identifying what needs to be repaired or replaced.

Get stain remover on all your warm up and race clothes and get them into the washing machine because if you wait the mud stains will never ever ever come out and you will be wearing those stains on the start line for the rest of the season (not #pro).

Take a shower. Cry if necessary. It will make you feel better, I promise.

Greet your family who are all waiting for you to stop fucking around and make dinner.

Like I said, I simply do not have the energy for this, much less the training, and I can't afford to pay someone to do all this work for me.

And to what end anyway? To go race 30 seconds of the USA Cycling Masters National Championships? I already did that.

I need to save my energy to make dinner.

Micro Ronde van Vlaanderen

After my adventure riding some of the Paris-Roubaix course I took advantage of the local riding opportunity and spent Sunday morning on the famous roads used in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. 

The morning looked to be dry after the previous night of rain so I did not waste much time at the Hotel Leopold all you can eat breakfast buffet. I mean, I took full advantage of the buffet. I just ate fast so I was able to get out on the roads before the rain was scheduled to start up again in the afternoon.

I love riding around Belgium. The roads are fun. Traffic is not too bad and, for the most part, drivers are patient with cyclists. These photos don't show it but there were lots of people out Sunday morning hiking, walking, running and cycling. Lots of activity going on and I waved and said hello to lots of people. some of which waved and said hello back!

I crossed the river Scheldt on the south side of Oudenaarde and made my way to the bike path that runs towards Kluisbergen. From here you turn south and head towards the famous cobbled climb Oude Kwaremont. Oude Kwaremont is Flemish (which is not Dutch I have been told) for Old Kwaremont and this is the original road that runs from Kluisbergen to the village of Kwaremont. Oudenaarde is Flemish for Old Naarde and I don't know, nor want to know, what that is all about. 🤔

I am not sure when this began but these roads are now a part of, and marked with a designation from the Flandrien Challenge. 

The Flandrien Challenge is a cycling challenge where digital and physical worlds collide. It visualizes the digital STRAVA segments on the road surface of numerous storied climbs and cobbled roads in Flanders. This is a unique physical manifestation of cycling's most popular digital experience.

More details on their website.

The inclusion in the Flandrien Challenge means a Strava segment start and finish line along the road so you know when it's time to go all out and try and get the KOM. I did not attempt to do this. All the climbs for the day are part of the Flandrien Challenge with the accompanying Strava segment start and finish lines.

Kwaremont was my first cobbled climb of the day and was the first of the Flanders bergs that I ever rode back in 1991. 2.2km with a maximum gradient of 11% the Oude Kwaremont is a pleasant way to start a ride in Flanders.

Above is a photo I took the morning of my ride, October 29 2023. Below is a photo I took near this same spot in July of 1991 after navigating my way to this location from Ghent using a Michelin map. In the days before GPS and smartphones I don't know how anyone got anywhere but somehow I made it down there to take this photo, ride the climb and get back to Ghent without getting too lost. 

At the top of the Oude Kwaremont you ride across the Ronse Baan N36 and than can make your way along the Ronde van Vlaanderenstraat. All the past winners of the Ronde van Vlaanderen are listed along the roadway as you ride along. 

Less than 2 miles from the top of the Kwaremont you take a hard right and find the start of the Paterberg climb. 

The Paterberg is a bit of a brute, short and steep, but it's a fun road to ride. 400 meters with a maximum gradient of 20%. It was just a dirt farm road until the farmer decided that he wanted the Ronde to pass by his house and put down the cobbles in 1986. It's akin to building a track and fully expecting to see a Formula 1 race in your backyard next year. Obviously that's just how things work in Belgium I guess.

It's about 3 miles from the top of the Paterberg to the base of the Koppenberg. This climb is a real Flandrien challenge, 600 meters with a max grade of 22%. It was made most famous at the 1987 Ronde van Vlaanderen when the race commissaire vehicle knocked Jesper Skibby off his bike and ran over his rear wheel in a panic to get out of the way ahead of a hard charging chase group. 

The Koppenberg was promptly removed from the Ronde until it was reincluded in 2002 after being widened and repaved. 

On this morning the Koppenberg was a buzz of activity with some kind of running challenge going on. Halfway up the climb looking towards the right I saw the preparations being made for the Koppenbergcross scheduled to be taking place three days later. 

Once you reach the top of the Koppenberg you turn right on the Ronseweg N60 and left to a descent that turns to cobbles. This is the Steenbeekdries that feels most like a secteur from Paris-Roubaix. Downhill at speed on the cobbles and then a flat section before a climb and a railroad crossing. One more flat section of cobbles and then a turn back onto tarmac for about a mile before starting the Taaienberg. 800 meters with a max grade of 18% despite what the road marker has to say.

Tom Boonen made the Taaienberg his most favorite climb in Flanders and he used this berg to launch an attack four of the five times that he won the E3 Harelbeke race. His face is there at the start of the cobbles to inspire you to similar greatness.

Over the Taaienberg its onto the Eikenberg. My route shows that I rode up the Eikenberg but I have no memory of doing so and took no photos. I think I might have been looking forward to the Molenberg which was another four miles away.

On the way to the Molenberg.

The Molenberg is a great climb. 463 meters, fairly steep with a max grade of 14.2% and a rough road surface. Narrow like someone's driveway it just appears out of nowhere by the side of the road. I nearly rode past it before making the right turn up the cobbles.

Here I am halfway up the climb.

From the top of the Molenberg it was four miles back to the river and then the bike path on the north side of the Scheldt 6 miles to Oudenaarde. A couple miles outside of town it started raining a bit so I had timed the ride perfectly.

Here is my Strava upload for the day.

Once back to the hotel I got cleaned up and walked over to the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen for a sandwich and to see if there were any cool souvenirs I wanted. 

Ronse 88 Worlds Mural

From Cycling In Flanders:

The mural was made by painter Jos Peeters on the occasion of the World Championship in Ronse in 1988. Both the 1963 and 1988 World Championships had a rather dramatic outcome. The world championship for professional riders 1963 in their own country had to be crowned by super favorite Rik Van Looy. The Emperor of Herentals was able to win the world title for the third time. When Van Looy broke away from the spurting group at 250 meters from the finish, the goal was within reach. However, a modest servant and teammate decided differently. Against all team appointments Benoni Beheyt remounted his leader, passed over and knocked him half a wheel. Rik Van Looy was second and the Dutchman Jo De Haan completed the stage that plunged the entire Belgian cycling world into mourning. Ronse immediately became a household name for cycling enthusiasts.

Perhaps even more dramatic and much closer is the World Championship for pros in 1988. The Walloon regional cyclist Claude Criquielion seemed in a spurt with three well on his way to fulfill his favorite role and on the flank of the Kruisberg a second world title behind his name. At 175 meters from the finish line he dived into the gap between the Canadian Steve Bauer and the nadar barrier. His front wheel hit the concrete support base, Criquielion went head over. and the unknown Italian Maurizio Fondriest became world champion. Ronse again became an item for (sports) world news.

Here is a photograph I took of this mural while I was standing by the side of the road watching the Belgian National Road Championships in 1991.

Here is a photo I took of this mural last week.

Two points.

I think I like the version from 32 years ago better.

Steve Bauer should have won that race.

Remnants of War

I continue to be fascinated by the evidence of the 20th century wars that generated so much trauma in Europe. I would think that, following these conflicts, the citizens would want to erase the evidence of war, put it out of their minds and try and get back to a semblance of normal life.

My tour of the First World War Western Front in 2019 proved that idea completely incorrect. The scars, preserved battle sites and memorials from the First World War are easily found throughout Belgium and Northern France. During my first visit back to this area in four years, I stopped to see some of these additional sites while I was traveling last week.

Northwest of where I was staying in Oudenaarde is the Flanders Field American Cemetery. The only permanent American First World War cemetery in Belgium this site commemorates 411 American soldiers who were killed in the final months of the Great War. 

This is the final resting place for 368 American soldiers and inside the chapel the names of 43 missing soldiers are listed and memorialized. 

As is typical for many Belgian and French towns, Oudenaarde has a memorial to their citizen soldiers that were lost between 1914 and 1918.

The Monument van de Opgeëisten serves as a memorial to the citizens who were deported from Oudenaarde to Germany during the Great War 

There is a direct American connection to Oudenaarde.

The Audenarde American Monument commemorates the service of 40,000 American troops who fought in the areas around Ourdenaarde in October and November of 1918. These soldiers were attached to units commanded by Albert I King of Belgium and the casualties from these battles are interred at Flanders Field.

There are also plenty of easily found sites and memorials from the Second World War in and around this area.

Less than 10 kilometers north of Orchies, where I parked my car for the day of riding some of the Paris-Roubaix course, is a memorial to US aviators that died October 9th 1942. While returning from a bombing mission over the railroad installations at Hellemmes, the B17 41-9018 piloted by Lt Francis Chorak was hit by flak and German fighter fire. Despite a ferocious resistance, the bomber lost its tail and three engines. Four of the nine crew members bailed out successfully while the plane disintegrated over Lannay France.

Close by are numerous blockhouses and bunkers of the Maginot Line. These things are all over the terrain in this part of France as the maps below detail.

And finally, some memorials to the 2nd Armored Division, "Hell on Wheels", who on September 2 1944 crossed a bridge on the border of France and began the process of liberating Belgium after 4 years and 4 months of occupation. 

Just north of the bridge is a memorial to the first American soldier to enter into Belgium on that day, by motorcycle.

A memorial in the first significant town north of the border, Rumes Belgium, celebrates the American soldiers who began the liberation of Belgium.

The Pavé

 

I like new experiences. Nothing to crazy mind you, I am not going to walk the entire equator or bungee out of an airplane. But I like making plans to do something out of the ordinary when I have the opportunity.

This last week I was back in Belgium for the first time in four years. It’s my most favorite country and given the opportunity to ride my bike I take advantage of it. So I planned to stay over the weekend and get some riding in around Flanders while I was there.

I have ridden in Belgium a number of times in the past. Racing for a couple of months in 1991. The Ronde van Vlaanderen sportif ride a handful of times. Riding around Oudenaarde would be nothing new but it was certainly something to look forward to. But the more I thought about it the more I started thinking about perhaps actually trying something new. And the more I thought about it the more I wanted to ride the Paris-Roubaix race route.

Not the entire route, not even all the pavé sections. Something reasonable to get an idea of what riding on those roads was like. I settled on the idea of the last 100 kilometers of the 2023 route. After duplicating the route from Wout van Aert’s April 9 upload I started making some adaptations. I would be staying in Oudenaarde so it would be an easy one hour drive to Orchies France where I could leave my car, ride down to Arenberg and start the ride at Sector 19, the Trouée d'Arenberg.

Here is the route that I came up with. It would work out great. I would get a nice easy 18 miles in before starting on the course. After 20 miles on the course I would ride through Orchies and be able to make a decision if I wanted to continue. I was not planning on bailing out and I am willing to suffer for the sake of an experience, but it’s nice to have an easy option to quit if things are not going well.

Stage one started with the All-You-Can-Eat breakfast buffet at the Leopold Hotel. If you are ever looking for someplace to stay for some easy Flanders cycling I recommend this hotel, especially the breakfast. Their pizza is pretty good too.

Stage two was the drive down to the Intermarché SUPER where I parked the car for the day. There is also a train station nearby with open spots and it looked free to park but I wanted to pick up some tape to put the pavé millage notes on my top tube and get some snacks for the day so the Intermarché SUPER was the choice for me. 

Stage three was getting the bike set up, which meant putting the seat post back into the frame since it needed to come out every time I put the bike in the car. I also had to realign the stem as, after multiple attempts over the past few days, it was still crooked as compared to the front wheel and my obsessive nature would not allow me one more moment of riding until I got that fixed. 

Stage four, got dressed. Leg warmers, long sleeve undershirt and jersey, short finger gloves, no shoe covers.

Stage five, got on with it. I put my Nature Valley Granola bar snacks in my pocket and headed out for the day’s adventure.

I have been pretty lucky all week with the weather and this day would be no exception. Despite bringing all my rain gear the ride down to Arenberg was sunny and dry although quite windy. Wind is something you are not going to get away from in this part of Europe so there was no surprise there. In just over 70 minutes I was at the south end of the Trouée d'Arenberg.

Just before the tarmac turns to cobbles there is a memorial to Jean Stablinkski, a former professional cyclist who worked in a mine under the road. After taking a few moments to appreciate the memorial I wheeled around and started down the pavé.

It did not take more than a few meters for utter disbelief to come into my head. People actually race on this road? You have to be kidding me? WTAF? I was not even riding 10 miles an hour and I was working really hard to keep the bike under control. The cobbles were slippery, having overgrown a bit with grass in between the stones and the vibration was making it difficult to hold onto the bars. I have never ridden on a worse surface and it was the longest and most difficult 2.3km section of roadway that I have ever been on. To my regret now, I was so focused on keeping the bike moving forward and avoiding any holes between the cobbles that might cause a flat or damage a wheel, that I forgot to stop and take some photos of the road. The idea of sprinting off the tarmac and hitting these cobbles at 30mph, attacking during this section or coming off your bike and landing on this road were all unfathomable. When I came out of the north side of the section I was glad to have avoided any problems for myself or my bike. 

I had finished one section of the 19 that I had on my route and I was already questioning my plan.

Next up was secteur 18, Wallers à Hélesmes and Pont Gibus.

Pont Gibus is the remains of an old railroad bridge across the road and is named after 1992 Paris-Roubaix winner Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle. One of my reasons for doing this ride was to see the famous landmarks of the route in person and Pont Gibus is one of these famous places. While not nearly as bad as Trouée d'Arenberg, Wallers à Hélesmes was still terrible and it took more than a few minutes after getting back on the tarmac from the pain of vibration to work its way out from my hands, arms and shoulders. 

Next up was Hornaing à Wandignies and it was this section of pavé that ultimately did me in.

The twin water towers of this part of the course is another iconic landmark of the course and the race, but 3.7km across this surface and I was feeling it in my back and shoulders and by the end of the cobbles I was making some really good progress with blisters on my right thumb and palm. This was the last section of pavé that I rode without looking for some way to avoid the cobbles. Any open dirt by the side of the road and that's what I was riding. I would say the fun and novelty of riding the stones lasted about 100 meters in total.

Two sections after Hornaing I was at Beuvry-la-Forêt à Orchies which is dedicated to former race winner Marc Madiot. 

This is the first of three sections near Orchies and by the time I had come off the last of the three at section 12 I was ready to call it a day. The legs were tired from pushing so hard to keep momentum going on the cobbles, my back was screeching at me, my hands were turning to handburger and I was getting cold. I could have pushed on for a few more sections but there was no way I was going to make it the ten more sections to get to Roubaix and the finish line at the velodrome. So I turned around and rode the handful of miles back to my car.

Here is my Strava upload for the day.

I was a bit disappointed not to be able to complete the entire distance, ride into the Vélodrome André Pétrieux and cross the finish line. But it was another good day on the bike and an amazing experience that gives me an entirely new perspective on what the men and women that race Paris-Roubaix have to endure. 

While I was nearby I took the opportunity to drive up to Roubaix and visit the velodrome.

It was magical to be there having watched the race finish on the broadcast so many times over the past years. There was a football match going on while I was there and the officials were not allowing anyone to ride on the track during the game. I met a guy from Australia who gave it an attempt and made it nearly halfway around before he got kicked off the track. I would have been pretty bummed to ride all that distance and not be able to ride the last 400 meters or so.

I rode 8 of the 19 sections on my route. Maybe I will come back someday and ride the final 11 and hope the track is open for me to ride a couple of laps. Or maybe I won't. We'll see how much of this day's pain I forget about.