Liege-Bastogne-Liege - A day full of firsts

Yesterday I participated in a cycling event that was one of the toughest I joined. I joined the amateur Liege-Bastogne-Liege ride. This ride is the oldest of all cycling races that is still held today. It’s known as one of the five cycling monuments together with other well known races such as Milan-San Remo or Paris-Roubaix. The LBL, also known as “La Doyenne” (The old lady). Is a 255 kilometer ride from Liege to Bastogne and back. The route goes through the ardennes and passes a long list of well known climbs. Many of which are short but steep. And, while you might think Belgium is a flat country. The route covers an impressive list of climbs:

Source: Wikipedia

While Liege is just 45 minutes away from where I live, I had the idea of once joining this ride for quite some time. I just never had the guts to sign up. I mean, it’s quite the ride. 250+ kilometers and over 4000 meters of elevation gain requires some preparation and mental motivation.

But, some of my friends convinced me to go for it and finally do this full day ride! And it was awesome! Tough… but awesome! I felt kind of honored to be able to do this ride like many many before me. Just thing of it, the LBL race has been ridden since 1892 Long before bike gears and carbon frames were invented! It goes through the training grounds of Eddy Merckx, the super human cyclist who won this race 5 times! While slowly getting exhausted over during the 11 hours it took me, I constantly kept thinking about how these past heroes had ridden these hills, suffering the pain in the legs, enjoying the same views etc. I I’m just a complete amateur of course, but somehow I felt honored with this gift of riding here.

In summary, it was the perfect day! I averaged a 23km/h average speed and finished this beast without getting off the bike on any of the climbs. It was my longest ride ever and the most meters I ever climbed on a single ride.

Here are some ride stats from Strava:

Challenging yourself can be nice for several reasons. I want to push further, what shall I do next with my bike? The season just started :-)
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

Cycling