Ghistele Epic One Percenter Gravel Ride.

Epic is a word that means different things to different people. It's not a word I use generally, as for me it conjures up visions of literally hanging on to life by a thread.

So when an invite to the Ghistele Epic One Percenter turned up in my feed, a 222km ride in Belgium, I was initially interested though in a don't use the "Epic" word kinda way.

Reading the Rules though suggested that Epic, maybe a word that was used tongue in cheek. You must wear a lumberjack shirt and sport a moustache were a couple of the rules that suggested that this was a ride that was going to be about fun rather than death or glory.

Buy tickets for the event, book ferry, ask for a day of school. Done.

Fast forward a few days, and then we begin weather watch in earnest.  It was definteley going to be wet.  One of the forecasts suggested 50mm of rain, but this screenshot below, taken the day before suggested things might not be so bad.

However, no matter which weather channel you looked at, the thought of camping after a big wet day out, did not appeal, so we booked a couple of nights in a hotel.`

Plenty of room for us and our Sonder Ti Caminos.

An early start to register for the ride. Though coffee and pastries were supplied.

It was great chat to some of the other riders at the start. A group picture, then at 7am we rode.

The pace at the start was fairly mellow, as was the weather. Within the first hour though the only riders we were left in contact with were Ruben and Rik.

There were 4 checkpoints on the route, and here's Tom at the first.

At the checkpoint like at the Barkley Marathons there is a book, from which you tear out the page that corresponds with your race number.

A witty title "Playmates".

It was raining, and though we saw a couple of signs saying it was 13 degrees C, it felt a lot colder.

Not playtime.

At around 80 km there was the first of two feed stations. A camper with a pullout canopy. The smiling crew were counterpointed by a guy stood there shivering, wrapped in a blanket, and the rain sheeting off the canopy. Hot soup, yes. Coffee, yes. Oh and gummy bears.

A warm van to get in to, a lift back to Gistel, these were thoughts in our minds.
We did though, head back in to the rain.

An hour after the feed station and the heavy rain showed no sign of stopping. The route was a sort of "out and back" affair, and we weren't at the furthest point.

Puddles, and mud, the going had become slow.

I was cold, and we were both at least partially wet. Can you have an Epic in Belgium? We had the makings of one.
We left a message with the organisers.
We were diverting and riding back to the start on the road.

The sun made a brief appearance winking at us to berate our decision to turn back, then the rain returned.

Rain now accompanied by a strong block wind.

As we rode the last few Km in we formulated a hasty plan for getting the bikes stowed and ourselves into a hot shower.

143km done. Oof.

Later that evening we met up with our fellow One Percenters for a beer though.

Apparently we missed the best part of the course, including the Kemmelberg.

Maybe next year, though only if it isn't going to rain.

A ride put together by witty passionate bike riders.

Thanks.