Blazin' Saddles: Johan Museeuw backing Greg van Avermaet for Flanders glory

Speaking exclusively to Eurosport's Felix Lowe – aka blogger Blazin' Saddles – after a recon ride over the hellingen of the Flandrian Ardennes, Museeuw said that he'd backed the in-form BMC rider as early as last year, but also reckons Van Avermaet will face stiff opposition from the likes of Peter Sagan and fellow Flanders triple winners Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara.

Museeuw admits that Sagan will suffer from a lack of support from his Tinkoff team-mates and he concedes that the world champion will be a marked man. And while he thinks Sagan has the class to win the Tour of Flanders one day, he will be denied this year by his big rival Van Avermaet.

"Who's going to win the Tour of Flanders? I said one name last year: Greg van Avermaet. And I always stay with the same name," said Museeuw over a post-ride bowl of Spaghetti Boonannaise at the Brasserie de Flandrien in Oudenaarde.

Exactly one month before the professionals tackle the cobbled farm tracks of Flanders, Felix had taken his bike over to Oudenaarde – the finish town of the Ronde – for a ride with Museeuw and some chums. Here is the story of the day, plus Museeuw's thoughts on both Flanders and Paris-Roubaix...

We had a tough day on the horizon. Having woken up at 4am in Maidstone, Kent, before catching an early Eurostar to Calais and driving through heavy showers to Belgium, my riding companions from Le Domestique Tours and I were hardly primed for a 75km jolly through Johan Museeuw's back garden – featuring seven cobbled climbs and five other cobbled sectors.

For a Flanders first-timer whose only previous experience of cobbles was "Hovis Hill" in Shaftesbury – "Not cobbles! There are no cobbles in the UK," snarled Museeuw – tackling the infamous Koppenberg climb just 6.5km into our ride was, as the French say, pushing the cork a bit too far. The sun had come out but the cobbles were still wet and muddy; and it was with no shame that I ran out of road and had to unclip on the steepest 22% ramp to avoid doing a Jesper Skibby (we had a support car in tow).

But once former world champion Museeuw had given my bike a quick one-over – raising the saddle, sliding it further back, altering the handlebar incline – my mastering of the cobbles improved and I was soon careering over sectors as if I were a very slow Fabian Cancellara.

On the Taaienberg, I followed Johan into the gutter where, just days earlier, Van Avermaet – following Team Sky's Luke Rowe – had made his decisive move in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. But we hadn't come all the way over on a crazy day trip to cut cobbled corners and parry the pavé. From here on in it was the hard stuff all the way.

The Oude Kwaremont – the 2.2km sector which features three times in the 255km race, twice in conjunction with the far steeper Paterberg – was a particular favourite of mine. It's here where the likes of Sagan, Boonen and Cancellara can use their power to up the tempo and pulverise the field; I was merely happy to be able to stay in the big chain ring and avoid a puncture.

Replicating the Flanders finale, we tackled the Paterberg ahead of the final 10km back to Oudenaarde. This is a climb that was introduced into the race in 1986 after a cycling-mad farmer decided to cobble over one of his farm tracks. It peaks at 20% and is a favourite of Museeuw, who admitted to having ridden it "over a thousand" times in his life (he turned 50 last October).

At the top, while we were waiting for one of our companions to mend his broken chain (which about sums it all up, really), Johan got off his bike and performed a strange ritual which can be best described as making a cobble angel.

Back at the Centrum Ronde Van Vlaanderen in Oudenaarde we ordered a round of beers and some lunch. Eschewing the Cancellara Carbonara, we opted for the Flandrien meal of choice: Spaghetti Boonannaise. And while reloading on carbs, I got speaking to Museeuw about the upcoming spring classics campaign – and in particular the two cobbled Monuments which he won three times each in his illustrious career.

The subplot of the 100th edition of the Tour of Flanders is, of course, the supposed final showdown between the two riders whose rivalry has characterised the race over the past decade: Boonen and the soon-to-be-retiring Cancellara. Like Museeuw, they – and three others – lead the way with three wins in the Ronde. Should one of them add an unprecedented fourth, history would be made.

"Both Boonen and Cancellara could win," said Museeuw. "But other riders – maybe even 20 others – also. It will be difficult to stay in the main group of five, six, seven riders. But they can do it. They have more chance in Roubaix than in Flanders. They are both great classics riders, but both different. Cancellara was a chrono man and Boonen was a sprinter and a classic man. They have both big palmares."

Having put the so-called world champion's curse to bed at Gent-Wevelgem, Sagan should be primed to play a key role at Flanders. The Slovakian finished second behind Cancellara in 2013 and fourth last year, and he's still to win a Monument after 17 appearances in the major one-day races.

"For the moment Sagan is very strong here but his team is not so strong, especially at the beginning of the race. It's a race and you have to always be on the front from the beginning. It's nervous so you lose a lot of energy. You need experience to know when to be on the front. You can't be there all day, otherwise you can f*** off. That's always important – to have team-mates around you, so you don't have to go in the wind and they can help you if you have a problem."

Wearing the white jersey with the rainbow bands, however, makes you stand out – as Museeuw knows from experience. The Lion of Flanders failed to win a Monument in the season after he became world champion in 1996 and he feels for his Slovakian counterpart.

"After being world champion I didn't win a classic but I was always there. I crashed in Flanders. I have a flat tyre in Roubaix when I was in the break. Sagan has to understand that when he is at the start of the Tour of Flanders or at Paris-Roubaix he has to control the race with your team. For Sagan it will be the same. Everybody watches the jersey.

"But he will be good, don't worry. He will win a Monument. A couple of Monuments. But I don't know if he will this year. I don't hope that it's this year. [Laughs] For this year I hope it's us, Belgium."

Although the host nation has won 68 of the 99 editions of the Ronde so far, they are on a run of three years without a win. One more would make it a record-breaking drought for Belgium, so a new Lion of Flanders will have to step up and perform.

"The way van Avermaet is riding now he has a great chance," said Museeuw, before adding a word of warning for his Flanders favourite. "Van Avermaet is a good rider and he always wants to attack. But sometimes it's better to wait and stay. A rider likes to ride with his legs – with his feelings. If you're feeling great you want to go. But sometimes it's better to stay and wait for the right moment."

One Belgian potential lion cub who Museeuw is unsure about is LottoNL-Jumbo's Sep Vanmarcke, who struggled to make an impression last year after finishing runner-up in Roubaix in 2013 and third in Flanders in 2014.

"Vanmarcke? There's always the big question mark over how he will feel. [Skipping Omloop] is a new preparation for him. We will see. He skipped lots of races this year and it's always dangerous to do that. Last year he wasn't ok. There was so much pressure and he didn't perform. He's a good rider but he's not a Van Avermaet. On the cobbles he's good, very good. But he's not a [Philippe] Gilbert or a Boonen or a Van Avermaet."

If Museeuw was quick to name his tip for victory – "I said one name last year: Greg van Avermaet. And I always stay with the same name" – and even hastier in naming his favourite for Paris-Roubaix – "Zdenek Stybar" – he was less sure when quizzed about Sagan's immediate prospects in the Monuments.

Asked who would win a Monument first between Sagan and Team Sky (who, like the world champion, have never won one of the five major one-day classics in the cycling calendar), Museeuw seemed positively flummoxed. At first he laughed at the question. Then he paused. For. A. Rather. Long. Time. (While deep in reflection, the catchy chorus of "Freedom" played out from Aretha Franklin's hit 'Think'.)

"A Monument, yeah?" he asked, buying some time, before going through and naming each of the Monuments individually, buying some more. "Sky have [Michal] Kwiatkowski (ed – who outfoxed Sagan in E3 Harelbeke before Easter)..." After another long pause – and some more of Franklin's Freedoms – Museeuw banged the table. "But Sagan will win first."

And with that bombshell, the Lion of Flanders was off, leaving only a half empty glass of Kwaremont beer and an exhausted, but contented, group of Brits needing to zip off back to Calais to make their return train back to Blighty.