Tour of Flanders Sportif

So I will finally update this thing...Details are still foggy and I like to exaggerate so bear with me here.
The day before the Tour of Flanders there is a ride you can do on the course.
There are several options: the whole course, about half the course, about a quarter of the course. We did about half. 120k if I remember correct. About 15 cobbled sections including the Muur and Bosberg.
There were about 15 of us that set out from some obscure back road to the start. That ride was about 15k?

The two Ridley VIP vans and the Opal...A bunch of Yankees that now respect the cobbles...

The start was crazy. There were about 30,000 riders total who did the ride. All went off at their leisure. I was under the name "Ryan Posomethingtoo". Kuklic and I slammed a beer and we were off. Tails waggin'. Naive as ever.
We began the adventure on "normal" roads but about 10k later...BOOM.
Our first taste of cobbles was a shock. I mean it. 10meters in, I thought I might not make it. The bars felt like I had no control of them. Bouncing all about. I was drilling it as hard as I could and felt I was only going 20mph. Truly indescribable. My white "podium gloves" had zero padding and the bar tape was that really thin $hit. Almost like masking tape. Pain Cave.
At this point I was with Diesel, Moustache Man, and a few others.
We rode for a bit more and then I got popped from this "lead" group going up what felt like a 5k section up a hill into this little town.
I waited for the rest of the group. Schnecksville Regroup.
Ended up riding with Diesel and Taylor for most of the day. We ripped it up lots of the climbs. We had a good thing going, for sure.
Long story, but we rode, hit a rest stop, rode some more, got shelled, got dropped, got back on, got a beer, someone got spit on by cross world champ: Niels Albert (really, he spit on Kuklic)...After it was all done we had 101 miles and had climbed the most famous climb in Belgium: The Muur.
Astonishing thing is that everyone riding this thing was a "good" bike rider. No MS150 nerds here. Just a bunch of ass-kickin' Belgians rockin' the cobbles. 12 yr olds. 75 yr olds. Etc.
Only one flat that I know of and only one crash in our group.
Mad respect for these clowns who race this thing for a living.
Those cobbles are full legit. And these were the "smooth" cobbles...."Not like the rough ones at Roubaix"

Taylor's bike for the trip was Lief Hoste's bike for 2007 Tour of Flanders. It was ridden at last year's race..It was Ridley's carbon cross bike with a road fork. A true "pro" sled.