Spartak
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I regularly travel to Belgium for work and often hire a rental bike to get around, however myself and a friend decided to take a trip across the channel with our road bikes to watch one of the Spring Classics the Brugge - De Panne sprinters race.
We left Bristol early last Monday to catch the 9:00 ferry from Dover to Calais and then a short drive into Belgium to our rented apartment in the the town of Veurne. A great location with lots of bars and restaurants and located perfectly for cycling.
Day 1 : We rode into France to visit Bray Dunes and then visited the Belgian resort of De Panne for a beer on the promenade.. The wind was starting to pick up & was to play its part in our cycling over the next few days.
Day 2 : We planned to ride the race route so took the canal path ride to Brugge which was great with a tailwind.
Then enjoyed a traditional Belgian snack in the main Grote Market. Our route back was fully signed for tomorrow's race which made the navigation easy but as previously said the wind was now working against. Once back in De Panne we were able to have a look around the team cars and ride the final closed road section to the finish.
Day 3 : Race day, we drove to Brugge to see the start & team presentation before jumping back in the car & heading back to Veurne to get our bikes and watch the live action. We waited in Veurne to watch the first lap and enjoyed a beer whilst we waited. After seeing the leaders pass through we headed to De Panne to watch the finish, the wind & rain ☔ was now a lot worse and we met Sam Bennett the Bora Hansgrohe pro who had abandoned and he rode back with us to find his team bus. Once we reached De Panne we found a bar in which to relax and watch the race go past, if was quite funny as every time the race flew by the bar would empty as everyone ran out to the hoardings to watch the riders.
We managed to see the breakaway 4 riders sprint for the finish with Jasper Philipsen taking the win.
A very wet ride back to Veurne and some refreshments back in our now favourite bar, Botermand... 🍺🇧🇪👍
( I'll post more pictures from Days 3 & 4 in next message, as limited to 10 images ).
Day 4 : Our final day and we managed a short ride along the canal path to Nieuwpoort before tidying up the apartment and heading back to Calais for an extremely rough crossing back to Dover... 🤢
We left Bristol early last Monday to catch the 9:00 ferry from Dover to Calais and then a short drive into Belgium to our rented apartment in the the town of Veurne. A great location with lots of bars and restaurants and located perfectly for cycling.
Day 1 : We rode into France to visit Bray Dunes and then visited the Belgian resort of De Panne for a beer on the promenade.. The wind was starting to pick up & was to play its part in our cycling over the next few days.
Day 2 : We planned to ride the race route so took the canal path ride to Brugge which was great with a tailwind.
Then enjoyed a traditional Belgian snack in the main Grote Market. Our route back was fully signed for tomorrow's race which made the navigation easy but as previously said the wind was now working against. Once back in De Panne we were able to have a look around the team cars and ride the final closed road section to the finish.
Day 3 : Race day, we drove to Brugge to see the start & team presentation before jumping back in the car & heading back to Veurne to get our bikes and watch the live action. We waited in Veurne to watch the first lap and enjoyed a beer whilst we waited. After seeing the leaders pass through we headed to De Panne to watch the finish, the wind & rain ☔ was now a lot worse and we met Sam Bennett the Bora Hansgrohe pro who had abandoned and he rode back with us to find his team bus. Once we reached De Panne we found a bar in which to relax and watch the race go past, if was quite funny as every time the race flew by the bar would empty as everyone ran out to the hoardings to watch the riders.
We managed to see the breakaway 4 riders sprint for the finish with Jasper Philipsen taking the win.
A very wet ride back to Veurne and some refreshments back in our now favourite bar, Botermand... 🍺🇧🇪👍
( I'll post more pictures from Days 3 & 4 in next message, as limited to 10 images ).
Day 4 : Our final day and we managed a short ride along the canal path to Nieuwpoort before tidying up the apartment and heading back to Calais for an extremely rough crossing back to Dover... 🤢
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