The Bullet’s Belgian Adventure

By Barry “the Bullet” Boyce, CyclingRevealed Historian

Day 5- Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Gent-Wevelgem re-con, a day of adventures.

The adventure started early on my recon ride to the Kemmelberg. The race map served me well for the first 10 miles but then the adventure began. You must remember that riding and driving in Belgium is not totally intuitive. At one intersection the sign to the next town points the way. Several kilometers later at the next intersection the “pointing sign” is gone…? Confused I did manage to find my way again. Once back on route the S turns in the small cobbled streets are easily missed.

After turning a 20 mile ride into 30 miles I arrived in Kemmel. From the center the climb begins but this is not the berg. After a little less than a mile the sign points to a steep, cobbled climb, the famed Kemmelberg! Like the Muur this climb was more intimidating than hard. Don’t get me wrong, this climb was hard but do-able (for me slowly). [On the top of the climb I spied a restaurant with a bier tent outside. Good place for tomorrow.] Across the top I found out why this berg is legendry. Getting off the climb was a 23% descent over rough cobbles. The descent sounds easy but it wasn’t! I’ll watch closely tomorrow for tightly grasped brakes by the Pros.

Leaving Kemmel the signs started to point the way along the race route. But as well as P-R was marked and easy to follow, G-W was poorly marked. Three towns over the signs disappeared. Now time to guess (I had forgotten the big map). Eventually I asked directions from 2 elderly Flemish gentlemen standing outside watching road construction on Main Street. I learned that Wevelgem is pronounced “WE bel gum”, said very quickly, not “Vev el gem”. This was a minor distinction but important to get directions. They laughed in Flemish, I laughed in English and with a thankful wave on I went down the road. 10 miles later I rolled down the finishing straight in Wevelgem (WE bel gum). Finally this wonderful but adventurous day was complete.