Then go to the Flanders or on the roads of the Roubaix and quickly understand a lot of things. The first is that it is not so true that here with the bike you do what you want, that you are a sacred idol that is not touched, that respect, the safety and the etcetera etcetera. By bike here you pedal on the cycle paths, point. Where there are the slopes you have to use them whether you pedal on a Graziella both on a 10 thousand euro carbon fireball. It makes no difference that you are going shopping or you are training, or is running the “Ronde” the day before the professionals: above you have to go. And Tom Boonen also knows something about it, one who won the Flanders three times and four Roubaix, who a few years ago caught pedaling on the road had been felt without mercy. In summary: if one pedal on cycle paths really runs no risk, otherwise they come on you without so many stories.
Also because, this is the second thing That you learn quickly in these parts, cyclists are respected as full use of mobility if in turn they do the same. So when the cars stop precede, when there is a traffic light ditto, and never and then never find a vehicle even for a second parked on a cycle path (here the “But I am working …” does not exist). In the traits in which cycle paths do not exist cars are in place: they do not exceed regardless, but only when no one arrives on the other side of the road and so they don’t touch you. Claclson and insults I don’t feel like it.
The third thing you learn quickly When you come to these cycling lands, it is that cycling is a faith, a passion that is handed down, a real religion that has its Christmas in the days of Ronde Van Vlaanderen and Roubaix. It’s not just a party. It is a people who celebrate. The buses to go to the walls around Oudenaarde, where for a weekend there is a real mass exodus, are free. Everyone climbs on board: mothers, pope, grandparents and children covered with waxes each with his own field chair. Cracks of boys and boys go up with the envelopes of supermarkets wedges of things to eat and above all to drink. And above all beer. Then they decide where to wait for the race, they decide where to cheer for Wout Van Aert but also for everyone else perhaps a little less only for Mathieu van der Poel. And there they are. The day spend there. Between grids, sausages, barbecue with a lot, but really a lot, onion in a popular, alcoholic but still peaceful happy happy. It is not nice to see drunk people, always put a little uncomfortable but on the kwaremont, on the paterberg on the many features of pavè del Flanders it never has the feeling that something bad can happen, that a fight bursts … magic of cycling that puts everyone in agreement.
The average age is low, really low. And this is the fourth thing you learn And it makes you think. The average age of the fans at a stop at the Giro d’Italia is abundantly over fifty years old, from this part, however, it does not reach thirty. And so perhaps it is explained a bit also because in our part cycling is a sport where, removed Filippo Ganna of champions and samples on the horizon, it is difficult to see them.
Fifth thing you learn at Flanders and Roubaix It is that cycling is a effort sport and but these parts is a little more. Ninth are only pavè and walls to raise the bar, the difference makes the weather. Except perhaps this year, it generally rains and is cold and the beauty is that nobody complains. On the contrary. They are all and happy and happy because meteorologically speaking those are the perfect days to run, gray and gloomy mornings, with no more than six-six degrees, with a light drizzle beaten in the face by the gusts of wind. Points of view. Then you begin to pedal to the show that are the houses, streets and countryside of this piece of the world and you understand the bike and above all a “race” of bike here.
The sixth thing you learn and that pedal everyone. Young and old. They pedal on everything has handlebar, wheels and chain without thinking too much: walking bikes, mountain bikes, city bikes, old tools, in recent years also e-bikes.
There is the cult of the bike but not the veneration of the bike and it is the seventh thing That you understand as soon as the pavè begins. Those who keep the bike in the living room like a relic as soon as it begins to jump on the stones vibrating, creaking, banging, perhaps foving “cursed” of having brought it with it. For the Belgians, but also for the French it seems a little different. They come to pedal in these parts only for the taste of being there and not to miss a unique show. With what bikes they do it is only a detail. Because the bike is the vehicle, but seriously not to chat.
Those who are more arias by bike, above all we Italians and is the eighth thing you learn. We do not go unnoticed: signed, depilated, hyper -technicians, tables, ready to make times and Kom, ready to reimfies each other in every showcase, ready to play with everyone because woe to stay behind. If it weren’t for the age, for a few pounds we would all be professionals. Then Pogacar and his companions see them get on the Paterberg and you understand that that is a world really far away and that there is an age for everything. Belgians, English, Germans, French (also French cousins) if they pull it less, pedal more than substance, on bikes with mudguards, dressed as happens, even someone with jogging shoes fixed in the cages: that when they then pass you, you pretend that the chain fell.
The ninth thing you learn in Flanders and on the roads of Roubaix is that the pavè is sacred here. Nothing new. It is a life that keep it. They keep the stones, they keep them as an account, there is a team of historians who catalogs them and a team of technicians who make maintenance. It is not a “fixed” but a far -sighted way of pampering places, history, heritage that becomes tradition. In short, an investment. They have always understood that, in addition to Flanders and Roubaix that for a week bring a world of enthusiasts, in these parts that there is a business that allows fantastic but mainly agricultural areas to become Turetic almost throughout the year, with marked paths, open museums, small inn that cook, give hospitality and which, however, also work. Not only that. If they protect their pavè they also protect their territory which is what in Italy has understood for some time, but with some more difficulties, Giancarlo Bruci with heroic and who with the white streets has made more or less the same operation of promoting culture and territory in Tuscany.
Last thing you learn on the streets of Flanders and Roubaix It is that sometimes what seems complicated is simpler than you think. In Roubaix there is one of the most famous velodromes in the world. Maybe it’s not the most beautiful but it changes little. You arrive by bike, pedals to one of those “monuments” that you have seen a thousand times on TV, where you saw all the biggest triumphs, where he wrote the story Franco Balleriniwhere he won Sonny Colbelli Before suddenly stopping and you think it would be fantastic to put the wheels of your bike on that cement. You don’t need to think, you don’t need authorizations, you don’t need to be registered with a cycling company, you don’t need to fill in liberating, you don’t need a form, an appointment, an entrance ticket. Enter and pedals together with a lot of guys who play sports. End. We in Italy will die of bureaucracy. And this is the last thing you learn in these parts …