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RONDE RECON

A day with Cannondale-Garmin

By Gruber Images

April 3^rd, 2015

The work never ends.

Cannondale-Garmin DS Andreas Klier said that there was a lot of work for the staff today. Long-time mechanic, Geoff Brown, looked up from swapping out cassettes and laughed, “When do we not have a lot of work?” Klier laughed. Good point.

11x28

The cassette that all of the riders will be on come Sunday.

n8.

Between Oudenaarde and the Oude Kwaremont, the team bus pulled over, and the riders tentatively made their way out clad in every kind of protective garb you can imagine. It was cold and wet and windy. A few snowflakes even fell at the beginning at the beginning of the day.

first on the menu: oude kwaremont.

The plan for the day: ride the final 155 kilometers of Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen. No shortcuts, no skips, no zigs when the course zags - just the route. Simple. It’s a Klier thing - keep it simple. And thorough.

eikenberg.

It won’t look like this on Sunday. The Eikenberg is a complete mess on race day.

andreas klier.

Andreas is one of our favorites. Andreas was our first ever model on our first ever shoot on a snowy, icy, freezing cold December morning in Flanders back in 2010. Andreas knows more about these roads than I’ll ever know about pretty much everything. Combined. Andreas speaks quietly, and for someone who gives off the air of a man of few words, he has a lot to say - and it’s always worth listening to. On a sidenote - he’s surprisingly funny.

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cobbles! get your cobbles!

After the Wolvenberg, the riders get walloped over the head with all kinds of flat cobbles: Ruitersstraat, Kerkgate, Holleweg. It’s a nasty bit of the race that’s not even close to decisive, but memorably uncomfortable.

holleweg.

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look at the rocks!

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i love this field.

You can have the windmill. I love the huge open fields that follow the Molenberg. With that said, it’s a pretty sweet windmill.

alex banyay.

We like Alex. He’s awesome. Alex believes the radio station, Studio Brussels, is the best in the world. He even listens to it when he’s back home in California. We’re going to second Alex on this one - we like STUBRU too. When we first met Alex last year, we were kind of scared of him. He is very good at giving off a look that conveys a very simple message - don’t even think about talking to me, leave me alone, I’m working. The monster headphones do the job well. I can’t fault him for that. It’s actually pretty smart. I can’t imagine how frustrating race starts can be for someone who has a LOT to do in a very short amount of time.

So we generally try to give Alex his race day space, but we’re like little puppies who need friends. We keep coming back…and coming back…and combing back…and this year, we’ve started talking with Alex a lot more, and it has always been a good time. He’ll never be rid of us now. Sorry.

leberg fields.

Back to the ride. The team has crossed the Haaghoek, made the cobbly turn back to pavement, hit the Leberg, and now they’re on the windswept plateau right after it.

pause for a bird's eye view

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in search of.

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kanarieberg.

I’m not a big fan of the Kanarieberg, but I’m a huge fan of the Muziekbos and the climb that parallels the Kanarieberg: Bosrede. It might be my all-time favorite in this region. With a little creative maneuvering, I was able to shoot from my favorite climb toward the race course. It’s the little things, right?

paterberg: the first time.

They really do turn a pretty climb into an eyesore for the Ronde.

koppenberg.

What a mess. Floundering hobbyists, cars trying to make it up, team cars trying to follow their riders, and team riders trying to pick their way through the mayhem of cars, team cars, and clack, clack, clacking riders trudging up the 20+% slopes of the mighty Koppenberg.

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taaienberg.

The Taainberg gets teeth on Sunday - the barriers take away the gutter, and riders are left to do battle with grade and rock.

recon stop/start.

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paterberg: full gas.

Sometimes, recon rides can be pretty basic training rides, nothing special. C-G were not messing around when it came time for the business end laps - I think it’s a fair assessment to say this is pretty close to full gas.