Autumn bike ride

Autumn is a beautiful time of year as far as forests go, with that vibrant mix of greens, yellows, oranges, reds and browns. Add in some sunshine and a decent temperature, and you have all the ingredients for a lovely bike ride.

Last Sunday, the sky was clear when I woke up and the weather forecasts were good. My schedule for the day was empty, so the decision to go for a ride was easily made. Unfortunately, there’s hardly a patch of forest around here, but that was easily solved. I took my bike onto the train and travelled to the city of Amersfoort, in the centre of the Netherlands, right amidst several forests. (It’s also the place that I was born and lived in for the first nine months, but that was a coincidence. I went to Amersfoort because it’s surrounded by forests and there happens to be a bike route passing close to the railway station.)

This ride is called the Nieuwe Vuursche Route (have fun pronouncing that one) and it actually runs full circle, but I only did about two thirds. By the time I got to the town of Baarn, I felt like I’d done enough cycling for one day. Besides, the weather was deteriorating and it was getting quite late already, so I got onto the train and returned home.

From Amersfoort’s train station, the route first went west to the village of Den Dolder, running mostly along another railway (not the one I travelled on) and straight through the first bit of forest. The next part followed a regional road for a few kilometres, and even though there was a separate bike trail, that wasn’t too much fun. The good parts returned when the route got off that road (in the lower left of the map) and turned north. From there, it was all forests and hardly any cars in sight until the final one or two kilometres before Baarn.

The route was pretty easy to follow. It’s an “official” one, so it’s signposted all the way. The tricky part is that the signs aren’t too large and some of them were really easy to overlook. That caused me to miss a turn northwest of Den Dolder, bringing me into the village of Maartensdijk. The sky had gone cloudy by then, so I didn’t have the sun to point out that I was going west instead of north.

By the time I was back home, my odometer showed 47.3 km (29.4 mi), of which 39.2 km (24.4 mi) were part of the Nieuwe Vuursche Route (including the diversion to Maartensdijk). Unfortunately the weather didn’t turn out quite as good as I’d hoped (it was overcast most of the time), but the route itself was everything I could have wished for. I’ll finish this post with a few pictures to give an impression. (My new Picasa web album has a couple more pictures, plus larger versions of these.)

Exiting Amersfoort, the route followed a narrow bike trail on top of a small dyke.

The trail ran parallel to the railroad between Amersfoort and Den Dolder (just invisible on the left).

This is after Den Dolder, on one of the straight stretches north through the forest. The trail was barely wide enough to pass oncoming cyclists. The dirt to the left is a track for horses.

The ride carried on north across narrow leave-strewn trails.

Mushrooms thrived in many places.

West of Baarn, the ride went through this beautiful park.

Good Friday ride

The baseball season has started again and while that’s great in its own right, it does mean I have little time left for doing bike rides. Hence, today’s day off (for Good Friday), combined with beautiful weather (sunny and 15 °C or 59 °F), was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I ended up doing a leisurely 26.6-km ride (16.6 mi) through the farmland and lake area northeast of Leiden.

Starting from the B as usual, I did a counterclockwise round-trip past the villages of Leiderdorp, Hoogmade, Rijpwetering and Oud Ade. From the latter, I initially went north towards the Kagerplassen (Kager Lakes), because my map showed a trail running all the way along the lakes back to Leiden. I couldn’t find the trail, so I tracked back to Oud Ade and took an alternative route back.

This area is part of a larger stretch of land known as the Green Heart, a thinly populated area centred between the cities of Rotterdam, Den Haag, Leiden, Haarlem, Amsterdam and Utrecht. The land there has traditionally been much better suited for agriculture than for urban building. So far it has mostly resisted the expansion of the surrounding cities and I hope it will continue to do so. The pictures below should be sufficient reason.

A pasture southwest of the village of Hoogmade, with the village itself just visible in the distance.

The church of Hoogmade.

A dandelion and a red flower whose name I don’t know.

Another dandelion.

A mother sheep with two lambs feeding next to a ditch northeast of Hoogmade.

A duck in the Kagerplassen, a few seconds before it noticed me and took off.

For some more pictures, check out the Kagerplassen Route album in my photo galleries.

Tiresome

With the temperature close to 10 °C (50 °F), the weather forecasts devoid of rain, and my agenda empty, today was a good day for a bike ride. There was a rather strong southwesterly wind, so I arranged the route for headwinds first and tailwinds later. Since there’s only so many places one can find southwest of Leiden, I was pretty much going to redo my dune ride from four weeks ago. That’s fine, because I had a lot of fun with that one. I had a bit more time today, so I decided to extend the trip from Wassenaar to Scheveningen and cycle back through the dunes from there.

The blue trail is the ride I did last time, and the purple trail is today’s extended edition. The part within Leiden was also different this time around, but not enough that I felt like redrawing the picture. Starting at the B, I went from Leiden to Wassenaar and Scheveningen, then up north to Katwijk and back to Leiden.

Things were fine exactly to the point where I moved onto the new (purple) part, at the northern edge of Wassenaar. I’d stopped to check the map and make sure I was taking the right turn, and when I pushed off again, my bike felt all wobbly. The cause was quickly identified: a flat front tire. Just my luck!

Fortunately, I had brought a repair kit, unlike the last two times I went for a long ride, so in a way I really was lucky. I flipped my bike upside down and freed the inner tire from the outer. Next task: to find the puncture. But how to do that without a bucket of water to run the tire through? After doing nothing for a couple of minutes except sort of hoping the problem would magically fix itself, a friendly passer-by suggested that I might be able to hear the air hissing out if I inflated the tire a bit more. Sure enough, that worked and I found a tiny puncture.

And another one.

And a third.

Strangely enough, the outer tire looked fine. I examined it inside and out and couldn’t find anything that might have punctured the inner tire once, let alone three times. Anyway, having found the holes, it wasn’t much more work to repair the tire. But would the repairs hold?

I still wanted to do the entire ride, so I just took my chances and went for it. I made it through Wassenaar without the tire going flat again. On to Scheveningen and the trip’s half-way point… still nothing. By then I’d stopped worrying, leaving more room in my head to enjoy the ride. And enjoy I did! Scheveningen and especially Wassenaar are very wealthy towns, and the road I followed apparently is a favourite place for people to build their villas.

After the half-way point at Scheveningen I went into the dunes, following a bike trail that meanders all the way up to the town of Katwijk. The wind was still blowing strongly from the southwest, pushing me along hard. After suffering headwinds for the first twenty kilometres (12 mi), I was looking forward to that! It’s too bad that going fast also means the fun is over pretty quickly. Still, it was great while it lasted.

I went for a snack in Katwijk and walked around on the beach for a while, where the wind was even stronger than in the dunes. A couple of birds were enjoying the wind too, as well as the two fries I accidentally dropped. Oh well, good for them.

On the way back to Leiden my legs were beginning to hurt, and by the time I got home I was ready to just lie down and not move for a couple of hours. I guess that was to be expected after 43.6 km (27.1 mi). Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite go straight to bed. For one thing, it was only 6pm, which is really a bit too early. For another, I had to repair my front tire again. One of the patches had come partially loose, probably when I hit a bump in the road about a kilometre before I got home. That was annoying, but of course not all that bad, as it could have happened earlier just as easily. I just replaced the patch, taking extra care to seal it properly this time. Let’s hope the tire is still full tomorrow. Fingers crossed, everyone!

Winter ride

The lovely weather today made me feel like going for a bike ride, so that’s exactly what I did. It was quite cold (around 9 °C or 48 °F), but once I was underway, that didn’t really bother me. There was a decent bit of wind (though not nearly the storm from a few days ago), so I planned my ride for headwinds the first part and tailwinds the last part.

Starting from the B, I headed west out of the city and rode around part of the Valkenburgsemeer (Valkenburg Lake). From there I zigzagged to the small village of Rijksdorp, just north from the town of Wassenaar, which is one of the Netherlands’ most wealthy places. I carried on westwards into the dunes and turned right just before I got to the beach, following a truely wonderful bike trail through the dunes to the beach town of Katwijk. After a brief stop at the Katwijk beach, I made my way back to Leiden, with a detour past the Old Observatory. The entire ride was 32.7 km (20.3 mi) long; that’s my longest tour since last July’s Flower Bulb Route, and the longest ride I’ve ever done in any winter. I guess that’s the advantage of the current one being a few degrees warmer than normal.

The dunes northwest of Rijksdorp, with the beach and the North Sea behind me. The dunes extend about two kilometers from the beach.

The bike trail as it winds its way through the dunes. I followed the trail for about ten kilometers (six miles), but it runs for at least another ten in the other direction. There’s hardly a flat or straight part anywhere, making for a fun ride–especially with the strong tailwind I had today.

Sunset at the Katwijk beach at around half past four. The structures just visible on the left part of the horizon are probably part of the Rotterdam harbour, over thirty kilometers (19 miles) away. This harbour is the largest in Europe and was the largest in the world until 2004.

For some more pictures, check out the Dune Route album in my photo galleries.

Cycling mileage

Last week, I told you that the average Dutch person cycled a total distance of 883 km (549 mi) in 2005. (The number for 2006 is not available yet, but it’s no doubt close.) I thought it would be interesting to see how far I pedal in a year, so I did some calculating…

• Home to work: 3.7 km (2.3 mi) one way, five days a week, 44 weeks a year (allowing for holidays, meetings, conferences and the like) for a total of 1628 km (1012 mi).
• Shopping: on average 1.0 km (0.6 mi) one way (depending on where I go), twice a week, 48 weeks a year for a total of 192 km (119 mi).
• Baseball practices, games and umpiring: 1.9 km (1.2 mi) one way, three times a week, 30 weeks a year for a total of 342 km (213 mi).
• Visiting family and friends (i.e. cycle to the railway station and take the train from there): 1.6 km (1.0 mi) one way, roughly once a week, 48 weeks a year for a total of 154 km (96 mi).

Putting everything together, I cycle some 2316 km (1439 mi) per year, plus or minus a few dozen depending on the accuracy of my estimates. That’s more than 2.5 times the national average: not bad! If only the weather wouldn’t be as horrendous as it has been the last couple of days (lots of rain and wind), I’d be even happier :-)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (sort of)

The 16.3 million inhabitants of the Netherlands travelled a combined 194 billion kilometres (121 billion miles) in 2005, as was published today by Statistics Netherlands. This averages out to 11.9 thousand km (7.4 thousand mi) per person for the entire year or 32.6 km (20.3 mi) per day.

About three quarters of the total distance of 194 billion km was travelled by car, either as the driver (95 billion) or as a passenger (54 billion). We spent a collective 4.2 billion km (2.2%) on foot, 14.1 billion km (7.3%) in trains, and 6.5 billion km (3.4%) in buses, trams and subways. Honouring our image as a cyclists’ country, we cycled a little bit more than we travelled by train: 14.4 billion km (7.4%). That’s an average of 883 km (549 mi) per person for the entire year, or 2.4 km (1.5 mi) per person per day. Clark or Theresa, any idea how much the average US citizen cycles per year?

I’ll see if I can give you an estimate of my travelling distances later this week. First I need to get the distance between my home and the university.

Floyd’s dope story

Floyd Landis, winner of this year’s Tour de France, tested positive for high leves of testosterone after his comeback stage in the Alps. From what I read at SI.com and the TdF blog, I doubt very much Landis was deliberately cheating, or that the high testosterone levels on that one day were much help. Testosterone only has an effect when used over a period of several weeks, and tests from ealier in the Tour showed nothing out of the ordinary. I do believe his testosterone levels were too high, and I’m afraid the B sample will show the same results. I just hope they won’t condemn him for something that wasn’t real cheating.

Meanwhile, people all over the world are setting up in three different camps. Camp A believes that Landis is innocent, no matter what evidence is brought forward that he cheated. Camp B believes that Landis cheated, no matter what evidence is brought forward that he is innocent. Camp C hasn’t decided yet and would rather wait on the results from the B sample. The website BelieveFloyd.com, registered yesterday, is definitely one for Camp A. Or is it? As I write this, it only says “BelieveFloyd.com coming soon,” or words to that effect, followed by a series of text ads. Here’s why I’m not entirely convinced that this is Camp A:

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Number of the 3rd of July: 118

The Tour de France 2006 is three days underway and Norwegian rider Thor Hushovd, jersey number 118, managed to get into the spotlights on each of them. He won Saturday’s prologue, which is quite a feat considering this guy usually is better at sprints than at individual time trials.

Sunday’s stage ended, predictably, in a mass sprint. Hushovd was trying to come forward down the right side of the road. With some 300 metres (330 yards) to go and cycling at some 70 kph (43 mph), he hit a cardboard sign held up by a spectator. This not only cut his chances for the day’s victory, it also cut a deep gash just above his right elbow. He was brought to hospital to have the injury mended.

Today Hushovd started with a bandage around his arm, but that really was the only reminder of yesterday’s events. He participated in each of the three intermediate sprints to gather bonus seconds for the overall standings. He was also on track to win the sprint at the end of the stage, but due to some bad luck (or mechanical failure in his left toe clip) he had to settle for third place. Still, that was enough to put him back in the overall lead. Few people would have believed that possible when he got out of bed this morning!

Number of the 1st of July: 50

It was lovely weather today and I had nothing pressing to do, so that made for a perfect opportunity to finally check out some of the land surrounding Leiden. It’s almost a year now since I moved here and I’ve hardly ventured out of the city limits. Not anymore. I did a bike tour through the fields, towns and villages north of Leiden. From start to finish was almost exactly 50 kilometres, so there you have the Number of the Day. (Those not used to normal units may pick 31 as their NotD, which was the distance in miles.)

I found this tour, called the Bollenstreekroute (Flower Bulb Route), on the website www.recreatief-fietsen.nl. I’m not really allowed to reproduce it here, but I’m going to do it anyway to give you an idea of where I went.

I live just about where the word ‘Leiden’ is printed, so I first had to go from there to the tour’s official start point in the town of Warmond. (Actually, I also had to detour past the university at the west edge of Leiden to get the route details printed, since I don’t have a printer at home. This extended the ride to eactly 50 km.)

This route really is meant for the spring, when all the flower fields in this part of the country are in full bloom. Now only barren land remained, but it was still a very nice ride through some very typical Dutch landscapes and towns.

A pasture southwest of the town of Lisse, as flat as everything around here.

The 78-years-old Veenenburg-Brug (Veenenburg Bridge) northwest of Lisse, passing over one of the wider ditches created when peat was dug from these areas many years ago.

The Roman-Catholic Martinuskerk (Martinus Church) in the town of Hillegom, which is just off the top right corner of the map. I had an excellent dinner in a restaurant next to this church.

The regional trein from Leiden to Zandvoort passing by the Leidse Trekvaart, a mid-17th-century canal between the cities of Haarlem and Leiden. This railroad was originally built in the 1840s and is one of the oldest of the Netherlands.

For some more pictures, check out the Flower Bulb Route album in my photo galleries.

It’s been a long time since I last biked this much and I don’t think I’ve ever done fifty kilometres in just over four hours. I biked quite a bit in my 2000, 2001 and 2002 vacations with two high school friends, but we always took a lot more breaks. I had only one big break today (dinner just after the halfway point), plus a couple of shorter ones to take some pictures. I averaged around 20 kph (12.5 mph) over the entire ride, excluding breaks, with several stretches were I maintained speeds up to 27 kph (17 mph) for a reasonable amount of time. I touched 43.5 kph (27.2 mph) on a full sprint (flat road, minor tail wind), but only for a second or two before I had to slow down again. Still, not bad on a normal (i.e., rather heavy) city bike.

Actually, I was surprised by how easily things went. My condition is decent and I’m used to biking, but only short distances, so I wasn’t sure how this would work out. Well, it worked out just fine. I never really felt tired or in pain, except going up a pair of viaducts close to the end.

Most importantly, I really enjoyed doing this. I normally spend way too much time behind my computer and this was a great change of scenery. I got another couple of tours off the website I mentioned earlier and with the summer ahead, I’ll definitely try some of them. I also want to repeat today’s route next year in May. With the flowers in bloom, it should be even better.

Winter!

The winter weather is really picking up, creating just about the worst conditions I’ve ever had to bike through. I had a pretty strong headwind this morning and I caught a pretty hefty snow shower, which together is like biking into a blizzard. There were two centimeters of snow stuck on my coat and trousers when I arrived at the university, and another centimeter stuck in my hair. I actually had to clear the snow off my glasses halfway through, because I couldn’t see anymore. Great fun, though. Pure, great fun!