So I just got back from what ended up being a 3hr ride! Tim Harris rode to the start of the ride with me. It started in a parking lot across from a church in the town of Beginjendijk. Apparently Sven Nijs and Niels Albert live in this town and sometimes come out on this ride... they were there last Tuesday. Alex (a British rider who lives at the same house as Helen Wyman) rolled up just before the start, so I rode with him for most of the ride. We rolled out of town when the bell at the church tolled 1pm.
They have all these rules in Belgium about how things work. Cyclists must ride in the "bike lanes" which sometimes look like what we in the US would call "sidewalks" and what they call in England "pavement." If there is more than 15 people in a group then the cyclists can ride in the roadway two by two. If more than 50 people show up for a group ride the groups must be split up so there is no more than 50 per group. Apparently sometimes there are quite a bunch of groups. We were two groups today. So the loop is 75K at a nice steady pace, except for the accelerations out of every turn and up the few small hills. I was very grateful to Tim for printing a map of the route for me. for after the ride I needed to find my way back home. No one was left who could understand me, so I basically just kept going straight till I came to an intersection. You see the way it works here is you decide where to go at every intersection, you dont follow roads, you look for signs to towns. Then at the next town you look for the sign pointing to the next nearest town to where you want to go. Luckily for me, the ride route basically went through Westemeerbeek, the town were Tim and Joscelin live, and were I am staying. Also lucky for me Tim was in his ready to head out to the airport to pick up a some people and he honked his horn as I rode past. I had forgotten to take a good look at the house when we left and I would have ridden right past! So I didn't get lost, which really is pretty amazing.
The ride was pretty mellow, and my legs actually felt pretty good! We'll see how they feel this weekend in Lievin at the World Cup. I hope I still have some speed. So that's it for now, it's pretty quiet here, no one around. It just started sprinkling at the end of the ride, and it's quite grey out now. Tim Harris is an ex euro pro. He raced on Festina in the 90's! How about that! ~ Thanks for reading!
They have all these rules in Belgium about how things work. Cyclists must ride in the "bike lanes" which sometimes look like what we in the US would call "sidewalks" and what they call in England "pavement." If there is more than 15 people in a group then the cyclists can ride in the roadway two by two. If more than 50 people show up for a group ride the groups must be split up so there is no more than 50 per group. Apparently sometimes there are quite a bunch of groups. We were two groups today. So the loop is 75K at a nice steady pace, except for the accelerations out of every turn and up the few small hills. I was very grateful to Tim for printing a map of the route for me. for after the ride I needed to find my way back home. No one was left who could understand me, so I basically just kept going straight till I came to an intersection. You see the way it works here is you decide where to go at every intersection, you dont follow roads, you look for signs to towns. Then at the next town you look for the sign pointing to the next nearest town to where you want to go. Luckily for me, the ride route basically went through Westemeerbeek, the town were Tim and Joscelin live, and were I am staying. Also lucky for me Tim was in his ready to head out to the airport to pick up a some people and he honked his horn as I rode past. I had forgotten to take a good look at the house when we left and I would have ridden right past! So I didn't get lost, which really is pretty amazing.
The ride was pretty mellow, and my legs actually felt pretty good! We'll see how they feel this weekend in Lievin at the World Cup. I hope I still have some speed. So that's it for now, it's pretty quiet here, no one around. It just started sprinkling at the end of the ride, and it's quite grey out now. Tim Harris is an ex euro pro. He raced on Festina in the 90's! How about that! ~ Thanks for reading!
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