Tour of Flanders
April 2025
Peter Madum
Last month a Horsham Cycling Clique went to Belgium to participate in and watch the Tour of Flanders – Bryn Griffiths, Chris Coe, Chris Equi, Richard Guthrie, Steve Earl and Peter Madum.
A beautiful Airbnb was booked in a place called Tielt. On a map it looked very close to Oudenaarde where everything was taking place, but it turned out to be an hour’s drive each way every day over the long weekend. But hey, who cares when the company is good.
Bryn, Richard and 2x Chris had trained over the winter to compete, Peter to survive, and Steve had forgotten to train. So, who would ride together for the 100-mile amateur ride the day before the big day was sort of given.
And what a day it was with 10,000 other riders of all nationalities. Cobbles galore and all those bumps over the Flemish Ardennes – and we all had to walk over the Koppenberg with too many riders on a too narrow road. The last one Paterberg all bar Chris Equi walked – not due to the steepness, narrowness, cobbles or length – simply due to tiredness.
But what massive smiles we had when we all met in the big square of Oudenaarde – and how fantastic the Belgium Beer tasted. And for the first time no British person complained about the amount of foam…. Bryn had paid extra to get his name engraved in his medal and despite many great and drunken suggestions, including Bryan Griffin - he ended with just his name.
The day after we were able to watch how it’s really done. We strategically placed ourselves on top of Kwaremont – and learned from David Scott that this is where Johan Museeuw lives. We didn’t see him, but saw the riders pass us twice over the cobbles, at an insane speed. Perfectly situated for great photos we had Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and the handsome Dane Mads Pedersen chasing each other and passing us so close, they almost knocked Richard’s camera out. Imagine who would have been the angriest had this happened?
We ended at the bottom of Paterberg where we firsthand experienced how Pogačar pulled away and won the race. At Paterberg we also experienced the Belgium celebrity Jean Marie Pfaff. No idea initially who this guy was that looked like a British TV personality from the 70s and why all the middle-aged women wanted us to take pictures of them with him. We asked and they rolled their eyes?
When he came and stood next to us, he told us he was a former Belgium goalkeeper voted best goalkeeper at the FIFA World Cup 1986 and the whole world in 1987 after 10 successful years at Bayern Munich. Great guy and very happy to talk about himself and the Denmark 3 Belgium 2 game at the 1984 Euros.
In the old days blokes would have a kitty when drinking beer together. And now it’s an App? Bryn introduced Splitwise to us – and this played a massive role during the long weekend. You input what you have paid and for what, and then by magic at the end of the sessions you are informed what you owe and to whom or who owes you what. This sounded simple – but wasn’t.
As Chris Coe is self-employed, he obviously carries a roll of banknotes in his pocket, and he kept handing money out and thought this would be inputted. Most kept quiet, Bryn got a fit – and heavy words were so lightly thrown - “Come on guys, it’s not that difficult”, “Take it seriously”, “At least try”, “How come our wives can work this out, and you can’t” and “No, it’s not called Splitwives nor Slitwrist”.
In the end it all worked out – and we drove home satisfied after an absolutely fabulous and recommendable weekend in Belgium, smiling and singing along to Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter.
Stats
Distance – 160 km
Elevation – 2,000 m
Cobbles – Too many
Punctures – None
Mechanicals – None
Emotional – 6 middle aged riders