April 10: Small hills
Planned a ride out west, in search of hills. Here is a hill I found:
There are a few others nearby. But at 25m this is a snack-sized hill, you have to ride up and down an awful lot of them to get your fill. Riding up and down some small hills over and over would be a fine workout, but it’d also be pretty weird, so I planned a route passing through the area instead.
Time was a bit short too. This was Easter weekend and I'd spent Saturday researching and ordering the last few things on the list. (Finding a sleeping bag that was smallish and lightish but not too expensive was quite the trial: it’s very easy to spend over 400eur on something that weighs as much as a silk sheet and folds up into a matchbox and is rated to survive the next ice age. But on the cheap end of the range, there’s lots of big and heavy bags; finding one that’s light but not rubbish was hard.) Sunday we had guests, so I had to go riding on Monday. I found out a bit too late that the regular Monday gym class had not been cancelled, so I need to be back early, and not too worn out either…
So the ride ended up being a pretty straightforward trip out west to the coast, then south and then back home. I’d have liked to go a decent distance south but I had to keep trimming it back so I’d get home in time, and it ended up being a long way to the beach and a very brief stay.
From left to right: Me on a road - planes were landing in the distance but I didn’t want to wait for a good photo. I stopped out at Zandvoort again, here’s another picture of the bike. This sparrow painting is also from Zandvoort. The route home had another view of planes landing, this time I did take the time to wait.
There’s a generous amount of blue in these pictures, which is misleading: it was mostly grey and cold. Not a good day to be outside. In Zandvoort I stopped for some chocolate and admire the sea but wasn’t tempted to stay.
The route down the beach passed a lot of cafes, some even had people in them - but they had all doors and windows closed against the cold. Got stuck behind two policewomen on horseback; they gave way graciously so I could pass.
So there’s really not much drama to be had today. Would the new tubeless tyres survive? Yeah, they did. Would the rain hold off until I got home? Not quite, but it was OK. Would I get back in time for the gym? Enough! This sounds like nagging or a dull-witted search for dramatic tension! There’s nothing else to add.
