Meet-up ride: Tilburg - s'Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen

Bicycle: 81 km 

Riding time: 4:22 h
Total ascent: 183 m
Avg speed: 17.3 km/h
Max speed: 36.0 km/h 
Route: Tilburg - s'Hertogenbosch - Nijmegen
Weather: Sunny, a few drops of rain and STRONG tailwind, 23 C

So, today I had planned "the Quintessential route of Holland" around Leiden. But... I hadn't counted on the "Quintessential Dutch" strong wind. 

While still waking up, one of the co-riders pinged me on Meetup asking if we'd still be going ahead. I had closed the window during the night and wasn't aware on just HOW windy it was outside. After checking a bit the forecast, it looked like there were going to be winds of strength 6 all day today around Leiden... So not ideal for a round trip. 

After a little bit of further exploration with the help of Buienradar, I came up with a completely new, and much longer route, from Tilburg to Nijmegen, that had incorporated a strong tailwind. 

I had never been in Tilburg, s'Hertogenbosch or anywhere in that region, but thanks to route planner of the Fietserbond I was able to plan a route while on the train using the knooppunten system, which normally (and also today) assures quite scenic rides. I did a few manual modifications to the basic planning routing it even through more countryside and it really paid off. We had very nice and - for Dutch standards - quite varied landscape. Forrest, fields, small farmer villages, and an old city in the form of s'Hertogenbosch. But for me the highlight of the day was a small landscape of heath in full bloom. I think I have never seen that. In my entire life! So that was quite an experience:

Riding on we needed to cross the Maas, and - not surprising to me, as I had seen it in the route planned - but surprising to my co-riders, we embarked on a small ferry, which did run on demand. On our demand. A private crossing of the river. 

Thanks for the very strong tailwind it felt sometimes as if the bicycle had gotten a motor. Very relaxing ride. However when we needed to turn (occassionally) and got headwind (only in very few cases) or sidewinds, the wind was STRONG. 

Actually back in Leiden on my way back from the station, I nearly got to a standstill on the middle of a street crossing due to a strong side-headwind. 

Here the map of our ride today: