Average Joe vs the Tour of Flanders: Cillian Kelly takes on the cobbles of Flanders

Cillian Kelly loves a challenge, so when we recently raised the idea of taking on the Tour of Flanders, he was quickly coaxed into signing up. Of course, this wasn’t the professional Tour of Flanders, but the sportive that gives average Joe’s like Cillian the opportunity to ride on some of the most historic cobbled roads in cycling.

These cobbled roads have been graced by the biggest names in the sport and serve up some of the toughest parcours, with the short and steep bergs providing a vicious punch that is only compounded by the rough cobbled surfaces.

It was going to be a tough challenge for Cillian, then, made all the more harder as he only had eight weeks to train for the event. While he didn’t have to go from completely zero to full fitness, it still left little time for us to whip Cillian into cobble-ready shape.

• Read more: Average Joe vs the Tour of Flanders: How much fitness has Cillian Kelly gained with help of Wahoo SYSTM

Luckily, Wahoo stepped in to help, providing a bespoke eight-week training course from its indoor training app, SYSTM. It has become one of the most popular training apps available thanks to its diverse range of workouts, which aren’t only restricted to cycling. To help create a more well-rounded cyclist, the app offers yoga, strength and mental exercises too.

Determined to avoid ending up on the scrapheap of GCN presenters who can’t complete challenges - dominated by Conor Dunne - Cillian threw himself into the tough training plan, but would it be enough to make him Flanders-ready?

Watch the video at the top of this page to find out how Cillian fared in the Flanders sportive.

Here at GCN, we are constantly putting our presenters to the test in new challenges. Check out all of these challenges on the GCN website