So we had a nice get together for the Herbalife team yesterday evening. One of our current sponsors, Belleheide, is a sport and bowling complex so the team manager set out to bring all the families together for an evening of food and bowling. The six hour ride was the next day.
We were served a mixed grill with chicken, steak, sausage, and other little varieties that we could fry up in front of us. Sort of a mini bbq for the table.
Nico giving a small presentation before the start. I just remember him saying how much dinner cost because the easiest thing for me to make out was the numbers. Actually that is probably the easiest thing for me to understand during a conversation is anything with numbers I tend to grasp it right away. I remember at the Duvel brewery tour I attended in the spring it was also the only thing I was able to grasp. It is not that I don't get any Dutch, well its just that I don't get it. I had a great time and hope everyone did the same!Afterwords we tried to go out and I say "try" because the first place we went I was quickly held back at the door. The reason being "geen sportschoenen." No sport shoes allowed to which I almost replied they are not sport shoes they are Pumas. The second place we went is called Route 66 and touted a sign saying "the second life." However it was pretty dead so we passed. Our third attempt was the Tropicana and there was also nothing going on there. So we called it at a night at 2 a.m. and headed home. However I wasn't much for sleeping so I stayed up a bit later, I'd say until 3 or so. I was watching some show on TV 4 and for some reason couldn't turn it off.
The next day in some 32 cities in Flanders it was "Autolozoe zondag." Essentially no cars in the cities for the whole day! Yahoo! So I decided to ride from Ninove to Gent to experience this wonderful idea. I decided to also try out a route planner that is online at fietsnet.be. There is an entire network of bike routes that are numbered with signs throughout Flanders. Find where you want to start, click the number, find the endpoint and set it as an endpoint. The route planner gives you the numbers to follow so it is easier to find your way. I've tried this in the past and never got very far. I think I found it a little annoying or something and just didn't stick to it. Today however it was my personal goal to fulfill the list, which tapped to my bike and was some 35 different routes long. I needed a goal for the day and a ride from Ninove to Gent was going to be it. The picture to the left is just a few of the single track sections that is normally reserved for mountain biking but as you may notice it is paved. It is a strange feeling to racing along "paved" single track.
To give you an idea of how the system works after I left Gent to return to Ninove I took a series of pictures to demonstrate. I simply traced my return in return and started following the numbers to find my way home. One key point about the system though is it is not designed to be the shortest distance between two point. It is however designed to be the most pleasant for cycling and I must say all the roads (and even the unpaved ones) were actually very nice and pretty much car free. I really enjoyed the entire ride and was very pleased with how the system worked. Naturally I missed a few turns when I started going to fast or because of the vegetation blocking my view. Here I started with the "1" route.
I followed the "1" route to the "99" route, which wasn't paved. Hard pack dirt road with small stones on top. Not bad for cycling with 23c tires at all. Actually if I hadn't have ridden in Belgium for nearly three months already I would have been more hesitant. However stuff like this now just standard part of my experiences. I rip pass guys on mountain bikes all the time. In fact today I almost wiped out in a really soft, powdery, silty like section.
And so the story continues, from one route to the next until you've reached your destination. So today I had 5 hours and 47mins of riding. A little FYI for riding around on Sunday. If you think you might be hungry take food with you because on Sunday Flanders is closed for business. It wasn't until after 4 hours that came back past a bakery that I passed on my way to Gent that I had a rijstartje and I later found a cola at a gas station around hour 5. I wasn't riding fast though so it wasn't too bad, but it was a long ride for not having eaten much in the morning and no lunch. NOT the way to train might I add.
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