I Tried To Finish The Tour Of Flanders With Just 8 Weeks Of Training

I Tried To Finish The Tour Of Flanders With Just 8 Weeks Of Training
After 8 challenging weeks of training aided by Wahoo SYSTM, Cillian is gearing up to take on the Tour of Flanders, known as one of the most challenging sportives in the world. Is he prepared for its cobbled paths, daunting climbs, and the 160 kilometres of road that lie ahead at the Ronde van Vlaanderen? Will he manage to make it across the finish line?

Welcome! 0:00
Cillian’s training and equipment 1:06
Can anybody take on the Tour of Flanders? 1:47
What’s the race route? 2:15
The big day 3:00
Go time! 4:31
Si Richardson’s Flanders advice 5:59
The value of local knowledge 7:03
Climbing the Muur van Geraardsbergen 8:17
The Koppenberg 10:08
The Taaienberg, AKA the “Boonenberg” 12:08
Oude Kwaremont 14:38
The Paterberg: Last climb to go! 15:48
Last kilometre 16:34
Training metrics 17:27
Reflections 18:06

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📹 Can This Average Cyclist Get Fit Enough To Finish A Cobbled Classic?
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so I’m here in Udin Arda the epicenter of cycling an absolute bucketless destination for any cyclist who wants to come and take on the roads the cobbles and the Bergs of the tour of Flanders that the pros will be taking on in 2 days time on Sunday before that tomorrow I’ll be taking on the tour of Flanders sport t a 160 km route taking in 19 categorized climbs the UDA chermont the patberg the mervan herard Berg and the cinberg now I’m no expr cyclist clearly when it comes to cycling I’m a bit of an average Joe and I’ve only had about 8 weeks to train properly for this so can I get through the tour of Flander sport Eve I am determined not not to end up on the Connor done scrap peap of gcn people who cannot get through [Music] [Applause] challenges come on that’s why I decided to wear a mud [Music] guard to make this ride possible we teamed up with Wahoo and their software training Wahoo system I’ve been using that for the last eight weeks to try and get through a training program now I ticked some of those boxes not all of them I had my ups and downs throughout those eight weeks so if you haven’t checked that video out already please do so now I won’t bore you with all the details again it’s safe to say I’ve done lots of training and I feel ready when our friends at Ora found out I was about to take on the tour Flanders they sent me a brand new bike an orca it’s got altegra di2 pelli tubless tires and carbon wheels really nice not really an average bike for an average Joe so I’m feeling like a very lucky boy so anybody can come along and ride these roads whenever they want at any time of year that’s the really great thing about cycling that you can just come along and ride the same roads that the pros are going to do in the tour of Flanders next Sunday what I’m less excited about is the weather forecast it’s due to rain so if I wasn’t nervous before I’m extremely nervous now excited but nervous I think I better go and get some sleep the route starts here in Udin and heads East it then Wiggles through flandrian Countryside hitting some less celebrated Bergs first like the mullenberg the leeberg and the barri the first big iconic one doesn’t come until the most eastern point on on the route at the 65 km Mark the meran herard Bergen and then we start to head Northwest until we reach the steepest Berg of all the cinberg after that we head for the tyberg the crusberg and then finally onto the double juami finale of the UDA Quant followed by the patberg with then an easy runin back to Udin Ard it’s 160 km long with close to 2,000 M of climbing and if you’d like to ride the route in your own time we leave a link to the ride on straa in the description below this video [Music] so here we are now it’s 6:30 and uh it’s raining although it’s not as bad as it could be cuz I was uh was a bit late to bed last night later than I I would want and um I fell asleep and then I got woken up at 2: a.m. with the the rumble of rain in the hotel room actually woke me up it was that bad and uh I was I was hiding under the covers thinking what am I doing this is going to be terrible but uh by the time I woke up to get up it was uh wasn’t too bad although it is due to get brighter I think but I think it’s going to be guaranteed that the cobbles all of the cobbles all of the climbs are going to be wet whether it’s raining now or not between now and then so I’m going to have to try and remember what uh Mr Richardson told me about riding cobbles in the wet keep my bum on the saddle and um what did he say don’t go too fast don’t think there’ll be any problem [Music] there ready to go 2 minutes to go and um there’s only 5 kilm until the first climb which is a bit scary plus uh yeah I’m looking forward to it now here we [Music] go well I’m riding on cobbles and it’s inducing bowel movements it’s very uh very wobbly but uh I’ve gone over the first kind of uh major Berg the mullenberg and it uh took me by surprise a little came out of came out of nowhere although it was sign posted so I have no excuses so I had to gear down quite quickly but I quite enjoyed it got up without walking cobbles are slippy but uh yeah getting the uh authentic flerin experience I [Music] [Applause] think [Music] so a few people keep asking me have I got a time in mind for today and uh the answer is no I just want to finish it but I do have a plane to catch I’m booked onto a 9:00 from Brussels back to Ireland so um I can’t hang around too much or I’ll miss Easter Sunday with the kids cuz Simon Richardson suggested that I pick out two or three of the more iconic climbs on the route to give it full beans just to just to say I did you want to give it full gas on a couple and I’m having second Parts about that plan I think I’ll just uh I don’t know uh there’s a still still a few hours to go before I get to the iconic ones I might reassess then but for the moment I’m not going to do that I’m just going to take it easy and get over them the weather supposed to have cleared up by now but it’s getting [Music] [Applause] worse so I forgot that [Music] part this is one of the non- cobbled ones the leeberg so I’ve done about 45 km and uh this is about 800 M with sections of 133% I think but this is exactly the type of climb that’s everywhere near my house where I live in Cork so uh non cobbled 5 to 800 met climbs with you know 8 to 13% easy peasy just seeing the crisscrossing of the landscape and the kind of noodle route that we take it really does make you appreciate um when when people say that uh people like Andreas clear and Peter Van pagam who has won this race twice that they know the roads I always used to kind of shrug and think oh yeah they all know the roads but I it’s very easy to imagine living here your entire life and not really knowing these roads they just go everywhere it’s a labyrinth it’s unbelievable so it’s really starting to appreciate how much the kind of you know local knowledge that get spoken about when it comes to winning the tour of Flanders how much it really does [Music] matter so I’m on the meran harburg and the wall of Herod Bergen and in the iconography of cycling this is up there with aldz with the arenburg forest in Ru and uh for me one of the most iconic images that comes to mind whenever I think about legendary cycling moments is the 2010 tour of Flanders when Fabian kelara and Tom Bonin were on this climb and it was so great because they were both national champions at the time kelara in his Swiss Champions Jersey and Tom B the champion of Belgium and kelara just powered away from Boon and in the saddle around the corner at the top near the chapel can’t quite believe I’m here very exciting it’s starting to pinch [Music] now whoa crash up there all oh [Music] Jesus oh there it is the chapel fantastic love it absolutely love [Music] [Applause] this so I’m just over the top of the mvan harbur done nearly 70 km been riding for 3 hours and 15 minutes so uh the race to catch my plane later on it’s G pretty well I think I’m getting cocky now [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] next up was was the cinberg a climb so treacherous that it’s been removed from the tour of Flanders route a couple of times over the years because it’s just been too dangerous up in front of me I could see the 22% slope claiming almost every Rider come on but there were a few Heroes managing to wiggle their way through the crowd could I do it could I be one of them and get to the top of this Infamous brute without putting my foot down or would I become just another dejected cobbled wannabe defeated and cast aside by the cinberg [Music] guy just clipped out in front of me and and uh that was that had to put my foot down so I’m a bit gooded thought I was doing okay it’s really slimy Carnage everybody’s everybody’s walking wow that didn’t take much I don’t feel too bad though there’s nobody cyck should have put in more practice walking walking up coule [Music] CLS [Music] this is the the tyberg aka the boonenberg because Tom boonen would attack here every year and an attack that would always come to nothing but he he did it anyway every year I’m over the hardest of it so there’s 110 km in the legs now and there’s more than 40K to go this is when my ties really start to hurt and in order to distract myself from the pain I start doing this type of thing in my head which is listing race winners so since we’re in Flanders here goes with the tour of Flanders pachar ther pole ashreen Flander pole beol terpstra jar Sagan Kristoff kelara kelara boan noan kilara dealer dealer Balan boonin Bo vesin vagum Taffy borami shill vedum Museo senson bar Museo Bono Museo Jackie Durand Van hyunk argentan van hyunk clanker Claude crilon Audrey Vander paole Eric Vander Arden and then I was born I was born a few weeks after Claude crilon who won this race in 1987 a few weeks after he became world champion and I’ve always wondered has my dad sneakily got that name past my mom when I was born CL Cilan Kelly I’ve always wanted to ask my dad that must find [Music] out one thing I definitely learned about myself during the attap tour a couple of years ago was that I have an incredible ability to smash as many gels into my body as I like without suffering bowel consequences so here’s what I I have no idea how many I’ve had today I’d say it’s 10 or 11 here’s number 12 oh lovely some people can climb some people can Sprint I apparently can eat as many gels as I want with no [Music] consequences that’s why I decided to wear a mudu [Music] guard [Music] the ud qu Mon it’s where uh the big attacks The Big Race winning moves go since they changed the route in 2012 including pockar last year when he blew up everybody well blew up thpa and uh this is actually the only climb I’ve been on before kind of unbelievably the reason that I was on this climb was I was in yoham museo’s house he lives on the emont which is kind of like finding out that Roger Federer lives on Center Court in Wimbledon or finding out Tiger Woods lives beside the 18th green at Augusta so uh I think your M lives over there somewhere come on two to go who [Music] come [Music] on one to [Music] go my back wheel is all over the place oh I had it take me to go [Music] just too slippy ah I nearly got there just about a kilometer to go this is uh to run into Udin Ard where the winner would be trying to hold off the pack it’ll be Matthew banderole I’m sure but uh yeah I’m got to make it I didn’t quite get over to patberg without getting off I just uh I was undergeared and my back wheel was slipping I just couldn’t it it’s too slippy bit dis well really disappointed with that but uh quite happy I’m going to make it to the Finish [Music] anyway for anyone like me Ed in numbers I rode 158.2mm over 19 Hills with a total elevation gain of 1,989 M I managed to get round in a ride time of 7 hours and 37 minutes so that doesn’t include all the faffing about at the food stops and all that I did this with an average power of just 108 Watts which straa tells me gives a weighted average power of 141 Watts this was all done at an average speed of 20.7 kmph I hope these modest numbers show that really if I can do an event like this anyone can so I did it I finished the tour of Flander sport Eve 160 km absolutely delighted with myself bit disappointed I had to put the foot down and walk on the cinberg and the PB but it does make me want to come back one day and do them maybe when the the climbs are a bit quieter and there’s less traffic and I’ll get a free run at them but uh yeah it was absolutely brilliant thanks so much to Wahoo for giving the training program it clearly worked thanks to Ora for giving me the bike that clearly worked as well no punctures no Mechanicals absolutely perfect Dream Ride and uh yeah let me know in the comments down below if you’ve ridden the tour of Flanders because I’ve got an huge new appreciation for every single one of these climbs so any anecdotes you have fill the comments with them and I will appreciate them so much more now and don’t forget to give this video a big thumbs up