Grass forest (Poggio) - Molenstede

Grass forest (Poggio) in Molenstede

Elevation 110 m
Total altitude meters: 44 m
Length: 500 m
Max. %: 15 %
Gem. %: 9 %
Road surface: Asphalt

(interview with Sergei Ivanov about a match on Grasbos, the Poggio)

Whoever takes the title on Sunday among the elite riders without a contract and the promises will not have stolen it. After all, the circulation does not belong to the cat, with the 'Poggio', also known as Grasbos, as an outlier, which must be overcome fifteen times.

Until the end of 2012, the small municipality of Molenstede had no fewer than three fully-fledged professional cyclists: Sergei Ivanov, Geert Verheyen and Mario Aerts. Grasbos was pretty much their toy, the place where they could hurt themselves even more during training.

But how is it that that hump takes its nickname from the Poggio, that legendary hunchback who is a sharpshooter in Milan-Sanremo almost every year?

Sergei Ivanov, now owner of a thriving bicycle shop in Scherpenheuvel, knows it. 'In the past, because of the poor road surface, hardly any tourists passed over that mountain. That has changed at the hands of my mentor Billy Reynders and advertising on TV. The Poggio di Molenstede was born. Reynders, then still a ship in Diest, had the road surface asphalted and from then on thousands of cycling tourists pass over the Poggio in good weather.'

Ivanov lives sixty meters from the trail. From his home he will be able to see the riders pass twice a lap. He knows the lump like the back of his hand.

'Four to five hundred metres long, with a maximum gradient of twenty percent. Every time I came home from training, I steamed up that slope for dessert. On other occasions I flew into it ten times in a row. Measured from the bridge, my fastest time was 1 minute 8 seconds; for which I needed a 53x17 acceleration, expressed in wattage about 875.'

"I can assure you that on the fifteenth ascent the mountain will be vicious in the calves outside. But I think the decision will not be made on but after the Poggio, where it is by no means flat. It's a two-piece climb, with a strip of false flat like the real killer. Only the strongest will survive.'

VCD