Kevin van Impe retires?

Kevin van Impe by @KristofRamon

Unbelievable as it sounds, Kevin van Impe has announced his retirement today. I have little to say on this matter other than he will be missed. I always enjoyed seeing him bounce off the front of the peloton. A Joy to watch. I would like to wish him the very best for the future.

Nokere Koerse 2012

Nokere berg passage

I just love this picture. It shows just so much. I found it on Kristof Ramon's flickr stream. He is arguably one of the best photographers of cycling out there,

Just look at the faces of these riders. Mid pack, burrying themselves. Its torture, elation, pain, suffering, exquisite joy. So many things can be can be gleaned from this one snapshot of a race. One of the best i have seen of a modern race that really made my hairs stand on end.

Brilliant work Kirstof....more please.

Time to roll out the hard men

Yes yes yes its that time of the year when i start getting giddy. You know what this weekend is?

Its the magical Omploop het Nieuwsblad / Kuurne-Brussells-Kuurne weekend.

Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2010

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

This weekend is what i think really says the spring is here. Its will no doubt be blowing a gale, raining sideways and snowing like hell. Only 20 riders will finish and they will have frost bite and numb nether regions. And, to make it just a little harder, they're ride over the cobbles surrounding Oudenaard for the first of many weekends. Cobbles which are horribly hard in the dry but are just trecherous in cold and wet conditions. It really is a weekend to show early form or just to be a double hard bastard. Some scary 85kg flandrian may very well win.There'll be no skinny 60kg winners here. This is my kinda riding. Me and Big-Kev would kick ass at this.

Sweet baby jebus i really love springtime in Belgium.

BOOM!

In your face UCI pro-tour teams

Heroes of the cobbles

Paul Deman  1889 - 1961






The first ever winner of Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1913 over a distance of 330km which incidentally culminated with four laps of a small wooden circuit around a pond in Ghent.


His cycling career is not terribly remarkable. A winner at Bordeaux-Paris over the insane distance of 592km. His story becomes more poignant with the outbreak of the first world war.


He Joined the Belgian Espionage Service smuggling documenst into Holland. His life and cycling career was almost cut dramatically short when he was captured by the Germans and was due to be shot. Thakfully, the Armistice intervened and was released.


Following the war, he started racing again and won Paris-Roubaix  and Paris-Tours

Heroes of the cobbles

Eric Leman  1946 - date

Continuing my discovery of hard men of Flanders. I found this chap. I thought i knew cycling but then, i'd never heard of this chap. Another scary Belgian rider.

So let me tell you about this chap. There are no stories of this chap drinking his weight in beer and winning races. Or riding with a broken leg on a bike made of cheese. But this guy for a period in the 60s and 70s pretty much won everything. including winning de Ronde van Vlaanderen an impressive three times in 1970,1972,1973.

He also won such scary hard races as Kuurne-Brussells-Kuurne, Omloop Vlaamse, Four days Dunkerque, Four days Flanders, many stages of Paris-Nice, Vuelta and five stages at the Tour de France.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, Eric Leman. Another hard riding Belgian that rode like his life depended on it.

Heros of the cobbles

Alberic Schotte. 1919 - 2004

Never heard of him? hardly surprising. A little known Belgian cyclist of the 1940s.
So whats so special about him? How about, he was twice Road race world champion in 1948 and 1950. Twice winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1942 and 1948. And competed in 20 Tours of Flanders between 1940 and 1959. He was nearly 40!

He was a fiersome athelete and earned the nickname in the peloton of Iron Briek. A phenomonal competitor and has a statue in Waregem in Flanders. A revered cyclist of a bygone era.

Following his retirement he became a coach of his beloved sport. He died in 2004 on the very day of the Ronde van Valaanderen. I'm sure he smiled on his way to heaven.