Blog
Bench
I never understand why there seems to be so many more benches for walkers than mountain bikers. After all, we work harder than walkers (except when we're walkers ourselves). So, this morning, I was pleased to see a brand-new bench had appeared alongside the train this morning. As I sat on it drinking my coffee that i had brought with me, I wondered if this was perhaps the beginning of a new trend. We can but hope.
Summer time
The woods are still bare and leafless, but at least the evenings are longer now that the clocks have gone forward. There are precious few wildflowers yet; the odd bank of little celendines, anf flowering blackthorn and Amelanchia. The gardens are well ahead with all their plants bred to give early spring colour. The Magnolias in our street are a sight to see.
It has been the dryest March on record and already the woodland paths are dusty. I have to take care as I cycle around the corners that my wheels don't slip on the treacherous grey sand that a month ago was sticky black mud. I dread to think what conditions will be like come August.
But for now, the pleasure of being able to get out for an evening ride before it gets dark is simply great.
Damp
There was enough rain that no one else from the club wanted to come cycling this morning. It was supposed to be ten degrees, but in fact it was only 5-6 degrees, according to my bike computer. Nevertheless, I had shorts on, the fisrt time this year, and I wasn't cold. Or maybe a little, but not my legs. I wore my Sealskin gloves and my hands stayed 100% dry so that was great. My feet got wetter and wetter though, due to the rain running off my legs.
I thought that I would have the woods to myself, but to my surprise there were all sorts of dog walkers, groups of people running and walking. Not a mountain biker to be seen, though.
The damp conditions meant that the mosses showed up beautifully on the tree trunks. I remembered learning once that moss grows on the North side of trees, and sure enough, as I swept through the woods, that did indeed seem to be the case.
Last week, I was still recovering from the flu, and quite weak. It was great to find that today I seemed to have recovered a bit of power in my legs. With all the mud around, that was needed, as well.
Wet woods
In the last week, we have had large quantities of rain and snow, so not surprisingly, everything was extraordinarily muddy in the woods today. There were lots of puddles, and even some areas were flooded that normally only do that once the ground is frozen. What was more surprising is that it was getting on ten degrees warmer today than yesterday. It had been forecast, but I had found that hard to believe.
I had dug out my long cycling trousers, reasoning that it was the end of November. My companion did better, putting on shorts, although he did mutter about cold water on his legs as we splashed through the puddles. I was very happy that I had worn both my winter waterproof boots and my waterproof shorts. Waterproof shorts seem pointless, but in weather like this they are a Godsend, keeping your backside nice and dry.
The conditions did make it hard going, though. Especially the sand was very clingy, with our nice grippy tyres hanging onto it as they sunk down into it. We took a strategic decision to bypass what is usually the muddiest section of the route. That was definitely the right thing to do, but we did end up going through an area of lots of unleashed dogs. They were not aggressive or anything, but they, and their owners, did clutter up the track, so that we diverted again onto a cycle path. In general, there were an awful lot of people around, especially considering the foul conditions underfoot (and under wheel). I guess that was partly due to the cold and sleet yesterday.
It might have been muddy today, but at least it was better than it would have been if we went out yesterday.
TCW end of season
Twice a year, our club, the TCW (Tour Club Wageningen) arrange that its members can have coffee and cake at some café that is within cycling distance from Wageningen for the racing bikes and often it is near to a nice mountain bike route. Today 'Boscafé de Zweef' was filled to the brim and overflowing with cyclists. It was such beautiful weather, ridiculously warm for almost November and the woods were filled wth glowing autumn colours.
Before the coffee and cake, our small group did two routes. First of all we cycled the Malden route. That was almost completely flat and consisted largely of straight paths, even with some asphalted cycle paths. In some seasons it would have been boring, but there were lots of American oaks, which had spectacular bright autumn colours, quite stunning.
The original plan was to have our coffee break after cycling the first loop, but we were done with that so soon that we quickly changed our minds. The Mook route was close and that was much more of a proper mountain bike route, full of twists and turns and with a reasonable amount of up and down, some of it quite steep. It was also nearly all in woodland, which was less spectacularly coloured than Malden, but nevertheless a delight to see.
After that, we were ready for our coffee. The café was notable for having a glider hung from the ceiling, all decorated with fairy lights. It is next to an airfield for gliders and 'de Zweef' almost means 'the glider'.
Although some of the other cyclists there were from the faster mountain bike groups, most were on their racing bikes. Why is our group so relatively small? Surely it is obvious that cycling in the woods is much more fun, and surely not everyone wants to go fast? And our season doesn't end in October, we keep going. What more could you want?
Last Gear Eerbeek 25 jaar jubileum
It is always a great feeling, when you are heading towards the start of a mountain bike tour and as you get closer you see more and more people heading the same way, both on their mountain bikes and in cars with bikes hanging off the back. It gives you the feeling that this is not just a regular ride in the woods, but that you are part of something larger.
The Eerbeek cycling club ('Last Gear') were celebrating their silver jubilee (25 years), so it was indeed a special occasion. The start was well-organised with bike stands for whilst you were signing in and plenty of people staffing the desks so that it went quickly and smoothly. There was even a DJ with music and commentary, reminding us that parts of the route were into areas where you were never normally allowed to go.
It was incredibly good weather. When I set off it was even a little chilly at 9°, but by the end it was 21° and even a little too warm. There was a brilliant blue sky the whole time, with bright sunshine. There had been enough rain that the ground was mostly firm, but only a couple of small patches of mud (I didn't even need to clean my bike when I got back) and several longer patches of really loose sand, which was sometimes quite challenging.
The route was nearly all in woodland and heathland and it was gorgeous. The heather had mostly gone over, but there were still a few bushes flowering. The woodland was mixed, mostly deciduous and showing the first signs of autumn. There was lots of singletrack, often quite technical with sharp turns and short steep climbs (a couple that were even so steep and unexpected that I had to get off) and also a fair amount of wider stretches, where the faster people could get past. We were promised 320 height-meters, over 60 km but my bike computer claimed that it was nearly 500 hm and I must say that it felt more like that. Last week I was on holiday in the Eifel, where the hills are steeper and go on for kilometres, so this didn't feel too bad.
All in all, a great, well-organised tour, I was very fortunate it was organised during my holiday in Eerbeek.
