I think that's Flemish for "Tour of Flanders".
The 2009 Ronde Van Vlaanderen was raced today. Stijn Devolder, a Belgian riding for Quick Step, a Belgian team, successfully defended the championship that he won last year.
Here is a video from last year's race. This is the climb of the Koppenberg. This climb is part of the Ronde and is "feared by many because of its steepness (22% on the trickiest parts) and because of its cobblestones." As the video displays, the absolute best and strongest bicycle riders in the world are forced to dismount and push their bicycles up the hill.
In defense of the strongest bicycle riders in the world, this video is from 2008 when the race was run in what is fairly typical spring weather for Flanders, rain. As a result the cobbles were wet and slippery.
Even so, the absolute best in the world off their bicycles and pushing certainly puts the climb out of Lanesboro into perspective, don't you think?
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2 comments:
Great video. You can almost feel their pain. The guy that comes to an almost complete stop and then manages to somehow turn the crank over and continue was my favorite part.
The Lanesboro hill. Certainly not the absolute best and strongest bike riders in the world on that hill on that day.
That is really, really impressive. And it looks really, really hard. I too like the guy who came to a complete stop. Wow.
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