Thomas de Gendt, one of the cyclists who will be missed the most in this Tour de France, began his particular 2,000-kilometre adventure this Monday with which he wants to maintain his passion for cycling after giving up competing in the French round due to lack of form in the company of his compatriot Jelle Wallays.
A new adventure for De Gendt after having covered the 1,000 kilometers that separated Como from Semmerzake after the 2018 Giro di Lombardy with Tim Wellens for, a year later, repeat escapade with Wellens himself this time on a gravel bike through the Empty Mountains of Teruel in “The Final Fugue”.
Now De Gendt and Wallays will face the “Calpe Tour” in an adventure that they will try to complete in 12 days and in which they will have to travel the 1,998 kilometers that separate Semmerzake, the town where De Gendt lives, and Calpe, in a route in which they will also have to face a total of 24,715 meters of unevenness, according to the route that De Gendt himself published on Strava.
An adventure that starts this Monday on a 194-kilometer route between Semmerzake and the municipality of Laon, already in France, and that will also take them through cCities such as Nevers, Clermont-Ferrand, Aurillac (after passing through Puy Mary), Albi, Andorra, with the ascent to the tough Envalira, Tárrega, Tortosa, Vall d’Uxó, Sagunto, Valencia, Alzira, Gandía, Pego and the arrival end to Calpe. Quite a challenge with which De Gendt and Wallays intend to get in shape to compete in the next Tour of Spain.