I knew that the Ramberg would be on my menu again today, this time for the men’s race.  It’s a short cobbled climb (0.2 km) with an average gradient of 11% … brutal.

Yesterday I stood at the top.  The road narrows for the last 50 metres – only room for two cyclists at a time.

Today I found the street that would take me to the bottom of the climb.  There were no police officers yet so I started walking up the slope.  Here’s the view looking down:

This is the wide part of the street.  You’re looking down but the photo doesn’t do it justice.  It was steep.

A perfect spot to see the racers zoom by, I thought.  The police disagreed.  An officer told me I had to leave.  Only street residents could stand and watch.

I smiled and pointed to a name plate on the building beside us.  It said “van Baarle”.

“I’m Mr. van Baarle!”  Sadly I slaughtered the pronunciation.  The officer smiled back and gently said “Move on.”  That was fun.

I crammed close to the barriers with hundreds of other cycling fans.  We cheered outrageously when the riders turned the corner and started up the climb.  Listen:

Some of the athletes were thrilled with our yells … like this guy:

So cool!  So loud.

The elite folks were doing three laps in the Leuven area – so they passed by my position three times.  The second go round, Mathieu van der Poel led about eight other cyclists up the Ramberg.  Wow … power and speed.

Myself, I wasn’t feeling too powerful.  I had been standing in one spot for probably two hours and my feet were dying a slow death.  So I said goodbye to my new spectating friends and stumbled down a slight slope.  My legs and feet were screaming, and I imagined a young kid saying to his mother “There’s an old man.”  I suppose he was right.

I found a bench with a long view up the hill.  My phone told me that Mathieu was now alone in the lead.  I waited patiently for his arrival:

You can see a glom of very fit climbers to the right of the church.  When it was Mathieu’s turn, he got out of the saddle … and sprinted!  My God.

***

Mathieu won

And so did I

On the train now, with Gent beckoning