'The road to success runs uphill'

If you were to ask a cyclist about an area they are familiar with, you can almost certainly guarantee the initial response will include the destinations of all the best climbs in the area. Knowing the steepest, longest hill (and your personal best time up it) is part and parcel of being a cyclist. I was almost surprised then that arriving in Belgium, a country perhaps falsely stereotyped for its flat terrain, no-one really knew of any climbs at all, jokingly reminding me of where we are.

I was not expecting anything like the “mini Alps” of the Ardennes, and acknowledge that the legendary climbs associated with the Tour of Flanders are hardly close by, but I was hoping for more than the odd drag I was so often taken to.

The first break through was the Mur de Huy, although an exceptional climb – the steepest finish to any professional road race – it’s not exactly a local loop always giving a total trip time of around 6 hours. I was looking for something more like 3 hours on a circuit type course – akin to the Baddow- Hatfield Peveral loop I so often rode at home.

Recognising my best chances were heading south and into the undulations of the Walloon, I set about searching for a new ‘training ground’. Using an albeit simple approach, I located areas on maps with the greatest gradient changes but this at least gave me some idea of where to look. After several reconnaissance outings – riding up every road that seemed to assure a degree climbing in the area - I eventually worked out a good loop connecting the best I had found.

What I came up with surprised me – on a 30km loop, starting just 25km away, I found 5 challenging climbs, the steepest of which being an apparently 27% cobbled section. Although lacking a centre piece, -all the climbs being short but steep power climbs (the longest measuring just under of a kilometre) - the route does at least offer the lung bursting efforts I had previously only matched on the turbo! In total the 100km ride features 2 climbs of the "Kauterhof" (a shallow but tough cobble ascent featured in the 'Tour of Belgium'), 10 climbs over 2 laps of the circuit and a 2km cobble section from Brussel-Zepperen.

I have been here two months and its almost a relief to be able to break away from flat, exposed windy roads which all those I’ve ridden with seemed to have succumbed to – at least unless, they didn’t want to give away their top training secrets...

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

Sir Winston Churchill