Almost prepared for the highlight of my Belgian cycling life so far. We are off to join the crowds at The Tour of Flanders, De Ronde Van Vlaanderen – one of the greatest of cycling days. Time to pick a winner from Sagan, Cancellara and Boonen like all the other armchair pundits before we set off to see them on the Paterberg, our vantage point of choice.

My father arrived off the Eurostar on Wednesday and since then we have been preparing hard.

We have ridden some cobbles and hills, we have watched some TV and we have studied the appropriate training materials.

We have even done some special hill climb training. (256 steps of the Lion Monument at Waterloo battlefield to be precise – special low gear effort that one)

But most important of all we have talked cycling for three days solid. I mean after all, we aren’t riding, we are just going to watch!