Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

While I'll be in full drip mode at the Primary Series class at the Shala, one of the true one day classics of the cycling world will be taking place. None other than the Ronde van Vlaanderen or the Tour of Flanders for you English speakers out there. Think of this as bigger than the Super Bowl, at least in Flanders. The race has been running since 1913. It features a number of "climbs", 17 to be precise. One of nasty ones is the Koppenburg, as seen in the second image. It's 600 meters at an average grade of 11.6%. A nice little cow path at kilometer 188 into a nice little 260 kilometer Sunday ride.

I'm thinking that the yoga class will be way, way easier. Just one week after this, the Queen of the Classics, aka l'Enfer du Nord, or more properly Paris Roubaix. Rest up and eat your Wheaties!

Update: Oh yeah... I forgot all about Ghent-Wevelgem on the 8th. It's the Classics week!

"I told the organisers it wasn't a race but a war game. It's hard to explain what the Koppenberg means to a racing cyclist. Instead of being a race, it's a lottery. Only the first five or six riders have any chance: the rest fall off or scramble up as best they can. What on earth have we done to send us to hell now?" - Bernard Hinault

"As a Belgian, winning Flanders for the first time is far more important than wearing the maillot jaune in the Tour" - Johan Museeuw.

"Looking back, you get a bit nostalgic, but from a competitive point of view, Flanders was one of the most horrible races to ride but one of the greatest races to win." - Sean Kelly