NICE AND QUICK

120 kms | 3 h 52 m | avg speed 31.1 km/h | avg hr 150 bpm | 1.836 kcal

The ride today wasn’t much different from last weekend. Actually it was 99% the same. I just change one of the climbs at the turn around point as I’ve never done it. It was the Defesieweg in Elst and it was a great climb. The new thing is that this time I brought a little camera and I got some nice quick movies of the ride. Take a look after the link.

A volta de hoje não foi muito diferente do treino do último domingo. Na verdade foi 99% igual já que a única coisa que eu mudei foi a última ladeira no ponto de retornar. Eu fiz a subida do Defensieweg em Elst, que é uma novidade para mim. A outra novidade é que eu levei uma câmera e fiz alguns filmes dos lugares que passei. Dá uma olhada depois do link

Today was the second stage of the Tour de France, leaving Utrecht. And they were going to pass over almost in front of my house. That is a nice thing to see them but not if you get stranded in one side of the road and able to get back home in time. Because of that, I left home early at 7:30 and decided to repeat the same route from last week. To make sure I would be able to ride 120 kms in around 4 hours and come back in time to have a shower, eat and see the tour passing.

Another reason to leave early is that for the last week, Holland has been extremely warm. Temperatures are going above 35 degrees celsius. So, leaving early would allow me to be back home before the worst part of the day. But even at 7:30, the temperature was already 20 degrees. Not common for Holland.

The ride up to Amerongen was not much to talk. Steady 32/34 km/h on top of the Lekdijk from home to Nieuwegein, getting into the dike itself and riding via Wijk bij Duurstede and Amerongen. I tried to capture movies from the places I like the most on the ride. I borrow a little polaroid cube camera, which is not much bigger than a good dice, and the image is actually very good but battery time is very limited. Unfortunately, operating the start recording proved more difficult than expected and some of the movies got corrupted.

I had a difficult time getting the camera to stop recording. To make it stop the only way was to press the off switch. When I got back home half of the movies were corrupted. They were actually from most of the nice parts: passing thru Wijk bij Duurstede, climbing the Defensieweg in Elst and Amerongse Beg.

But some were good. Below is the entering point of the Lekdijk in Nieuwegein. I like the way it starts from the watergate into a little coublestone section. I try to ride on top of the white bricks that is smoother. And amazing of not, you can stay on it for quite a long time.

The one below is the ride on top of the dike. I love riding there because you have a great view of the fields on both sides and you can see the Lek river going far in the distance. You can see 12 kilometers in the distance the bridges and top of the churches. And even more, you can ride like this for almost 50 kms without any interruption with traffic lights, stops, cars, etc. It is a great place to train endurance.

Right after Wijk bij Duurstede on the way back a nice group passed me. I was doing 34/35 km/h and they were doing 38/39 km/h. It was an interesting thing. I couldn’t take them over because I wouldn’t be able move ahead of them against the wind. But they weren’t going fast enough to drop me. Actually, I couldn’t even push harder otherswise I would get in the middle of their group, which is not much appreciated. At the point on the movie, they decided to slow down. It was a pitty because that slowed me down and I wanted to enter this turn on the movie at higher speed. Still, it is a nice U shaped turn with a descend and a little climb that I try to do faster every time.

All in all, a very nice day. Warm and quick. I managed to complete the 120 kms way below the 4 hours target. Great!