Stage One - Le Grand Depart
Bruxelles to Brussel
Tony's first day in the saddle sees him cycle 194.5km through the Belgian countryside starting in Brussels, looping through all three Belgian regions and finishing back in Brussels. There are two categorised climbs, both reasonably early in the stage: Mur de Grammont, a category 3 climb and Bosberg a category 4 climb. I'll talk a little about classified climbs during the mountainous stages.
Two quite interesting points about this stage:
Tony's first day in the saddle sees him cycle 194.5km through the Belgian countryside starting in Brussels, looping through all three Belgian regions and finishing back in Brussels. There are two categorised climbs, both reasonably early in the stage: Mur de Grammont, a category 3 climb and Bosberg a category 4 climb. I'll talk a little about classified climbs during the mountainous stages.
Two quite interesting points about this stage:
- Mur de Grammont (or more correctly, Muur van Geraardsbergen), a climb more commonly associated with the Tour of Flanders should be a doddle for Tony. A narrow 1km climb up a cobbled road will have him thinking he's back in Edinburgh!
- Whilst cycling through Wallonia he'll visit Waterloo, the site of a rather famous European bust up 2 centuries ago. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose!
Finally we can't talk about Belgium without mentioning beer, so drink of the day is Lindemans Kriek, a stonking sour cherry fruit beer.
Oh, and it goes without saying, song of the day is Waterloo by Abba.
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