Sunday, November 11, 2007

Trail Riding in Alphen

Sunday, 11-November-2007 - Alphen - It has been raining hard off and on for the past week. Hard winds and rain woke me up during the night. I had my alarm set for 0600. I was ready for my first official trail ride (I went with the Fun on Wheels group in January). I checked the weather radar. It looked like it was going to stop raining around 1000. Chris checked in. He wasn't looking forward to a lot of mud and rain, so he passed. I got Jurien, a Standard Aero colleague, on the phone. He was going to be there with at least one other rider. That was good enough for me. It took me about an hour to drive to the starting point. I started after the others, and was going to meet them at the resting point. I followed the 25 km route. Most of the others went for 45 km. I met Jerry and Gordon, two more Standard Aero colleagues, along the way. I had a hard time getting up the slippery hills during the first part of the trial, but after a while I got the hang of it. I made sure to eat and drink enough--it was hard work. The sky cleared up, and the sun showed itself which made the ride a lot nicer. I decided to cut the ride short and head back to the starting point in Alphen using the hardened bicycle path. I was satisfied to get a taste of riding under extreme conditions. I saw Jerry again at the bike washing spot before I headed back for home.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dale.weiss.planet/Veldtocht_alphen_20071111

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

cool pictures! Lots of mud indeed.
I'm one of the two guys at the bottom of your album.
Thanks for putting them online!

Looking at the pictures I only realize how much I didn't see of the beautiful the surroundings were.

See you around at one the next events.


Best regards,
Wilfred