The Longest 5 Minutes of My Life

This was the first real video I shot with my GoPro HD Camera. It is my attempt at climbing the Koppenberg.

All the cycling geeks who read this blog know exactly what it is. For those who have a life outside cycling, the Koppenberg is a very famous climb in the Flanders region of Belgium. It is a major feature each year during the one-day classic race known as the Tour of Flanders. It is relatively short (600 meters) as are all climbs in the this race. However it is very steep (22% at the max) and made of cobble stones. Very rough cobble stones as you will see. When the stones get wet, they get very slick. It was raining the day I rode this with 15,000 others. The bottom had dried a bit but the steepest part is in the trees and that was wet.




The rough cobbles cause for considerable background noise. Probably a good thing because I was up against my max heart rate and gasping for air for the whole second half of the climb.....you probably don't want to hear all that. About 1/3 the way up, you hear me call out a number if you listen close... I thought for a split second that it would be cool to call out the grade as I went up. That thought went away as soon as my ability to get enough oxygen did.
As you can tell, I was pretty damn stoked when I actually pulled this off. We came back and rode it again a couple days later when it was dry. It is much, much easier to ride when it is dry.