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Kevin 'Blackhound' Cunniffe reflects on an opportunistic trip to ride the Tour of Flanders back in 2009, risking all to fight flying bidons on the cobbles...

Watching Ghent-Wevelgem the other day and looking forward to the Tour of Flanders this weekend brought back happy memories from 2009.

Two years ago a friend of mine was working in Belgium and offered me the opportunity to go over for the weekend and ride the sportive on the Saturday and watch the professional race on the Sunday. I had to have a word with my partner for permission as her birthday was that weekend but she said I may not get the opportunity again and gave me her blessing.

Registration was easy online and cost about €20 but entries were being taken on the line. There are three sportive options. The first is to complete the full 250km from Brussels to Ninove. The 140km option starts and finishes in Ninove but completes all the climbs and cobbled section of the full course. The third option was a 75km loop with a further three MTB options. We elected to do the 140km loop as it was far enough after a North european winter and starting and finishing in the same town was convenient.

After work on Friday I traveled Eurostar to Lille to be picked up by a mate. However, the only problem was my bike remained on the train to Brussels! This took a bit of sorting due to language difficulties but a couple of hours later I was re-united with my bike and the panic was over.

The previous couple of days had seen me following the advice to put on a wider tyre and reducing the pressure in my tyres and ensuring bottle cages were ‘Flanders’ tight. I was riding some Mercian built Mavic Open Pro rims on Campagnolo Record hubs with some lightish DT spokes.

The next morning found us stopped by the roadside a couple of kilometers from the start area due to the people heading to sign on. I had not realised how big an event this was, subsequent reports suggested between 17,000 and 19,000 riders were signed up.

As the appointed time arrived, we all set off in warm, dry conditions. The first 60km were quite straight forward riding along ‘keeping our powder dry’ as Duffers would say. When we reached the first cobbled section I noticed bottles started flying all over the place and just how hard the cobbles are to ride. My bottles stayed firm but I was being shaken about massively. I knew the idea was to push a big gear after years of watching Paris-Roubaix and listening to the great Sean Kelly - easy for Sean to stay. I just hoped my fillings would hold.

Eventually the first climb of the Molenberg came upon us just after a sharp right hand turn. It was also very narrow with a bit of mud, and though not to steep, with the number of riders we were all off and walking. Over the next kilometres cobbled sections and climbs came quick and fast, the only thing worse than 17% climbs on cobbles is 17% descents! After the climb of the Koppenberg on a narrow, flat bit of road I managed to drop my almost empty bidon but their was no way I would be able to stop and pick it up with the large peloton behind me. In the next section my other bottle bounced out and I had to stop to retrieve that one. As I did I saw another rider take a tumble landing on his head. He seemed to be OK having a few friends around him.

The Paterberg was steep and although a few were reduced to walking I made it successfully. After the Molenberg only the Koppenberg got me off the bike. Again, I felt able to climb it but sheer numbers and a couple of people putting there foot down leaving me no way through had me walking. Once off it was too steep for me to get back on and pedal.

All the way through I was thinking of the Muur-Kapelmuur climb towards the end. I had seen it many times on Eurosport, remember Fabian Cancellara making his move in 2010?

There is quite a long run down into the valley to Geraardsbergen where the climb starts and in truth if you are not racing it is not so bad. I hit the climb just making sure I had a gear in hand and rode up, it does get a bit steeper and I was looking for the church at the top. It eventually flattened out and I saw a bar on my left heaving with people drinking beer and I relaxed; that wasn’t as bad as I thought. Then I rounded a bend and the road climbed up again to almost 20% - we still hadn’t got to the church. I smiled to myself and just pushed on to the summit. The only problem at the top was a number of riders having stopped to look around but I had a quick drink and made my way down to the foot of the Bosberg. This last climb is always made to look easy by the professional riders, but it is 1km at 6% with a maximum gradient of 11%. By now I was reasonably confident and rode quite hard over the top and down into Ninove to finish at the front of a large group under the almost empty grandstand.

The following day we watched the professionals race through Oudenaarde which was also where the women's race started. We had an opportunity to walk round the women’s team cars, and saw Nicole Cooke in her world championship jersey with her teammates.

We then saw the mens race climb the Koppenberg and moved along the route and had some lunch watching the race on tv and then popping out to watch them on a climb before returning home to watch the finish. It is possible to see the race up to 10 times if you cycle between the various climbs as they are all in quite a small area.

It was a good weekend for the Belgians, with Stijn Devolder winning by a minute from the bunch with Phillipe Gilbert also on the podium in third.

All in all an excellent weekend and very easy to organise yourself. Cheap entry, easy access to Europe and the opportunity to test yourself one day and watch the professionals the next day.