Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2018
Participants: Mike P, Andrew W, Mike M, Pete S, Phil J, Dean, Dom I, Joel A, Matt G, Kieron E
07.30 Logistics Manager Mike M. arrives at Chevs Towers and checks that Directeur Sportif Mike P. is up around ready
07.31 Mike P. confirms he is up
07.32 Mike P. gets up
So started Chevaliers Cycling Club’s tilt at the 2018 Spring Classics. Liege-Bastogne-Liege – The Doyenne, the oldest and longest of the Classics. The rest of the team arrived at 08.30. Was that the Twickenham equivalent of the Team Sky bus waiting for them? No, it was Mike’s white van. Was that a Mavic support vehicle across the road? No, it was Andrew’s Volvo estate. So off they went – fit, honed, sadly unprepared for what lay ahead.
While Mike P, Andrew, Pete and Kieron travelled in the Volvo, Phil travelled on his own in an Audi and quietly smirked to himself. The first song that DS Mike P chose in the car was Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” – as we sped towards Dover an ominous quiet descended as our minds turned to the ride ahead. This year Mike M was joined by Joel and Dom in the van: they experienced things they had never done before and concluded that it was “surprisingly comfortable”. Matt, like a young Phil Collins taking part in Live Aid, flew in, performed, and then flew out early to go to a party.
This year was round 3 of the epic battle that has been raging between Peter Staynes and Belgium. It started at Paris-Roubaix in 2016 (Pete conquered the cobbles) and continued at the Tour of Flanders in 2017 (the cobbles conquered Pete). What would 2018 bring?
Shortly after Pete left Belgium in 2017 Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France. Macron took on the unions; the unions didn’t like it. Conspiracy theories abound in modern society – Did aliens crash at Roswell? Were the moon landings faked? Was Captain Pugwash intentionally lewd? – but the idea that the Belgian health service was working with the French Government to spark transport union strikes with the sole aim of stopping Pete Staynes entering Belgium was surely going too far? Events speak for themselves.
Even so the combined efforts of 2 EU member states were not enough to deny Pete entry onto mainland Europe. “I will enter your country, I will ride my bike, and, if I happen to hurt myself, I will expect you to manage my injuries in the courteous and efficient manor of previous occasions!”. So thought Pete, and so he did!
After some delays at Dover due to the French transport strikes we arrived quite late at the Ibis Budget Liege. While waiting for the van we emptied the bar (a medium-sized fridge) of Jupiler lager and discussed the whole gamut of subjects from bikes to bike races to competitively-priced hotel chains in Europe. As it turned out the Ibis Budget had everything we needed, apart from a mechanism to keep the toilet doors closed. When Mike, Joel and Dom arrived we set off that evening to the local Italian restaurant for a carb-rich dinner.
The weather was fine on the day of the ride and we drove the few kilometres to the start. We initially set off as one group but soon split into 3. Joel and Matt were sent up the road with instructions to ride faster and finish sooner than everyone else. They did this admirably. Phil and Dean also rode together and the 6 remaining riders formed their own peleton. Mike P proudly sported his polychromic sunglasses: not since Joseph woke with thoughts of making a fantastic, colourful jacket has one man been so happily enamoured with an item of apparel. Not that anyone would have known it, given how rarely he spoke of them.
Although not the full route the Pros completed, this was still a long ride: the first half was relatively straightforward but the route became significantly harder towards the end. It soon emerged that none of the 6 had paid much attention to the details of the route – although I suspect Dom knew more than he let on but didn’t want to worry everyone else. There was very little flat in what was an often-beautiful semi-Alpine environment. The major climbs all came in the second half of the route. La Redoute is 1.9 km with an average gradient of 9.1% and a maximum of 22%. It was tough. It is also one of the few world-famous climbs which has a caravan site for overweight Belgians with no interest in amateur cycling built half-way along its route. However we finished this with deluded thoughts that this was the hardest part done.
What followed is already a blur of steep climbs, fast descents and moaning. The last part of the route took us through the outskirts of Liege – a city with an industrial past where people looked as if they had lived harder lives than many of us. This was neatly summed up by a 6 year old boy sitting on his window-sill shouting “Move it, move it, move it!” at us as we cycled past. The 6 arrived back to the welcome sight of Matt, Joel and Phil who had all waited a few hours for them. Thankfully there was no time cut-off to finish the ride because I think that fact that Matt had time for a beer, a massage and a sleep means we probably would have missed it.
The day ended with steak and chips at Amon Nanesse – a traditional Belgian restaurant in the heart of Liege. Having been in the saddle for 10 hours we were understandably late and this meant that Kieron was told off in French by the waitress. Little did she know that Kieron’s tenuous grasp of the language meant that he thought she was flirting with him and he spend the evening feeling very good about himself.
We were all truly exhausted that night. But the next morning we had coffee and doughnuts while watching the Pros on one climb, and beer and hotdogs on another, wearing free bright orange caps handed out by a Belgian removals company and chatting about the ride. As ever it was fantastic to feel the buzz of the event – the town, the crowd and all the staff preparing for the main event to come – and know that we had ridden the same climbs that they would.
That morning encompassed many of the elements of Chevs that lots of us hold dear – cycling, coffee, beer, cheap hats and friendship.
