The Belgian Cycling Federation conducts numerous cycling promotions and their primary cyclo sportive program is the Heroica Series - being 14 cyclosportives from March until September.
The SuperKlassieker cyclo sportive (www.superklassieker.be) was held on 1 May and attracted approximately 2,500 starters for the six ride options that started/finished in Oudenaarde (home of the Tour of Flanders). Mike O'Reilly rode the 120k option (85k to the Roubaix Velodrome then 40k back to Oudenaarde).
Ride Report - Blue skies and O degrees greeted the 7.30am start outside the Flanders Museum in the Oudenaarde main square. The bike of choice was an Avanti carbon mounted on 28c Vittoria tubulars set at 95psi. The proposed course was to go over the Koppenberg after just 6k and the Patersberg at 15k which was really silly considering what lay ahead into Roubaix (not to mention the ride home). Anyhow, I elected to give the 'bergs' a total miss (who needs to do the walk of shame up the Koppenberg after just 6k) and went straight to the Kluisbergen climb (similar to say the McCarrs Creek climb) and headed straight towards the village of Celles and the French border for the Carrefour D"Arbre & Hem cobbles. Avoided the crashes into the Roubaix Velodrome (there were a few) after clocking up 75k on delightfully quiet French country lanes and roads built by Napoleon. A lap of the Roubaix Velodrome then a dodgy French coffee and it was a 40k struggle to get home via the Schelde River bike path back into Oudenaarde. No punctures, no crashes, no rain, no wind. A good day out.
Patersberg climb near Oudenaarde where everybody heads for the tiny left side gutter