The Belgian Ardennes Day 1 and Day 2

Day 1 – For our first day in the Belgian Ardennes the plan was to get in a few easy hours on the bike to help recover the previous day. Saddled up and rolling into Spa it was pretty quickly discovered pretty quickly that for us today was not going to be a straight forward recovery ride. Note to anyone wanting to come to this region with a bike, once you get into the centre of Spa to get anywhere there is only one way out…….UP!!! Nonetheless embracing the new terrain, with a few lung burners, including the col du Rossier the last climb in Stage 2 of last years TDF finishing in Spa.  While also enjoying the scenery we clocked up a few hours and 70 odd km. Then to finish a short stint off the bike that could probably be described as more of a jog than a run.

The afternoon plan was to head out for an easy run.  Taking it easy with the legs a bit dead we used the chance to have a bit of a jog around the farmland and find things you would normally skip past in the car, or not really notice as it is off the beaten track. Nothing really spectacular but with no car noise or pedestrians it was a good place to just cruise around.

Day 2 –  To be honest I was a little worried knowing today was going to be one hell of a day in the saddle. Anyway, both up and off to breakfast to find an extra serving of bread and yoghurt on the table.  The elderly hosts of our B&B wanted to ensure we had a good store of energy after watching us train yesterday.  It was nice of them and of course i obliged... haha.

I tried to plan some of the ride before today and at least learn some town locations to keep a bearing and get what I wanted out of the ride. As well as having come across the col du Rossier yesterday I knew a decent climb could be had there if needed. The plan - head north east to Jalhay and Eupen, cruise across into Monschau just over the Belgium/German border. Then cut back across to Malmedy to tackle a reasonable sized climb I had found on climbbybike.com. From there it was kind of use the GPS and fill in the rest. 

Apart from the whole hurt box thing, it was really enjoyable ride. You can understand why people tour by bike as you just get to see so much more, I was even lucky enough to get a bit of sun for the last few hours. Obviously I can’t go into every detail but there were a few items of interesst, like the Spa GP circuit, complete with formula 2 or 3 in full practice mode. Or the route to climb  the col du rosier that was used in this years liege – Bastogne – liege.  A different route to monday easily identifiable from the Philippe, Phil (for Philippe Gilbert), Yurgen (for Yurgen van den Broek),  and the Omega Pharma Lotto and Quickstep Jerseys painted on behalf of the Belgian contingent while the Luxembourg fans ensured Frank and Andy Shlek had thier support known all the way up the climb. That felt pretty cool to be riding the same climbs as those guys, but obviously a much slower pace…!

I think it is good to mention the two really tough climbs. The first because it came out of nowhere. Eupen to Monschau on the map seems pretty harmless but the 20km turned out to be a constant gradual incline averaging around 3%.  The killer not the gradient but the surface. Over here they have signs to tell you the road is going to be crap “Route Degradee (x) km”. This one read “Route Degradee 12km”. I didn’t think much of it but as it continued the constant bumping, jerking and swerving massive holes continually stopped any momentum turning it into more of an offroad ride than a road climb.

The second came right at the end of the ride. Having to ride about 45min to make up my 6 hours i arrived back in Spa (15 min from our B&B) I thought id ride the what I thought was short climb from Spa to Francochamps. F me oh how wrong i was….. it turned out to be 8km straight up at 8%. 3/4 of the way up i was hurting pretty bad, with the legs pretty much filing for divorce I could feel the dizzies coming on.  trying to hold off the crash i slammed down what food and drink i had left which seemed to work.  With the HR on the limit and the shifters fresh out of gears the head switched off and the legs kept spinning. I really dont think ive ever been so relieved to make it to the top of a climb, especially considering it was pretty much all down hill fromt there. 

Making it home the treats were in store, Tuna and cheese rice cakes, Chocomel (I love that stuff) and a can of coke (yes coca cola for you non Australians). I am pretty lucky…Alicia you’re a gem! That aside having my own personal sports dietitian is a really big advantage.

After a bit more of a feed and a coffee or three, we both headed down to the pool for the arvo swim set. It is interesting when you go to a new facility in another culture and see the different expectations that are associated. I am happy to say that these guys have one up on the Dutch embracing the whole lane segmentation thing. I have to give special mention to Alicia; a PB for her pumping out nearly 5km, a huge improvement to the 3km sets 5 months ago, not to mention after the morning long run.  This 70.3 in Ireland is not going to know what hit it….hahhaha.

Overall a good day with my longest stint in the saddle (6hrs) and biggest training day ever. I also learned that in this region there is no such thing as flat. It is either up or down, but still a very nice  place to train and relax.