This was a straight shot main road pedal to Oudenaarde, 20 km wsw of Zottegem. It is home to the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders Center.) A good museum, starting with a movie which puts you "on the cobbles" quite effectively with three screens. Learned about the history of the race, the history and construction of the up to 300 year old cobbled roads (now officially protected and reconstructed from time to time). Movies, photos, jersies, shoes, cycles, maps, cobbles, stationary cyles set up with screens to simulate climbs, etc. A separate exhibit focused on Eddy Mercxk's July 1969 Tour de France win - it occured on the same day as the Apollo moon landing and Woodstock. Flemish papers divided front page in half - top to EM and bottom to Moon.
After lunch at a very warm town square in Oudenaarde, I set off to find the legendary Koppenberg hill, one of the roughest in the RvV. 682 meters in length, rise of 66 meters with maximum slope of 20% on small and roughly set cobbles.
By lucky accident, I made a wrong turn and came to the top of K from the other side on a windy paved road as I know the road bike and I would never have made it up the nearly straight cobbled path. I saw 2 young guys coming up on fancy new bikes - one made it 70% and had to get off for a while. Later a woman - maybe 30 years old - pushed her way allo the way up quite steadily. Hurrah for her! Cobbles look worse than those on The Muur in Gerardsbergen. If I ever fail a drug test I am sure that it is because Tom Boonen pee'd on the blackberry patch that I sampled fruit from at the top of the hill.
On the way back I did pedal most of the way up Steenberg, 821 m, max. slope of 13%. Nary a cloud in the sky, 85 degrees, I'd say.
Lots of cyclists out, including a group of 20 all in Quick Step kit. Was it the real team or imitators? I don't know, I was riding too fast (in the opposite direction) to see if I could recognize Tom Boonen. Probably not, they are to race in Germany tomorrow. Back next week in Belgium and Netherlands.
Good day. Still thirsty....
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