Tour of Flanders

April 2010. The Tour of Flanders is one of the great one day spring classic cycle races. Having ridden it in 2008 this time I was lucky enough to be invited by one of the sponsors of professional cycling team Saxo Bank to join them in meeting the riders and following the race.

On Saturday evening we traveled by bus to a hotel outside Brussels to meet the Saxo Bank riders. Outside the hotel the Saxo Bank team vehicles were waiting and the team mechanic was busy preparing the bikes whilst our group got in the way and took the opportunity to take a few snaps.

Inside the hotel a refreshing buffet was laid on whilst we waited for the riders, team coach and sport director to arrive. Surprisingly the team and the riders were extremely open about their tactics and expectations for the race the following day. They were relaxed and seemed quietly confident about the chances of one of their two race favorites winning.

After a presentation they gladly autographed anything put in front of them and then finally Bjarne Riis dragged the riders off for the pre-race team meeting.

Being a time triallist myself I have become a big fan of Fabian Cancellara and meeting him the night before he won the Tour of Flanders was a special experience. I did ask him about his personal best for a 25 mile time trial... disappointingly he was a bit vague but suggested around 50 mins was an average. Not bad eh?

Fabian Cancellera won an Olympic gold medal for time trialling in 2008 and has been the World Time Trial champion three times, winner of Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Suisse, Monte Paschi Eroica, and three prologues of the Tour de France.

Fabian Cancellera is widely considered to be the best time traillist and one day classics rider in the world. Click here to learn more and view his career results.