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Tour de France 2025 Act 2 - Pogi losing his love for the race.

If you missed it, please read Act 1 article here. The second half of the Tour de France was more dreary and low key than the first. The baking hot weather (not always expected!) in the North of France was replaced by drizzle and storms with the climate seeming to get to the riders. There was a brilliant stage win to Mont Ventoux by Valentin Paret Peintre. The Frenchman getting the home nation a…

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Rouvy - Grand Depart Challenge

Despite not being able to ride outside I have been trying (with a large gap in between rides) to get this challenge knocked over to be in with a chance of a prize. Here is the set up from Rouvy… Start your French Grand Tour with a gentle ride through scenic Northern France. 3 varied routes take you from the bustling streets of Lille to the coastal beauty of Boulogne and a fast TT in Caen. A…

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Tour de France 2025 Act 1 - Is the Tour a bore?

And so it came to pass that the first mountain stage of the Tour, finishing in Hautacam, was the end of the race for the yellow jersey as Tadej Pogacar crushed all comers by close to two minutes. In truth though the race was over before it even started. As soon as the Slovenian declares he is riding a race, its pretty clear he will win. He is unbeatable. There I said it. That makes his riding…

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Some challenging news...

My upcoming cycling plans have all been put on hold due to the diagnosis of tendonitis in my left shoulder. This is the first time in many years my body has given out on me properly and I am keen for the inflammation to go down so treatment and recovery can start. I had promised myself some time off from exercise post Flanders and Deeping 10km, but that never happened and has now been enforced.

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Velogames Fantasy Tour de France

Morning club mates… if any of you are looking for a bit of a fantasy Tour de France fix over the next three weeks feel free to join our family and friends mini league. www.velogames.com to sign up and pick your team. Then head to join a mini league and enter this code… 512983819 Its the quickest way to spend £100million that I have found !

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Memories of Flanders...

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Giro 2025 Review - It was Wouts race, the rest were just supporting cast!

In years to come I think there is a good chance that history will view this race as the “Wout van Aert Giro”. The Belgian had suffered through the spring classics with a run of 4th places meaning no podium visits. But there was a view that his form was coming, and that proved correct. He was struggling in the first few days of the race, stages where Wout should have been winning. But as in…

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What I learned from running a 10k

No sooner had my wheels ground to a halt in Flanders back in April I was planning to run our local town 10km running event. I had a bit of time to do a couple of club 10 mile time trials on the road bike but had 4 weeks of pretty much dedicated running training to get set for the race. After plenty of research I was keen to keep riding my bike during this training block as the jolt from 100%…

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Belated 2025 Spring Classics Review

With grand tour season already upon us I realised that I had been neglecting Fendrien and that posts of an analytical nature had been few and far between. With that in mind, I wanted to try and summarise the 2025 spring classics in 400ish words. Opening weekend was a fairly low key to be honest. Stefan Kung trying to win het Nieuwsblad was the highlight with the will he won’t he chase into the…

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TNT Sports review of the best time of the cycling season...

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3 Frames "We Ride Flanders 2025"

by Sportograf

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Ronde van Vlaanderen Cyclo - my 2025 experience

And in what felt like a heartbeat the Ronde van Vlaanderen cyclo was over and 5 months of dedication, training and following of process was complete. I have been keen to document the training and the feel of my legs and the website https://fendrieneu.home.blog/ has those monthly updates. I rode the event in 2015, but this year I was quicker and had a higher finishing position. This was…

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Month 5 - RVV training

As the date for the Ronde Van Vlaanderen cyclo sportive arrived the training was starting to taper, something that felt un-natural to me! I had done the most amount of work I had could, training in cold and wind and rain all winter, trying to keep out on the road at weekends and in the garage with higher intensity mid-week. There had been a couple of weekends where the cold and ice sent me to…

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Rouvy Spring into Action Classique - Stage 6 Costalpino to Ville di Corsano | Italy

This was the final (in the order I rode them) and queen stage of the event. It was based on part of the Strade Bianche and had a really strong final climb. Well over 1300 feet of uphill with the biggest gradients and elevation coming in the last 4 kilometers. How can you not love a ride through Tuscany? There is gorgeous cypress trees, lovely views and brilliant gravel roads (with no chance of…

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Rouvy Spring into Action - Stage 5 Nukerke to Kafhoek | Flanders | Belgium

Another new route for me this one. It covers a stretch of the Ronde course to the west of Berchem and Ronse. Roads I have ridden in real life but never online. As you can see from the profile there are some 20%+ gradients to get over and a plateau at the finish which see you make the effort of climbing, without the ease of a descent to recover on. This course was brilliant offering some lovely…

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Rouvy Spring Into Action - Stage 4 Diano Marina to Pantai | Italy

I had ridden this stage before as part of last years event so it was nice and familiar. There is a relatively tough climb after only a couple of kilometers which set the tone for the rest of the ride. There was the usual site of me chugging up whilst trying to remain seated and get the power down evenly against some people doing 4 or 5 watts per kilo flying past at 32kph uphill. I would say…

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Rouvy Spring into Action – Stage 3 Cysoing to Roubaix | France

https://riders.rouvy.com/route/96999 Whisper it quietly… I actually enjoyed this one. It wasn’t as flat as you’d think with naggy 1% gradients pretty much throughout. The cobbles were ok, the camera recording the route covered them well and it wasn’t as jolty as you’d imagine. There have been Roubaix style routes on Rouvy before but this one is the only one I have ridden that actually gets to…