ARNOLD DEVLIN'S TOUR OF BELGIUM

Hoogspanning

The Gent-Wevelgem is a mid-week spring semi-classic that occurs on the Wednesday between Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) on the first Sunday in April and the Paris-Roubaix on the following Sunday.

This is a Belgian bike race that has a 64-year history and most of the professional cyclists will ride in this workout to maintain their racing form or use it as a training ride. At 208km it is not as long as RVV and P-R but it does have a few cobbled climbs to contend with. The most famous are the double ascents of the Monteberg and the cobbled Kemmelberg at 150km and again over these hills at 170km.

In the past 64 years Belgians had won the race 44 times with the Dutch and the Italians winning 5 times each. Last year George Hincapie of the US Postal Service team won the race and this year he was hoping to repeat his victory and had Lance Armstrong along to help support him.

The race starts from the city of Gent, which is city of 230,000 inhabitants on the main road between Brugge and Brussels. I had been staying with my friend, Bob Vyncke at his mother's home in Sint Michiels, a small suburb outside the walls of Brugge. Mrs Marguerite Aneca-Vyncke is in her eighties and has a wealth of Belgian cycling knowledge. One of her close friends is the mother of Johan Museeuw. We had spoken about Gaston Rebry, a famous Belgian cyclist that won the Paris-Roubaix three times in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Cycling in Europe creates cultural heroes and bike racing has always been a "peoples sport". You don't have to pay an admission ticket to see a cycling race. In most cases in Flanders it goes by your front door. Gaston Rebery was one of those Belgian cycling icons. He was known as the "Bulldog of the Flanders" because of his tenacity and work ethic.

We were able to sleep in as the race only starts at 11:30am in Gent and we were only 40km away. We took the main three-lane highway, where in the outside passing lane you can travel at 130-140km/hr, to Gent and started to look for the velodrome, where the race begins. Well when we stopped to ask a local, where the velodrome is, the answer was "which one." There are six velodromes in Gent, where indoor cycling has a huge following. The one we were looking for was located in a park and was known as the "Kuipke". After a short drive we found it.

We parked our mini-van and followed the crowd into the park. The velodrome was not in use but the café was filled with fans and race officials. We got a list of the racers and after a coffee we started to walk around the staging area at the start of the race.

The professional cycling motor homes and support vehicles were located in the parking lot and we were able to get up close and personal with Cipollini, Armstrong, and Eric Zabel from Deutsche Telekom. Their bikes already had been prepped by their mechanics and lined up in a row. The cycles were fantastic: Fassa Bortolo (Ita), Pinarello, Deutsche Telekom (Ger), Pinarello, Rabobank (Ned), Colnago, Mapei-Quick-Step (Ita), Colnago, Lotto-Adecco (Bel), Litespeed, Banesto (Esp), Pinarello, O.N.C.E.-Eroski (Esp) Giant, Cofidis (Fra) MBK, US Postal Service (Usa), Trek, and Domo-Farm Frites (Bel) Eddy Merckx. These were the bikes of just the top ten professional teams. In all there were 25 professional cycling teams with eight riders on each team. The bikes and gear was fantastic!

Last Sunday at the start of the Ronde van Vlaanderen in Brugge barriers and police had kept us away from the cyclists. We could only view them from a distance as they rode by on their way to the sign-in but today we were right there next to the cyclists and their bikes and listening to the chatter in Italian, French and Dutch as the cyclists waited for the start gun.

The riders now a days wear ear phones and microphones so that they are able to communicate with each other and in particular their Director Sportif who guides and advises them with tactics during the race.

As the cyclists rode away we walked back to vehicle and headed off to the southwestern area of Flanders near the town of Poperinge. Our plan was to locate the area where the race was going by, park the mini-van, get on our bikes and find a spot where we could see the race at several points as it raced by.

The only problem with this plan is that the police closed roads off and then there is traffic to content with. We drove on and finally we could see the race helicopters flying by on a hill near-by. We pulled into a café parking lot as the race zoomed by. We quickly got our bikes out, changed shoes and were ready to go but the race had gone by. We didn't see anything the crowd was too big. With maps in hand we booted down a road to see if we could catch them as they made their second loop up the Kemmelberg. From Loker, where we parked the vehicle, we cycled 3km to Reiningelst. Here we caught the racers as they flew by coming down the hill from Kemmel. My guess is that they were doing 70-80km/hr and that is a conservative estimate. The lead group had to slow down as they approached the rotary. As the cyclist rocketed by I was able to get a few pictures. What was interesting was that the people in the crowd knew the names of cyclist as they were approaching and before you could identify them by their numbers. The crowds cheered and hollered for their man, their team as they flew by.

From Reiningelst we climbed the hill to the town of Kemmel. Major huffing and puffing. Once in Kemmel we checked the estimated time the peloton would come by and realized that we could bike up to the Kemmelberg and see the cyclist on their second loop. So off we went with other cyclists and walkers who were making the pilgrimage up the Kemmelberg. We arrived at the corner and tried to jockey for a good view of the cobbles and the climb. Our timing was perfect as the first cyclist dashed by; Hendrik Van Dijk (Bel)(Palmans-Collstrop) was in the lead with Fred Rodriguez (Usa) (US Postal Service) on his wheel. We heard that Lance Armstrong had abandoned as the headwinds were too strong and he was worried about crashing. Oops, George Hincapie (Usa) (US Postal Service) was alone now with only 23-year-old Tom Boonen (Bel) (US Postal Service) as a helper or domestique. A domestique is a rider whose only job is to work as a servant for the team leader or the top cyclist on their team. The domestique will attack and go hard at the front in order to wear out rival teams cyclists. The domestique will get water bottles from the team car and distribute them to team members and if the team leader gets a flat the domestique will give his wheel to the team leader. A lot of the time the helper will drop out of the race before it is over exhausted from all the work. Now Hincapie was alone, except for Boonen.

The peloton or main group was 30 seconds behind the lead group of cyclists. After the peloton went by we joined the herd of recreational riders that returned to the village of Kemmel taking the plunge down the hill to the town. We were there just 1 minute and the riders whooshed through flying by. The crowd cheered and they were gone. Now the fun began. We quickly found a café, parked our bikes and luckily parked two chairs close to the TV set and watched as the race headed towards Wevelgem.

What we saw on TV was a rare site. Mario Cippolini was ˝ minute behind the lead group and powered alone into a headwind and caught up with the leaders. He bridged a thirty second gap alone. Hoogspanning or high voltage stuff.

by Photoreporter Serotti

This is from a sprinter who wins races by having his teammates lead out for him in a sprint and he comes around them in the final meters to win the race. He did it alone, all by himself... "Super Mario".

Mario went on to win the 208km race in 4hr, 39min.00sec averaging 44.73km per hour. This was Cipollini's third Gent-Wevelgem victory as he had previously won in 1992 & 1993. This was his 171st career win. Hoogspanning!

Cipo joins a select group of riders who have won the Gent-Wevelgem three times: 1. Robert Van Eenaeme (Bel) 1936, 1937 & 1945 2. Rik Van Looy (Bel) 1956, 1957 & 1962 3. Eddy Merckx (Bel) 1967,1970 & 1973.

The café was loud and crowded as people stood and watched the TV. The chatter focused on the local heroes. The pro Belgian crowd would have loved to have seen a local Flanders boy win but Cipo, wow! He was classy and blew everyone away.

The ride back to the car was tough 5kms battling a stiff wind and trying to get the legs moving. Tomorrow I plan to ride to Brussels and meet Bob at the Eddy Merckx Factory in Meise.

Arnold