Tag: Belgium
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Revisited: Herygers Humiliates Holland
Click or not: Revisited: Herygers Humiliates HollandThe title of this video nails it; Koksijde 1994 really was a significant moment in modern cyclocross racing, for reasons good, bad, and a little bit ugly at times. It was also the first time I’d watched a ‘cross race, when SBS TV aired the full replay one Sunday morning. Sat with VCR remote in… …
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Doing It Right at De Ronde
Click or not: Doing It Right at De RondeI was travelling light. I’d managed to get a full glass of beer spilt on me the previous night (good story, for another time) and although I’d quickly rinsed the beer off my only pair of trousers I figured I’d be working outside on the race and should be safe. Sitting on the back of… …
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Opening Weekend from the Other Side
Click or not: Opening Weekend from the Other SideFinally, racing season has started. Sure, we’ve been watching the hot, empty roads of the Middle East and Australia, but when Opening Weekend in Flanders rolls around we know that the good stuff is here. The next six or so weeks is all about the wind, the rain and the cobbles, with fingers crossed for… …
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Six Day Shadows
Click or not: Six Day ShadowsIt was the first time I’d seen a mosh pit at a bike race; the infield packed with nocturnal partisan party people determined to drink Ghent dry while the distorted PA blasted everything from ‘Sweet Caroline’ to the cheesiest ‘oompah’, a playlist that hasn’t required a refresh since the early 80s, the assembled choir chant… …
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Shot: Paris-Roubaix 2019
Click or not: Shot: Paris-Roubaix 2019Throw out all the superlatives you want, there’s just not enough words to portray Paris-Roubaix to a level anywhere near its reverential status among its suitors. See, even when trying not to, it makes you. It’s best left to the camera and a denizen who knows where to point it to relate one of the… …
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Insider Rides: Mathieu Van der Poel’s Canyon Aeroad
Click or not: Insider Rides: Mathieu Van der Poel’s Canyon AeroadThe kassien is calling. Around Flanders, frites are frying in questionable fat sources under makeshift gazebos, truckloads of cheap generic beer makes its way into muddy fields to be dispensed in the worst kind of plastic cups that render the beer even more tasteless, ending up trampled into the slop alongside broken yellow flags and… …
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Guilty Pleasures: After Laughter (Comes Tears)
Click or not: Guilty Pleasures: After Laughter (Comes Tears) Holding the fort in a train station sushi restaurant, keeping an eye on six bike boxes and associated luggage while my travelling companions sourced food for our next leg from Brussels, I was amusing myself by playing wasabi suicide when I heard something drift across from the laptop on the next table. Straining to… …
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Johan Works Alone
Click or not: Johan Works AloneHe works alone. The chatter and background euro-pop radio from the factory floor briefly whispers in whenever the door opens, but inside here there is calm and silence, broken only by the sounds of a craftsman at work. Johan Vranckx is a man of few words, but with a welcoming kind smile and a warm… …