Well, in fact Jacques and his fellow organizers offered a number of trips that could you could choose from:
La Redoutable (76km)
A trip that contains the most
beautiful Côtes
(hills) in this region. Amongst others one has to
climb the famous Redoute
(Mandatory
part Aywaille-Remouchamps).
Less tough than the Retoutable but it does include the climb of the Côte de la Redoute from the easy (?) side.
This
one is again less though than the Redoutée . It does not contain for instance
the Côte de la Redoute and a
long way on the RAVEL
(From Comblain la Tour to Esneux) only two climbs ! So it’s not too hard.
Well, guess which one I would like to cycle ? The toughest one of course as that one would at also allow me to claim an additional BIG. The start was between 07:30 and 09:30 but the common start time for BIG members was set by our chairman at 08:15 at the Taverne des Moges, Rue des deux églises 4120 in Rotheux. Now for me there is 200km of driving involved to get to Rotheux. And as the start is at 08:15 that means I have to get out of bed at a quarter to six in the morning. Auch !!! I had a good idea though and checked with a fellow member who lives in Maastricht if I could sleep at his place. Then I would not need to get out of bed so very, very early. Unfortunately for me he could not join us and he did not have a place free to sleep that weekend. Nice try, no cigar !
Marloes would like to come also but had to make a very hard decision to either go to a school party on Saturday night or to join her dad and leave Oisterwijk at 06:00 on the Sunday morning to go and cycle in the Ardennes. Can you guess what she chose ?????
So I put my bike on the space ship the night before and set the alarm clock to 05:45. I got up on the auto pilot. Prepared something to eat during the ride down to the Ardennes and left Oisterwijk around a quarter past six. As it was very early and Sunday morning, I could travel without any delays to the Maastricht. Then around Liège and on to Tilff where I departed from the motorway. From Tilff I was planning to drive to Boncelles but when I got to Tilff there were no directions to Boncelles. So I drove on to Esneux there I checked the map and decided to drive on to Plainevaux. Unfortunately I bumped into a detour and could not drive on directly to Neupré. After asking for directions I ended up on the N63 that I could follow to Neupré and there was an exit for Rotheux even. By now I got a bit stressed as the fact that there were no proper directions in Tilff and the detour in Plainevaux had caused some delay and I would not be at the meeting point at 08:15. In fact it was not too bad and I arrived there at 08:30. Only 15 minutes late. But I hate being late and the delay of only 15 minutes was caused by the fact that I would have liked to arrive there at 08:00.
Not to worry. Daniel, our chairman, was so kind to have waited together with 2 other BIG members (Axel Jansen and Juris Martins). As Daniel indicated before, it was not hard to distinguish the BIG members from other people due to the enormous muscles in their legs, the deep lines due to the efforts around their noses and the eternal smile on their face as they are facing the 25% of La Redoute ;-) I was glad they had waited a bit. I quickly went inside to subscribe myself to the Redoutable. There I met Jacques Franck who I had been in touch via email a number of times to get the correct details of the trips into our news letter. It was good to meet tough I did not have too much time for that, the others were waiting. So I paid the 2.50 € and another 2.00 € for Doctors without Borders and went back to the others. Further acquaintance with Jacques would have to wait until lunch time.
From
Rotheux we cycled via Petit
Berleur and Limont on to Comblain-au-Pont. There we encountered the first true Côte,
the Côte de
Fraiture (2.6km long, 5.2% average and 10% max). It was amazing how easy our
chairman cycled to the top while chatting with Juris. I had a hard time making
my way up, as usual. Why do I like doing this ?
The trip continued in the direction of Aywaille. Now there the real work started. We came across the Côte de Septroux (2.7km long, 5.3% average and 15% max), the Côte de Niaster (1,8 km long, 7.7% average and 15% max) and then the only BIG in the trip: Côte de la Redoute (1.65km long, 9.8% average and 20% max!). Pffff, now I know why it is called the Terrible one (Redoute). As with the other climbs, I had to let go of our chairman as I can't keep up with his speed. But I was still smiling as this is yet another claim I can make :-)). The weather by the way was absolutely perfect. It was a bit chilly at start but it was OK to cycle with short trousers and short sleeves.
At the top I was welcomed by one of the organizers and he congratulated me that I reached the top. And as you know by now this is a well deserved congratulation. At the top there was also the chance to fill up the bottles with water, to take a sandwich or even some cake. Yes, a well organized trip. At the top I also met two other BIG members: Jules Dejace and Arnoud Decostre. Again it's good to meet with them in real life as we had only been in touch by email so far.
At some stage I noticed that Daniel, our chairman, had already left. So I
started the pursuit. It took me a couple of Côtes before I got back in his
wheel. We also came across the Côte des
Forges (2.1km, 6.1% average and 10% max). The latter is a Côte that is also
part sometimes of the professional cycling race Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Next we
took the Côte de
Hautgnée and then it's on to Esneux. Hey, this looks very familiar here. It's
where I was with the car in the morning !! Finally we had our last Côte, Côte de
Bonsgnée. This last part Daniel increased the pace and I
could actually follow him in that.
After 76km of cycling with an accumulated height difference of 1430 meters we arrived back in Rotheux. Though the Côtes (hills) were not easy, they never are for me, I felt quite OK. Part of the deal was that you are also in for a lottery but unfortunately I did not win any price. I did have of course still have a ticket that allowed me to have a free drink. And that's all part of the same deal for 4.,50 €. And don't forget that we had sandwiches and cake halfway the trip too. I would say that this is an extremely good deal.
So fetched our drinks and sat outside the pub in the sun discussing the trip, the BIG and other aspects of cycling of course. It was good that Juris Martins was there as a lot of the talking was done in French. And my French is rather poor. So I was happy to find a companion that also preferred the English language. It took a number of drinks before Jacques could come along with us. He is of course one of the organizers and cannot leave until everyone has finished.
We drove to Jacques house which is not too far from Rotheux. He lives in a nice and quiet area. The garden is large enough to cater for both Jacques' family and the couple of BIG members that had come for lunch. Jacques had indicated that it would be a simple lunch. Of course, he should not go through too much trouble for us. We started with a drink. As I was by car I did not take any wine tough Jacques ensured me that it was very good wine. After some time, it takes time to prepare a lunch you know, we were served a pasta dish with fresh salad. Well, pasta is excellent after you have cycled. And as it does not take so much work to prepare it, it was a very good choice. But if you think that's it then you are totally wrong. Because after the pasta we were served soft cheese (Camembert) and bread. And a different bottle of wine was served. Then we had ice-cream with whipped cream. And then coffee was served with sweets, biscuits and cognac. Well that's true Belgium hospitality. And it's good we had this lunch after the trip and not before as I would for certain not have been able to cycled up to the top of all the Côtes ;-) Here you see us sitting in Jacques' garden below the chestnut trees:
It was already half past five before I managed to retrieve from this splendid lunch. It's not easy to leave when people are so kind and friendly to you. I shook hands with all of Jacques' family members and thanked them for the splendid lunch and their friendliness. The drive back home was easy so I arrived back in Oisterwijk around half past seven.