Stage 1 of the Tour de France was advertised as a flat, 194.5 km
course south of Brussels in the middle region of Belgium, featuring one notable
climb: the iconic Mur de Grammont. Turns out, flat does not mean flat in the
Tour. In total, I climbed almost 2,000 meters today, but that wasn’t the
challenging part of the day.
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| Stage 1 Route Map |
The cobblestone on the route was the challenging part – an unpleasant
surprise and a significant hurdle that I didn’t see coming. My first exposure
to cobblestone was shortly after we departed from our hotel. Riding cobblestone
for five hundred meters may not seem like a long distance but when your entire
body is bouncing – no, scratch that – your entire body is crashing up and down
on your bike, you feel every centimeter. I was glad when it over but as it
turns out, it was only a small taste of what lay ahead.
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| Me, at the top of 'The Wall' |
The Mur de Grammont ('Mur' means 'Wall') was my second exposure to a
cobblestone road and what crazy ride that was. Short and a little tricky, this
famous climb almost had me popping unwanted wheelies at the 20% pitch point. I
made it to the top in one piece and the view of the city was worth the effort.
At this point into the ride I was really having a lot of fun.
Still early in the day, the weather was not yet a factor but, as
it turns out, it soon would be. A heatwave has settled into Europe and the
forecast for today was 37C (in the shade). Dehydration was a real issue for all
riders, some even suffered dizziness and vomiting. Thankfully my coach and I
discussed this the night before and the plan she laid out worked brilliantly. I
took salt pills every hour and drank pretty much non-stop. Even then I believe
I was borderline dehydrated.
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| How the pros climb 'The Wall'. The fans pull them :) |
But the 9.5 hours of blazing heat was still not that hardest part.
Nor was getting lost twice and adding 20 km to my already very long “flat”
ride. The hardest part was a dreadfully lengthy, very steep descent on, you
guessed it, cobblestone. This technically challenging slope is not on the tour.
It was a detour due to road maintenance for the Tour. Argh! I was
petrified the entire time, which felt like forever. The uneven narrow road, the
descending grade, and my lack of experience on cobblestone had me freaking out.
My wrists hurt like hell from leaning forward and carrying my entire weight, and
my fingers were seizing up from hammering on my brakes the whole way down. This
one bit of the ride would become the highlight or, I should say, the lowlight
of every rider on this day.
You would think that was end of it, but unfortunately it wasn’t. There
was still one more crazy, incredibly long flat stretch of that evil stone. Cobblestone
should be banned from the earth. All in all, my takeaway from cobblestone
riding is I would rather climb it or even ride it on the flats (as painful as
that was), but descending cobblestone is strictly for crazy people.
With all that said, I had an absolute blast today.
Yes, it was a hard day but I found a good group of guys to ride with. Five men
from all over the world who let me tuck in behind their wheel and who were
pleasantly surprised that I could pull my share too.
Day one done.
