Tomas de Gendt specializes in crazy long distance rides, and on Saturday the Belgian escape specialist took on the 300km Milan-San Remo Monument ride with Lotto Soudal's teammate Jasper De Buist.

The first Monument of the season was scheduled to take place on Saturday, but was postponed from the race calendar due to the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, Belgian racers were still allowed to train on public roads, and the two Lottos took advantage of this opportunity for an extensive training session.

"It was planned because we wanted to honor the 300 km Milan-San Remo in the wake of the Coronavirus," De Gendt told Cycling News on Sunday afternoon, with his feet on the couch.

"Jasper lives in my neighborhood and was going to compete in the Milano-San Remo race.

"We both started at home and did a 280 km lap together. It was 10 km before we met and another 10 km each on the way back. We ran between the capitals of the Belgian provinces. We ran through Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and other big cities. We saw big markets with no one in them and the roads were really quiet. In that sense, it was perfect timing"

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The trip took 10 hours, mainly because de Gendt and de Baist had to deal with a strong headwind for almost half of the run. De Gendt admitted that this was the longest training ride of his life and much more difficult than completing Milan-San Remo.

"It took me 10 hours. I was aiming for 30 km/h but for about 120 km there was a strong headwind. It took me a long time, but the last 3 hours I had a tailwind. I won't ride again for the next few days. I can still ride out there and it's good to release some frustration."

While they were out, they took several measures to keep themselves and those around them as safe as possible. Hand sanitizer was used when needed, and the riders kept a safe distance from each other during training.

"We took measurements to make sure they were safe," de Gendt said.

"We took alcohol gel with us, so if we stopped, which we rarely did, we washed our hands before entering the bakery. I washed my hands before entering the bakery and again after leaving the bakery. I took as much food as I could before leaving home and ended up stopping only once, keeping as much as 1.5 meters between us as possible. It was harder than Milan - San Remo. It was pretty hard. I'm used to riding bikes for six or seven hours. I've only done two eight-hour runs and one nine-hour run, so the 10-hour run was the longest training I've ever done."