VALKENBURG, HOLLAND
Our group, Rooster Racing, drove from our base in Mondorf, Luxembourg to The Netherlands, to ride part of the course of the Amstel Gold Race, Holland’s most famous race. One (at least this one) envisions Holland as this flat country of windmills, canals, and tulips. Well, that may be true in the north, I don’t know, but in southern Holland it is hilly. Damn hilly.
We boarded a 17-passenger bus for the 3-hour ride to Valkenburg. Upon arriving we parked in a train/commuter parking lot. The Schleck van had all our bikes onboard and we only had to reattach the front wheel to our own bikes. Today’s route would be 100 km while the actual course for Amstel Gold is two and one-half times that.
Before rolling out, we took a moment to recognize (American) Fathers’ Day. There were seven of us: Gusty, Bob, Paul, Carl, Bryan, Fränk, and me. With four children, I had the most, plus include four more grandchildren too. Maybe I don’t belong in this group. None of the others had grandchildren.
But today’s Father’s Day was even more meaningful. Will Swetnam had the honors of writing Bethany’s name on my calf and today I would ride in honor of my daughter. In addition to making me a first-time father, I was here because I was riding for her.
The Roosters’ motto is “Do Good, Ride Hard, Live Well.” We each had a minimum of $1500 fundraising for the charity of our choice. And I chose the one that would benefit Bethany.
Fränk Schleck, made it a point to emphasize that in the Netherlands that where a bike path exists one must ride it instead of the street or road. That would be our riding today – on and off bike paths. We had only ridden 3.5 miles when the road turned up. This was the Geulhemmerberg. There was clear separation in our group. With one exception, our riders were younger than me and stronger, and I was usually about 2/3 of the way down on big climbs.
We waited at the top for two of our riders. I may have been 15 seconds down but a couple of riders were 2-3 minutes down. Once we regrouped we came to a church celebration in Bemelem. It was part parade, part Mass, and part funeral although I doubt if it was a funeral as we would hit others like it throughout the day.
We had to detour around the small village. Fränk would talk to the policemen and I wonder how many recognized him as a former pro cyclist or more importantly, the winner of this race, their race, in 2006. It was his “coming out party” (winning the 2006 Amstel Gold Race) as he told us.
The terrain, not just the hills, but the course itself is especially dodgy. The streets are narrow. There is a lot of road furniture including speed bumps and bollards.
Being urban, or suburban, many residents don’t have garages and park on the street. The roads that aren’t urban often are farm roads with narrow bridges and sharp corners.
We had four steep climbs on this course. One was Keutenberg with has a 22%-24% pitch. Another is the Cauberg, in Valkenburg, which is a steep city street. In the race, it is often used up to as many as four times. We only climbed it once.
After the first big climb (which may or may not have been the Loorberg), Fränk tagged two riders and made them ride in the van(s). Our bus driver was contracted by law so we did not have time to spare to ride three hours each way and bike for more than four hours (or so). They would have to be sagged until the end of the route.
Will Swetnam’s bike did not arrive with him in Frankfurt so he was riding Fränk’s bike. Yep, set up for a skinny pro racer. When we came to the second big climb Will was up the road but I eventually caught him. We weren’t racing but I pulled away. We crested and were about 300 meters from where the group had pulled over when Will went speeding by. I had sat up to wait for him and he smiled and said, “I had to do that.”
On the remaining two climbs, Keutenberg and Cauberg, I didn’t give Will a chance. I did feel bad, just a little, that he was riding the bike of an Amstel Gold winner. But hey, he was riding a bike of a former Amstel Gold winner.
We had gone through the small village of Eys. The course turned sharply onto a farm road with a narrow bridge. Then a nasty climb – the Eyserbosweg. At the top where we all gathered, Fränk said that during Amstel Gold that if you’re not in the top 30 when you come to that bridge you have no chance of winning. It was a very interesting insight that put this course into perspective for us.
The two riders that had been sagged had been dropped off at the base of the Cauberg. They got to ride up it and wait for us. We rolled in, met them, and we all finished the course together.
When I ride, be it a cancer ride or an MS ride, and see someone has a name written on their body or their bib, I ask them to tell me their story. New to this group, I thought someone would ask me who Bethany is and why her name is on my calf. No one did.
However, at the team meeting this evening, Jambo (Jim Ray), one of the two organizers, put me on the spot and said that he saw the name Bethany and asked if I would mind sharing with the team her story. So I stood, choked back a tear, and said it was Father’s Day, she made me a father, and I am riding in Luxembourg for her health to find a cure.
Thank you, Jambo, for asking me to share that. Today was a very special ride.
