Bicycle: 84 km
Riding time: 4:40 h
Total ascent: 129 m
Avg speed: 17.8 km/h
Max speed: 33.8 km/h
Route: A round around Den Haag and from/to Leiden
Weather: Sunny and clouds, 18 C
On this long weekend this was my second day in the saddle... this time on my big idworxs bike... which I haven't really yet started to like... and hell is my "carriage" sore. Such a hard saddle. Tomorrow back to the brompton, narrow saddle but more padding.
Today I signed up to a Meet-up in Den Haag organized by a guy with whom I rode already twice last year, including a very nice ride out to Brielle. The topic today was a ride just once around Den Haag, and was per description about 37 km... So how did it get into a 84 km adventure? Well, Leiden isn't Den Haag, and I had decided yesterday that 37 km are a bit too lazy, meeting time was late enough (11:00) so that I'd ride out directly from home and ride on the big bike, that's so uncomfortable brining on the train (because so heavy).
So there I went. I had plotted out yesterday with this web site:
https://en.routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/ (okay, I know, already over a year riding in the NL, and just found about this page yesterday while on the train to Eindhoven...) a route directly from home to the meeting point, helped by the very small gridded postal codes in the NL, and a setting on the app to go along knooppunten. One can then download the entire route as GPX data and drop into the NEW FILES folder on the garmin. All done! (well, except the ride though). The first part of the ride, I knew very well, just along the train lines on a reserved cycling path far away for many kilometres from any cars, my "don't think about anything, "racing" path". Then into Den Haag, where I actually got semi-lost because of one turn on a parallel (or so it seemed) path from the real one... but it turned out the two where diverging quite rapidly. But well, I found the group and we set off.
This time we were a group of 6, no one with a racing bicycle, like last time (very intimidating to see those guys... but finally also riding with them was actually quite fun ... at least for me... maybe not for them ;-). 3 I already knew, the organizer, an other Dutch guy and a then obviously the same Polish lady with whom I rode yesterday. Plus 2 new guys, a Spaniard and a Briton.
It is amazing how quickly one (well me, today, at least) looses orientation, when just following someone else. I am not someone to loose orientation easily, but if you know that you just need to follow the leader, sense of orientation... bye-bye. At some point we stopped for a short break and I was honestly thinking we were oriented in direction on Rotterdam, and that we'd be pretty close to the sea. Well, I could not have been more wrong. A bit later on we sat down in a nice Italian restaurant with a terras outside, in a nice small old city and were sitting there quite some time, just beside a sluice. I liked the place and someone told me that along that canal one could ride all the way to Amsterdam and that Leiden was in that direction (obviously) as well. Only when we were leaving and I was saying, well "Leidschendam can't be very far from here", the organizer looked at me in mild bewilderment saying "this IS Leidschendam", not knowing how often I had already ridden from Leiden along that very canal to Leidschendam, had come to that very same sluice, crossed it, had a looked at the church, and then turned back.
Here proof of some of my previous excursions to Leidschendam, including one in winter where the canal was slightly frozen (and I had come by bus):
So does this mean my sense of orientation goes South when I follow someone else? Or that all Dutch villages just look alike (at least to me)?
Well, we had nice lunch and then headed back to the centre of Den Haag where we bid our farewells and I continued on my ride back to Leiden.
The meet-up ride was about 42 km, and starts in the below Strava at km 21 until km 63. But for me it was obviously longer and unfortunately at about km 75 saddle soreness kicked in. However if it wouldn't be for that I had a feeling that I could have ridden on, at my pace, to about 100 km without problems. Just need to get a saddle with more cushion. Not sure why this female saddle, specially measured for my buttocks is so uncomfortable on them. I vaguely remember that the bike fitter mentioned that one should sit on the bones... I do have my doubts. And my bones have no doubt at all, they are opposed to this idea with all their stubBONEss.
Total ascent: 129 m
Avg speed: 17.8 km/h
Max speed: 33.8 km/h
Route: A round around Den Haag and from/to Leiden
Weather: Sunny and clouds, 18 C
On this long weekend this was my second day in the saddle... this time on my big idworxs bike... which I haven't really yet started to like... and hell is my "carriage" sore. Such a hard saddle. Tomorrow back to the brompton, narrow saddle but more padding.
Today I signed up to a Meet-up in Den Haag organized by a guy with whom I rode already twice last year, including a very nice ride out to Brielle. The topic today was a ride just once around Den Haag, and was per description about 37 km... So how did it get into a 84 km adventure? Well, Leiden isn't Den Haag, and I had decided yesterday that 37 km are a bit too lazy, meeting time was late enough (11:00) so that I'd ride out directly from home and ride on the big bike, that's so uncomfortable brining on the train (because so heavy).
So there I went. I had plotted out yesterday with this web site:
https://en.routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/ (okay, I know, already over a year riding in the NL, and just found about this page yesterday while on the train to Eindhoven...) a route directly from home to the meeting point, helped by the very small gridded postal codes in the NL, and a setting on the app to go along knooppunten. One can then download the entire route as GPX data and drop into the NEW FILES folder on the garmin. All done! (well, except the ride though). The first part of the ride, I knew very well, just along the train lines on a reserved cycling path far away for many kilometres from any cars, my "don't think about anything, "racing" path". Then into Den Haag, where I actually got semi-lost because of one turn on a parallel (or so it seemed) path from the real one... but it turned out the two where diverging quite rapidly. But well, I found the group and we set off.
This time we were a group of 6, no one with a racing bicycle, like last time (very intimidating to see those guys... but finally also riding with them was actually quite fun ... at least for me... maybe not for them ;-). 3 I already knew, the organizer, an other Dutch guy and a then obviously the same Polish lady with whom I rode yesterday. Plus 2 new guys, a Spaniard and a Briton.
It is amazing how quickly one (well me, today, at least) looses orientation, when just following someone else. I am not someone to loose orientation easily, but if you know that you just need to follow the leader, sense of orientation... bye-bye. At some point we stopped for a short break and I was honestly thinking we were oriented in direction on Rotterdam, and that we'd be pretty close to the sea. Well, I could not have been more wrong. A bit later on we sat down in a nice Italian restaurant with a terras outside, in a nice small old city and were sitting there quite some time, just beside a sluice. I liked the place and someone told me that along that canal one could ride all the way to Amsterdam and that Leiden was in that direction (obviously) as well. Only when we were leaving and I was saying, well "Leidschendam can't be very far from here", the organizer looked at me in mild bewilderment saying "this IS Leidschendam", not knowing how often I had already ridden from Leiden along that very canal to Leidschendam, had come to that very same sluice, crossed it, had a looked at the church, and then turned back.
Here proof of some of my previous excursions to Leidschendam, including one in winter where the canal was slightly frozen (and I had come by bus):
So does this mean my sense of orientation goes South when I follow someone else? Or that all Dutch villages just look alike (at least to me)?
Well, we had nice lunch and then headed back to the centre of Den Haag where we bid our farewells and I continued on my ride back to Leiden.
The meet-up ride was about 42 km, and starts in the below Strava at km 21 until km 63. But for me it was obviously longer and unfortunately at about km 75 saddle soreness kicked in. However if it wouldn't be for that I had a feeling that I could have ridden on, at my pace, to about 100 km without problems. Just need to get a saddle with more cushion. Not sure why this female saddle, specially measured for my buttocks is so uncomfortable on them. I vaguely remember that the bike fitter mentioned that one should sit on the bones... I do have my doubts. And my bones have no doubt at all, they are opposed to this idea with all their stubBONEss.
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