Escape from Amsterdam

Queensday fell on a Friday this year. Public holiday, yeah!

A walk through Luxembourg

Ascension is a public holiday in the Netherlands. Being on a Thursday I got the Friday off as a bridge day. Four days off, it was too good to miss. With a forecast of wonderful weather what more could we want? We decided to go walking so took a train on Wednesday afternoon to Luxembourg.

Romania Business Trip

The business trip to Bucharest started well with jokes in the taxi from the airport, shared between Hessel, Arjan, Giovanni and myself. We passed along wide boulevards into town. Plush but decaying villas lined the roads. I could see why Bucharest was likened to Paris, more so when the Arculi de Triomf came into view. Though it maybe unfair to judge the city on a dull early winter's day, Bucharest is rundown and dirty though has as a grand feeling to it at the same time. It was also absolutely huge, at least that's how it felt coming from little Amsterdam. From the balcony of my hotel I had a panoramic view of dirty greyness.

Wachtendonk 600

What a weekend! I'm glad I did it, just to know what I can do. Whether I would have done again had I had I known how difficult it was to turn out is another matter. My enthusiasm from the Tournai 600 carried me through a tiring week during which I didn't really catch up on sleep. The buzz of completing my first 600 had me wanting more. I called the Michael Koth, who organises the brevet out of Wachtendonk and committed to come. On Wednesday I found out that there was a train strike affecting all trains in the Netherlands.

I should have seen this as a sign to take the weekend off. But I didn't, I managed to cadge a lift with a colleague to the general area of Wachtendonk and cycled the rest. The problem was that I didn't arrive at the start until midnight. This meant little sleep. I spent the next 40 hours in deficit, sleeping at every opportunity.

The brevet was really tough, going through the hilly Ardennes the entire way. My GPS reckoned just under 6000 metres gained. Cool!

Tournai 600

I decided to take a couple of days off, my first in over 6 months. Of course these days would be spent in the saddle. I'm not sure if I'd know what to do with time off spent anywhere else. On a fine Thursday evening I took a train to Mechelen, a small city just North of Brussels. I stayed at the fine, modern youth hostel there, having a room to myself. The following morning after a nice breakfast shared with a group of relaxed North Americans on a cycle trip I headed towards Tournai.

Tournai was lovely, though I think the weather Gods realised that I was about to leave Belgium, as the was a cold wind blowing (ed. the weather is always nice when I'm in Belgium). The youth hostel, though not modern was very friendly. I managed to get myself up nice and early and met the others at the cafe. From there it was all up and down to Fecamp. Along the way I had a nice chat with Jean-Pierre and Michel. The latter gave me all sorts of ideas about doing Diagonales de France. At 8pm or so we arrived in Fecamp where it was getting good and cold. It was a bit annoying that we'd arrived late and I didn't feel like going the final kilometre or so to check out the sea. Instead it was to a bar to eat a rather poor excuse for French cuisine. Anyway it was filling enough and no-one really wanted to waste time eating since we had to be up at 5am. The following morning I decided that I would go it alone and my legs felt great so I just steamed off. I spent the day thinking about more and more cycling! I arrived in good shape, though I got myself a bit lost towards the end which was very annoying. All in all a great day!

Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2005

Having had such a nice time following the LBL last year, I'd decided that I had to turn this little trip into an annual event. This year (as last) I didn't feel much up to it on Saturday, though this year it was the tail end of a cold that reduced my enthusiasm. I took a train to Maastricht then cycled along the Maas to Liege. It rained a bit along the way but I really enjoyed the ride, being the second evening ride along that route this year. The peace and quiet of riding as the sun goes down is great. As normal I stayed at the Liege Youth Hostel and the next morning I went into the centre of town and caught the sign-on. The area around where the team buses were all parked was accessible to the public, it was even possible to peer into the buses! At around 10:45am the riders started off and I headed back to the hostel to pick up my bike in order to see some hills. I'd decided that I would wait for the riders at the top of the Cote de la Redoute, a killer hill that I hoped would slow them down a bit, where they weren't supposed to arrive until about 4pm. From Liege to there were a few kilometers of quiet hilly roads. I was still feeling the tail end effects of the cold and by the time I got to the top of the Redoute I was beat! An hour or so later the first riders came through. Vinokourov and Voigt seemed to come off the top at the sorts of speed that I'm capable of on the flat! The chasers were looking pretty knocked by the hill, they never managed to the catch them and Vino won the sprint in Ans to take the race. After the riders came past a French-Belgian TV crew came by asking people to say something, they pointed the camera at me and I tried to mumble something but I think I sounded like a fool, I expect that it got cut out in the edit. Once the last riders past the end of race car signaled the re-opening of the road. I time trailed it to Maastricht, a distance of 45km or so. I got home exhausted shortly before midnight.

Ronde van Vlaanderen 2005

What a great event! Though I have to say that this feeling didn't really surface until the next day.

The first 130km of the cyclo passed reasonably quickly. I'd been warned not to allow the enthusiasm of the occasion overcome sensibility and start too fast. This logic ruled for about 20 minutes of relatively slow riding from Brugge until a faster group came past and everybody jumped. About 100km later and I got spat out the back worrying that I wouldn't have enough for the next 150km. Not long before the beginning of the hills I realised that the cleats on my new shoes weren't quite as well adjusted as I had thought. For the next 100km I was in pain management mode, but there was no way that I was going to give in. Things got better at the Muur, and I positively enjoyed the Bosberg, not that I was going fast at any point, I swear I passed more than passed me. I arrived in Meerbeke at 6pm, having left Brugge at 6:45am. I was happy to have finished the whole course without walking once. Though it was a near thing on the Koppenburg.

The next day I slept in, until 7am and caught the start in Brugge. I had a great spot on the barrier just by the start. I got a nice shot of Boonen and Hincapie chatting and wishing each other luck! From there I caught a train to Geraadsbergen. I had another go at the Muur, was *almost* able to stay in the saddle this time. Shortly afterwords I caught the Belgian equivalent of soccer Mums in action, with the kids Ronde going up. I'm sure some of them had flasher bikes than me! After that I sat in a pub to watch the action on TV until about 4pm then I went back the Muur to wait for the race. It was fun watching the locals trying to get into a good position on the hillside above the Muur. A police officer would come by and tell them to move, as soon as she'd gone new ones would clamber up. In the end even with re-enforcements she had to give up, she couldn't block the race! After the lead group and the chasers came past the crowd went down to the square just above the main church where a large screen showed Boonen's triumphant entry into Meerbeke.

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I was a perfect weekend, and one that I hope I can repeat again. Though I think I need to improve power if there's any chance of
getting up the Koppenberg in the saddle. Even on such a dry day my back wheel was spinning as I was out the saddle. Something to aim for in 2006 ...

What's the next challenge??

My first brevet

I just finished my first brevet, a 200km in the Niederrhein region of Germany. On Friday night I took a train to Venlo on the other side of the border. There had been quite a bit of snow in the preceding week and as a consequence the trains were a bit chaotic. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get to the youth hostel that I had booked in Hinsbeck before it closed. I found the newly constructed but almost completely empty hostel at about 10pm. The assigned bunk room was completely mine, which was nice so I could spread out and most importantly no snorers to keep me up. I woke the next morning to see that the light snow that started just as I arrived had continued and there was a dusting of snow on the roads. Having cycled to work in the week before through much more than that I wasn't phased. I hit the road for the 10km ride to the start of the brevet in Wachtendonk. I should have slept in a little more, I arrived way too early and soon discovered that I hadn't really brought warm enough clothes to be standing around for long. I was very glad when the group of 10 riders got moving at 8am. The first part of the brevet was along very minor roads, covered in snow. This caused a bit of chaos in the peloton, one rider fell twice in the first 5km, not a good start! Our bikes were a real picture, the wheels derailleurs and chain caked in snow! Soon afterward we lost a rider, who fortunately managed to catch up. Of course we got lost, the first checkpoint was Nederweert, which was only found due to my GPS! From there things became simpler, most of the road was in Holland where there had been less snow and more salt seemed to be used on the roads and cycle paths. Even so it snowed on and off all day and never went much above 4 degrees C all day. From there we headed in the direction of Eindhoven and Helmond to the next checkpoint in America where some food and a little self administered massage did wonders. Not long after setting off I had a puncture. I think I was getting a little frazzled, I couldn't work out how to use my new pump and found that I didn't bring a puncture repair kit. If I punctured my new tube I'd have been stuck. From there we were on the home stretch via the last on the road checkpoint at the BP station in Well, the ticking kilometers were watched very carefully. My chain was seriously squeaking and I made a mental note to carry chain oil in my tool kit, I had some with my luggage at the hostel. The reduced group was in silent road eating mode. The arrival back in Wachtendonk about 90 minutes inside the time limit was muted. Somehow I'd expected a bit more from the end, maybe everyone was only too happy to stop cycling and it was too cold to stand around outside and chat. The 10km run back to the hostel was much slow and the arrival was much appreciated.

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The next morning the sun was out, though it was even colder than the day before. The water froze on my bike as I cleaned it! I re-oiled my chain and was greatly relieved that the squeaky punishment that I'd meted on it seemed not to have caused permanent discernible damage. I set off South without a particular aim in mind, other than to pile up the kilometers. 130km and a couple of a castles I arrived in Maastricht, 3 hours later I was soaking in a very nice shower. I'd 350km in a weekend!

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