“I am not a cyclist. I am a racing cyclist. That is quite another thing.” (Tim Krabbé, The Rider)Cycling is 50% suffering and 50% the stories about the suffering. Few races spark the imagination as the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, one of The Five Monuments. Every year, somewhere between late March – early April, this race storms across Flanders as the grand finale of Holy (cycling) Week, and it has fired up the dreams (and nightmares for some) of generations.
From Merckx’s epic 70km solo in 1969, to De Vlaeminck’s cunning, to Vanderaerdens mudfest victory and the hattricks of Museeuw and Boonen. It’s Belgian legends who have conquered the mythical cobbles and sharp hills to claim their place in the pantheon of cycling. The Ronde is where heroes are made, suffering is immortalized, and every pedal stroke can become a legend retold for years to come.
One of those legends speaks even more the the imagination than all others, if only because its mystery keeps fans arguing in café corners even a decade later. And this time, it wasn’t Belgian heroics at the finish.
In 2010, wifey and I decided to go watch the race, watching on the legendary Muur van Geraardsbergen, and a show we got. On the Molenberg Swiss rider Fabian “Spartacus” Cancellara, and local god Tom Boonen broke away and built a significant gap on a trailing group. By the foot of the Muur, they remained clear by about 1 minute. On the steepest section, right beneath our noses, Cancellara accelerated while still seated, using his time trial power to ride Boonen off his wheel. Or did he?
No sooner had the finish line been crossed than cycling started buzzing. A video surfaced seemingly showing Cancellera fiddling with mysterious buttons mid-race. Fans pointed out he swapped bikes up to two times, with no obvious mechanical issues. Whispers of “mechnical doping” and hidden motors all abound! No proof ever came, but neither did the rumours die. By the official ceremony, Cancellara’s race bike had, somehow, vanished from sight, giving conspiracy theorists full license to speculate.
At first, Boonen himself didn’t comment too much on the conspiracy, but during a Podcast of Stamcafé Koers (the brilliant cycling podcast from Het Nieuwsblad and Bahamontes), he couldn’t help but quip about the whole thing and if anything, only kept the rumours alive…
Now, 15 years later, the opportunity finally arose for us to ride the race ourselves. Epic it was.