· Beste fietsklimmersvrienden van Holland en van onze aarde van ontvangst vandaag : Vlaanderen,

· Best cycleclimbing friends from England,

· Cari amici cicloscalatori della bella Italia

· Mi queridos amigos cicloescaladores de España,

· Chers amis cyclogrimpeurs de France et de Wallonie,

· Het zal niet mogelijk zijn om mijn redevoering in vijf talen te lezen want het zou te lang zijn, derhalve zal ik tevredenstellen me met het Engels. Bedankt voor uw begrijp !

· It will not be possible to read my speech in five languages because it would be too long, therefore I will be satisfied with English. Thank you for your comprehension !

· Non sarà possibile leggere il mio discorso in cinque lingue poiché sarebbe troppo lungo, dunque mi accontenterò dell'inglese. Grazie per la vostra comprensione !

· No será posible leer mi discurso en cinco lenguas ya que sería demasiado largo, por lo tanto me satisfaré con el inglés. Gracias para su comprensión !

· Ce ne sera pas possible de lire mon discours en cinq langues car ce serait trop long, donc je me contenterai de l'anglais. Merci pour votre compréhension.

We are not in high altitudes. Because B.I.G is our dream, we are perhaps in the clouds but we are not really near the sky with an altitude of 100 meters around here. There is a difference between Kemmel and something other like Passo dello Stevio, Pico Veleta or the giant Galibier, of course.

But well, here, we are in a basic earth of cycling, with wellknown landscapes so many times watched on the television, with mounts of legend, where people all along the roads are among the best knowers of the cycling world.

It’s a little funny to imagine that the climbs in our challenge, inside our dear list, where the members will go the most probably by foot, not being able to climb with the bike anymore, are of course monsters like the Angliru, or the still more crazy Malga Palazzo, but also… the Koppenberg , eighty meters high.

It’s on that fact that Flanders has built since a long time its own cycling history, with its material because Flanders lives for and with the bike and manage the bike’s evolution with other mountaineous countries. Flanders is a temple of the cycling history.

It’s why it’s quite normal that a BIG’s meeting happens here. After two first meeting in Wallonia in the 90’s (in Annevoie and Trois-Ponts), two meetings in the Netherlands (Rheden and Drielandenpunt), one in Luxemburg, one big meeting in Switzerland (in Saint-Ursanne), another one in the Ardennes (in Rotheux with Jacques Franck’s club), one in Hungary, one in Catalogna with Claudio Montefusco’s club), one big meeting last year in Italy (in Trento in company with the UIC) and before the following ones in Germany (in Sonthofen with Karl Brenner in 2009), England (with Kevin Speed in 2010) and in Provence in 2011, this year is for Flanders and Flanders is worthy.

Our meetings are not always easy to manage due to the distance between our locations in Europe but it has always been a success because it’s a splendid moment to meet the other european cycleclimbers. Because of the languages’barreers, it’s not always to understand one to another, and mostly here riding on those terrible and ugly cobbles all along the day.

But well, the cycleclimbing language is universal and the communion of our way of life gives us the ability to be understood and to find friendship with other cyclists who have other languages, who ride with other speeds and other daily goals. A common passion links us everywhere.

It’s always a pleasure to meet us together, to share our experiences, to speak about the challenge, to prepare together our next travels, to see the faces of computer cycling friends that we’ve never seen before, to cycle in their company, to compare our methods, our materials, our bikes, our ways to convince our families to give us the permission to ride some BIGs every year. Not so easy, isn’t it ?

With 1.000 members, it could become ipersonal, a too big enterprise. But one of my goal is to keep this challenge out of the business world, under the hands and the heads of cycling people only, with great respects between our differences in the european countries, just like a great family who can more than anybody else understand what his brother says because he has already lived the same adventure one day.

Anda round the table, we can have no difficulty to speak together, even perhaps with the hands and the arms, with some signs like those ones, to eat together like today evening and of course also to drink together. Don’t forget the slogan of some of us : « one BIG, one beer ». Don’t hesitate, but in the case anyway that you have really to choose, choose the BIG and not the beer. World is not necessarily perfect.

Last thing, I would like to thank some guys :

· Marc Desender who manages so kindly our meetings with success.

· Our secretary Helmuth Dekkers, who came today with his extended family, and who works so hardly for our challenge and the newsletters

· Dominique Jacquemin, who will come tomorrow and without who the challenge would have never been alive anymore in the 90’s, when my life obliged me to let it down for a few time.

· Christian Le Corre who agreed recently to manage a difficult task and who is now our treasurer.

· François Candau who agreed to manage our promotion

· Marnix Van Hecke who has ridden with us today and who located all the BIGs on the Google maps

· Wouter De Ruyck who also rode with us today and who has fantastically created our new website with a terrible and unexpected success since the beginning of the year.

· Our pioneers in your countries who have been our lonely link during such a long time like Claudio Montefusco for Spain, Luigi Candeli for Italy or Kevin Speed for England.

· Thanks finally to all of you without who my cycleclimbing dreams would never be as good as they are currently. Thank you all to be here tonight. And congratulations for all the climbs in the superlist that you’ve already climbed.

· Welcome in Flanders, Congratulations and cheers !

· Bienvenue en Flandre, Félicitations et  bon appétit !

· Benvenuto in Fiandre, Congratulazioni e salute !

· Bienvenidos, Enhorabuena y salud !

· Welkom in Vlaanderen, Proficiat en gezondheid !