Full name: Vincent Neve
Name of the Ultra: Hardennes Gravel Tour
Bike used (model + tire setup + gearing): Bossi Grit SX frame with SRAM Red AXS Quarq XPLR groupset 1×12. Front chainring 38t Wolftooth for SRAM and a 10-44 cassette. Wheels Zipp 303s with Pirelli P-zero 40mm tires. Bags are a mix of Tailfin rack & top tube with Restrap
Finish status (finished / scratched): Finished
Official distance + elevation: 700 KM – 12.000 D+
Total ride time: Ridden Time: 1d 23h 16m Elapsed Time: 3d 05h 20m
Into the Ardennes
Hardennes starts with a tent on a campsite and a head full of thoughts. I’m not into this race yet. We just bought a house a couple of weeks ago. Our current house is about to be sold. And I’ve been through medical checks since I coughed blood and scratched at Borderline 700 about six weeks ago. Not helping: somewhere in the back of my mind I set myself a goal that was borderline unrealistic: finish in two days, be home on Sunday.
I wasn’t sure if that was ambition or avoidance. Maybe both.
The bike check, riders briefing and (fantastic) BBQ the night before are a great scene to free my mind. But I’m not free in my mind yet. I find it hard to switch off and I’m in in this state of mind when I wake up and ride off to the breakfast from the camp site to the start location. There’s a buzz before we get sent off at 08:00. The organization hypes us up and when it all bursts we roll out of the start and into the Ardennes. 700 kilometers of gravel roads, singletrack, rocky paths and everything in between. 12.000 meters of climbing. A highest point of 650 meters. Half the route on unpaved terrain.
I had trained for this. My legs were ready. My head, on day one, is in a different place.
Day 1: The Weight of Things at Home
From the start the route is beautiful but tough. After weeks of rain the weather has turned sunny, but the forests are still wet and damp. It makes for a weird combination of incredible heat, while everything is still slippery and tough to ride.
The Ardennes open up quickly: dense forests, steep descents, rolling gravel paths through river valleys. The kind of terrain that normally puts me right in the moment. But for the first day and a half I’m just not there. I’m riding around with the following mantra in my head: I’m done with this ultra thing. I’ll probably scratch at some point. Why am I even here? Which I conclude with: but just keep riding, you’ll hate scratching too. And then back again. For 1,5 days.
From the riders day I remember the first day is supposed to be the toughest day. Most elevation and some steep bastard climbs. I’m not pushing myself in this heat and try to find my rhythm while eating and chatting with some other riders. My initial goal is to ride to checkpoint 1 at 240km, but I notice I’m not making the progress I should and I don’t fancy riding until 1or 2 in the night with my mind not in the right place.
Enter Nick. I had chats with him during the previous night’s BBQ and sometime earlier this morning when he passed me. I also met him around lunchtime at an Italian place in Durbuy where we had pasta with some other riders (Flo, Remco). When the route heads North, at some point in Ferrières just before Spa I’m a minute late to catch a supermarket. Nick just made it and is showing off his purchases. Good for him, but I’m annoyed by missing the supermarket by minutes and my entire mental state of this day. I know Nick plans to catch a night sleep around Spa at 200km and I hear myself asking if I can join him somewhere there. No problem and I’m hugely relieved I don’t have to keep going to CP1 at 240km.
Despite day 1 being a draining day, everything going on up and down, the scenery was stunning. Offroad Ardennes is raw, rough, and remote in a way that makes you feel very small on a bike. While catching up on some messages I notice there are already a lot of scratchers. The heat and the Ardennes mountains taking the best of them. I start to think that maybe I’m not in such a bad place after all.
Day 1: 200km, Sart-lez-Spa.
Nick: Friend of the show in this ultra adventure
I had first met Nick at the bikecheck and dinner the evening before the race. We crossed paths briefly on the road in the hours after the start. And now, at 200 kilometers into day one, we were at the same stop. Just before nightfall I had looked at my legs, my head, my plans, and decided to join him.
That decision turned out to be one of the best of the race. A new friendship was born on the Ardennes roads. From here on, Nick and I rode closely together for most of the race.
There’s something about shared suffering that fast-tracks a friendship.
Day 2: After Checkpoint 1 The Mind Finally Quiets
On the morning of day two we start riding early. The High Fens (Hautes Fagnes) are one of the most beautiful places of the entire route and for gravel riding in general. Day two is also supposed to be more “rolling gravel roads”. Still up and down, but less of the steep rocky brutes.
After a couple of hours we reached CP1. We’re full of energy after a good breakfast and move on quickly. And shortly after my wife calls and I explain my mental suffering of the day before and that part if it is also the task ahead for finishing already on Sunday. She puts a stop to the suffering immediately, ensuring me she’ll pick me up wherever and whenever. And encourages me to really start enjoying this beautiful thing I’m doing here.
Instantly the noise in my head gets quieter. The house, the list of things to do, the unrealistic Sunday deadline it all faded into the background. I’m present from this moment on and just focus on every pedal stroke and the roads I’m riding. It’s a very liberating moment and I know from this moment I’m going to the finish line.
From that point on, Hardennes became a physical race for me, not a mental one. And I knew how to handle that.
Day 2: 420km, Martelange
Day 3: the heat of no man’s land
The Ardennes in summer heat is something else entirely. After weeks of rain, during this weekend the weather had turned and it was incredibly hot. Especially on the 3rd day the heat was relentless. After an early start around 06:00 the sun became a huge factor quickly. Especially when we hit the French there were very little places to hide. It also contained very little villages to refill on water and food, but we knew this from the riders briefing and planned accordingly.
Nevertheless we were riding through open land on gravel roads during the hottest part of the day. One part of the route in particular was proper torment. At Montmédy we would hit the town, and then the route would take a 20km loop and return to town. We decided to do this loop before lunch. It turned out to be a very hard loop with lots of difficult elevation during the hottest hours of the day. From 13:30 to 15:30 I was completely grilled. The climb to the beautiful (then cursed) citadel finished the job off. I took a seat outside in the shade by a restaurant and ate, drank and chilled there for at least 1,5 hours before moving on.
The evening would bring its ups and downs. The goal was to hit Boullion this night and leave about 70 kilometers for the last morning. In Bertrix we hit a kebab shop that was exactly what was needed at that time. High moment! Followed by a ride in the dark on forest trails with fallen trees where we had to hike-a-bike a lot and made slow progress. Low moment!
But there was also something magical about riding the Ardennes forests at night. The night owls we heard. The gentle sounds of flowing streams and rivers. The sound of our tires on gravel roads. It was beautiful. At 01:00 we hit Boullion where and our place to rest up for the final stretch. The feelings of having achieved this and only having the formality of the last 70km to go was incredible as I enjoyed my “kebab for the road” to the fullest 🙂
Day 3: Bouillon, 630km.
Day 4: goofing around back to st Hubert
The hard work is done. We wake up and look for breakfast in Boullion. Bakery and Butcher are open, there’s coffee with pastries and nice sandwiches for the road. We head off towards Saint-Hubert to finish and leave Boullion riding along the Semois river. It’s beautiful as we start climbing again, but nothing can hurt us now.
Final 10 climbs. We stop at an idyllic bridge crossing in one of the final forests. Stunning place to let the drone up and have the pastries we bought for the road. Final 5 climbs. We goof around on the bike shouting silly stuff. Final 3 climbs. Emotions. I’ve been on a rollercoaster on this one and finishing is getting real now. Final climb. Steep, long. What way are we approaching the finish now? Where is it exactly? How many more meters?
Suddenly, we’re there! My family is at the finish line. Cheering, applauding. Our youngest son is chilling on top of our car. Nick’s family is there too. Everybody’s smiling while we get our medals. I lift my bike above my head. Hardennes, you were tough and beautiful.
And now you’re done.
And then it was there.- Vincent
My wife was waiting at the finish line. Our boys were with her. After 700 kilometers of heat, dust, gravel and offroad Ardennes, the first faces I saw were theirs. And I’ll never forget.
I don't have better words than that. Some moments don't need them.
Final Thoughts
Hardennes wasn’t the race where everything went perfectly. It was the race where I had to find a reason to keep going before my legs even got a real say in it. The mental battle of day one, the self-doubt, the scratching fantasies, that was the real first challenge of this race.
What got me through it was simple: a friend found on the road, a checkpoint crossed, a moment calling my wife, a mind that eventually let go.
700 kilometers. 10,200 meters. Three days in the Ardennes heat.
Worth it.
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