KVDV's Event Report:
05/05/07 - Bike Away in Lommel (BE)

Training with the pros

LOMMEL - After the hectic race in Frankfurt it was time for a gentle cyclotour in Belgium's Brabant and Limburg provinces. A young event, called Bike Away, which featured tours of several distances (the longest being 275 km!) and the option to ride either on Saturday or Sunday. I chose the Saturday and the 160 km distance. Basically all flat but good as recovery and to build up some endurance. My granfondo season is now coming closer, after all.

The event was quite well-hyped in the Flemish cyclo circuit, but having the much more established Shimano Fiets Challenge taking place only 50km away on the same weekend resulted in a rather moderate number of participants. A pity, because the event is well organised and has a pleasant course. They even managed to get some professionals to turn up and do the tour as training. Johan Van Summeren (Predictor-Lotto) and Kevin Hulsmans (Quickstep) joined the first group of riders who started at 8 a.m. Two hours later six more pros, including Roy Sentjens (Predictor Lotto, winner of the Flèche Brabançonne 2004), Gert Steegmans (Quickstep - Tom Boonen's lead-out man and multiple stage winner himself), Wim De Vocht (Predictor Lotto) and Sebastien Rosseler (Quickstep).

I joined four guys who rode a very solid pace from the start. They were doing the 120km and the fact that each participant's time was being registered ( as in the Amstel) clearly made them not wasting any time. We even did not stop at the first checkpoint. Eventually we caught up with eight other riders so we formed a little gruppetto. After a little climb in a forest, they turned left and I went straight for my 160km ambition. I joined four other guys. After we had chatted about La Marmotte, I took off on the longest climb of the day. That hill was followed by - surprise - a cobblestone stretch. As I hit it six riders suddenly rode past me: I immediately recognised Steegmans with five others in his wheel. I put a bigger gear on and attached my waggon. Steegmans, De Vocht, Rosseler, Sentjens and a guy from Cofidis and Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. Great!

For 60km I stayed in their wheels without too much trouble, the accelerations after every corner was the toughest bit. In fact, on two short climbs the Landbouwkrediet-rider got dropped. Too bad his director sportif wasn't following us :-) The six were joking about with De Vocht, Steegmans and Sentjens as protagonists in this department. Funny in some way was the last checkpoint. You don't always see established pros like Steegmans filling his own bidon and grabbing a waffle at some table on the edge of a meadow.

FACT SHEET:

Name: Bike Away
Date: 6 May 2007
Venue: Lommel, Belgium
Type: Cyclotour
Distance: 160km (flat)
Info: website
Even rating: 4/5
Pictures: Picasa album