1999 Tour De Flanders

Yesterday the afternoon forecast called for rain and sleet, and I had to get in a tempo workout, so I sighed, went to see Daq at The West Hill Shop, got a wheel trued, and picked up, for my trainer pleasure, the 1999 edition of the Tour of Flanders.

I don't know if it was the film itself, with shots of Frank Vandenbrouke crashing three times on his way to 2nd place, or a clearly off-form Johan Museeuw riding the rest of the peloton off his wheel for 3rd, or a marvelous Peter Van Petegem with nary a grimace on his face as he made the decisive final attack on the brutal Bosberg, but my wattage figures for the tempo repeats were up, and like, way up, from my last trainer based tempo workouts. About a month ago I was struggling to average 315 watts for 15 minutes. Yesterday it was comparatively easy to average 340, then 334 and 333 in the final interval. Corresponding HRs were (averages all) 154, 155, 156, about what I'd expect due to cardiac drift. So, I recommend it, and here's a little snippet to send you out looking for the video.