Last Sunday the course recon for the Challenge Geraardsbergen was held. Under a bright sun we send out Gert-Jan to De Gavers to inspect the Geraardsbergen loop up close.
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A lot of sounding names were present for the recon, among who Pieter and Sander Heemeryck, Stephanie Adam and some of the Club40Kone among who Bruno Clerbout.
Run-in
From De Gavers, where the swim is held, there is a run-in to the 40km loop which has to be done twice. But the run-in is no warm-up, it is tough in its own way. This is the ideal course to blow up your engine after only 5km on the bike.
Congoberg
The first part of the loop brings us direction Galmaarden. This town is known for one of Flanders classic slopes, the Congoberg. With his one km length and average gradient of 5% this is no monster, but you can expend some valuable energy if you don't tackle it right.
Straight forward
Geraardsbergen is automatically associated with the Vlaamse Ardennen, hills and cobbles. But this isn't the case, the following kms show us that this is a course designed for powercyclists. After the Congoberg you descent direction Vollezele, where the course takes you on a big national road. From there on it goes to Edingen and back to Geraardsbergen. 10km on a straight road which constantly goes up and down. This will be a gamechanger.
De Muur or what else...
De Vesten, de grote Markt where the crowd is gathered in the finish area and the apotheosis: De Muur! It is situated at the end of the lap, so one last climb before entering transition. Peaking at 20% on cobbles you are up for one hell of a km. From here it's downhill to transition.
Our advice?
The recon was done on the well known orange Ridley Fenix SLX, but Gert-Jan admits that this is not the bike he would race. Even though there is quite some gain and some technical sections, the course is designed for powercyclists. The TT-bike wil reign on this course!
Original article posted on 3athlon.be by Gert-Jan D'haene on 18/04/2018
Translation by @T0v3