Some photos from The Brussels Cycling Classic (Formerly an Paris-Brussels)

L'Enfer du Nord

Was at the start and finish of Paris-Brussels on Saturday. This was formerly Paris-Bruxelles, since that's over 300 km I imagine it's some time since it started in Paris. Last year it became The Brussels Cycling Classic and starts and ends in Brussels. It's considered a semi-classic and has a reasonably strong field, some high profile past winners. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_Cycling_Classic

The crowd at the finish was fairly small c. 300 people at most. To be fair it was in an fairly unpopulated area near the Atomium and Heysel. Reading in the paper the next day that cycling has declined in popularity Bruxelles (Eddy Merchx is Bruxellois) and the turn out was poor compared to other Belgian one day races. The race was on Flemish TV, but doesn't seem to have been on Francophone TV. From experience visiting Brussels over the years there are probably less cyclists than Dublin, cycling infrastructure is probably better especially in suburban areas and it appears to be growing in popularity as a means of transport.

I've never been a race start before, have to say it was fairly cool with cyclists mingling with the crowd.



Not even a coach can carry off the Brown

Kinet1c

Mr. Cannondale with his eyes on the prize.....

L'Enfer du Nord

Being Brussels every thing in the race had to be bi-lingual. Including the live commentary and all the signage. The reasons why the race name is in English is to avoid having to have two names. One of the podium girls was Flemish speaking, the other French. Really there's two of everything in Brussels/Belgium.

dastardly00

Very nice photos L'Enfer du Nord, thanks for posting them up