Conquering the Cauberg – World Road Championship Sportive

As I crossed the finishing line of the inaugural World Road Championship sportive, I held up five fingers in triumph – that’s how many sugar-laden waffles I’d eaten during the 166-km route.

The feed stations were easily the best of any sportive I’d entered.  None of that energy gel rubbish, just boxes and boxes brimming with good old-fashioned chocolate bars, honey cake and waffles.  The last feed station even had delicious, strong coffee.  Just the thing for a cool, breezy day of cycling through the lumpy Dutch countryside.

Yes, I did say ‘lumpy’.  If you think Holland is flat, you haven’t been far enough south.  This year’s World Championships are being held in the region of Limburg, the bit of Holland that dangles provocatively between Belgium and Germany.   It might not be the Alps, but there’s enough rolling countryside and short, punishing climbs to test any serious rider.  Mark Cavendish, for example, probably hasn’t got a chance of retaining his rainbow jersey this weekend on a 270-km course that is up and down for long stretches and includes 10 circuits over the Bemelerberg(5 per cent average) and Cauberg(6 per cent with one section of 12 per cent).

The Team GB boys will need plenty of waffles to get through that.

The sportive, in which more than 7,000 amateurs took part, featured most of the hills – and more besides – which the peloton will be tackling on Sunday. For us, our one and only ascent of the Cauberg came after 85 km and eight climbs.  The pros will have done one climb less but 20 km more cycling.

For good measure, the route of the sportive also took in part of the individual and team time trial courses, so we got a good taste of what Contador, Martin, Pooley and co would be experiencing later in the week.

I travelled to the event with Sports Tours International, who specialise in giving amateur riders the chance to emulate their heroes by tackling the same roads, climbs and circuits.  While this was the first ever World Championships sportive, it was being held just across the border from the scene of established races such as Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Tour of Flanders, both of which are regulars on the Sports Tours calendar, so our driver Jonathan knew the roads pretty well.  He also knew the nearest supermarket for three euro bottles of red.

The day before the sportive, I left my fellow riders discussing fruit v caffeine gels and whether shaving your legs was acceptable for the average, non-racing amateur.  (In the context of a sportive, I always avoid getting on the wheel of anyone with shiny, slick calves as they are likely to be quite hard core and churning out a faster cadence than I’d be comfortable with for any length of time.)  I did a recce of the local roads and was pleasantly surprised by the novelty of well-surfaced, uncluttered cycle lanes and having the right of way over cars at junctions and roundabouts.   I’d found cycling nirvana!  Or so I thought until a local on a moped and then an old man riding a mobility scooter reminded me the lanes weren’t the exclusive preserve of cyclists. (This caused a few tense moments during the following day’s sportive as large groups of cyclists suddenly had to re-align their echelons when faced by oncoming motorized traffic on a narrow strip of Tarmac.  Another surprise was how conscientious the largely Dutch peloton was about stopping at all bike lane red lights even when the road was empty as far as the eye could see.)

On trips like this, the key demands of a cyclist before and after the sportive are:

1. A hotel near the start/finish
2. Comfortable beds and a room with plenty of space for your bike
3. Huge breakfasts and dinners
4. Decent bar for post-ride analysis

The Snow World hotel in Landgraaf ticked all the right boxes.  Built on a hillside next to one of the largest indoor ski slopes in Europe, it was a short, downhill coast to the start/finish, offered a buffet breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs and a bar that served the perfect, post-ride rehydration in handy, half-litre size tankards.

As for the event itself, well for me personally it was the sense of history as much as the waffles that made it so memorable.  The roads of Limburg – and particularly the iconic Cauberg climb from the centre of the pretty little town of Valkenburg – are used annually in the Amstel Gold classic.  They’ve also been used five times previously to host the World Championships.  Bartali and Coppi raced these roads in 1948, and Eddie Merckx won here in 1967.  Plaques laid into the pavement all the way up the Cauberg – like a cycling Hollywood Walk of Fame – celebrate the riders who triumphed there.  It was this knowledge rather than the early morning chill that sent shivers up my spine as I crossed the start line….

As if that wasn’t all exciting enough, the next day was the Women’s and Men’s Team Time Trials, being featured at the World Championships for the first time since 1994.  Jonathan drove us over to Valkenburg and we enjoyed a pleasant day with the friendly, knowledgeable crowds on the Cauberg watching the professionals churn by at speeds us mere mortals could only dream of.

But they never got to eat all those waffles like I did.

• Sports Tours International has a full programme of events for 2013, including trips to the Spring Classics, the Gran FondoMilan-San Remo and the Etape du Tour.  Full details and prices can be found at its website: http://www.sportstoursinternational.co.uk/cycling
• Thanks to Endura for providing much-needed thermal bib shorts and rain cape: http://www.endura.co.uk/