The Holy Week

The Holy Week, many people off you might think: 'What now, are we gonna talk about religion?'
Well for the cycling fans in Belgium, the past and upcoming week is kind of a Holy Week: first we have The Tour of Flanders, then Gent-Wevelgem and last but not least Paris-Roubaix.

The ideal week where every cycling fan longs for. The party, the smell of the massage oil, seeing all the riders and of course the amusing voice of Sporza annalist Michel Wuyts. You just have to turn on the TV and you can hear him whisper quietly through the boxes.

Meanwhile, there are already 2 races ridden. Let's start with the Tour of Flanders. Before the start there was one big favorite named Pippo Pozzato (if you don't know him, just google 'Filippo Pozzato'. I'm sure you'll find lots of information about him). Pippo won 'E3 prijs Harelbeke' and showed a few demonstrations in 'Driedaagse van De Panne', so he could only lose. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a strong Quickstep team. With Tom Boonen, Sylvain Chavanel and Stijn Devolder they had a trio that could all go for victory.

With Stijn Devolder or as we call him in Flanders 'Volderke' rode away from everyone to win solo in Meerbeke with 1 minute ahead of all the others. This may sound familiar to many, because who finished last year solo in Meerbeke? Yes indeed, it was the same Stijn Devolder!
He made a stunning victory gesture with two fingers in the air. There were a lot of emotions mixed with this win. Of course first the emotion of winning but second of all the emotions behind the victory. Stijn made a promise that his first major victory of the season would be one for his good friend Frederiek Nolf who deceased in Qatar.

But cycling is hard and after that magnificent solo, another race followed on Wednesday: 'Gent-Wevelgem'. The riders couldn't rest for a bit, no minute they were left alone. They had to get on the bike again, ready to fly the Belgium roads and that while it was raining.

Right from the beginning it was a very hard race with the result that none of the blue armada or Quickstep riders were in the front of the race. 33 riders in the front and no blue ones so their race was over. Bye bye and ready to go to the finish for everyone.

Of course we can't lose sight on the race. Gent-Wevelgem was very hard in these rainy conditions and with a very surprising winner who crossed the finish line. His name is 'Edvald Boasson Hagen'. A young Norwegian rider. I can already here you say 'Who. What do you say?' Well listen to what i'm saying right now: 'Edvald Boasson Hagen, a very young Norwegian rider and you'll definitely hear from him in the future!'