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  • Cycling in the times of Corona

    March 15, 2020 by

    On your bike: You can avoid mass public transport. You can stay fit without going to the gym. You can fight anxiety. Any ride will leave your mind refreshed and you body relaxed. Social distancing while on the move. Hat tip to jabig. And of course to Gabrial García Márquez. I have little hope for… Read more

  • Doing intervals – The other kind

    March 2, 2020 by

    Cycling is definitely on the proverbial back burner right now for me, because so many other things take precedence. Still, I have a modicum of hope for finishing the long Bordeaux – Dordrecht Brevet. The only training I can do for that is riding Brevets. And to this end I picked up a quicker interval… Read more

  • Contraptions and shenanigans

    February 17, 2020 by

    Instead of boring you to a slow and painful death with the usual stories about last weekend’s Brevet (300km, part of my preparation for Bordeaux – Dordrecht), here are some bikes to feast your eyes upon. Randonneurs are a colourful bunch (within a specific range of colours) and so are their bikes. Ride went okay,… Read more

  • Don’t ride up grades …

    February 7, 2020 by

    Buy upgrades! Just very recently I dismissed certain pieces of equipment as superfluous or whatever. Anyway, leading up to my first very long Brevet there are two things I wanna try to potentially make things easier for me in/on the (ha!) long run: * Aero Bars fitted to my bike by someone who knows how… Read more

  • 10.000 km

    January 14, 2020 by

    This was my bike on November 18, 2018 in its new state practically fresh out of the box with some clip-on lights by Cateye (Cateye GVolt 50, which I can fully recommend for everyday use). This was my bike on January 13, 2020 after 10.000 km, 15 Brevets, Mt. Ventoux, Alp Crossing, everyday commuting, regular… Read more

  • NTFU not SNFU – Cycling club, not punk band

    January 6, 2020 by

    I am somewhat inclined to making hare-brained connections between completely unconnected things so just let‘s not talk about Canadians SNFU (of course: situation normal, fucked up) but about the Dutch NTFU (Nederlands Toer Fiets Unie – Dutch Tour Bike Union). They are, in their own words: NTFU represents the interests of the sportive cyclist. We… Read more

  • Without a doubt

    January 5, 2020 by

    Yesterday saw the first Brevet of this year (and this decade, yawn, as if that mattered). On virtual paper a shortish 200 km ride, nearly all flat with less than 1000 m of climbing. Wind and rain, that started around noon and went up to gale strength, as well as the seasonal temperatures made it… Read more

  • No bad weather – a cold weather gear list

    December 29, 2019 by

    I always had some trouble to dress exactly right for the weather. The old phys. ed. teacher saying: „There is no bad weather, only inadequate clothing“ remains as false as it ever was. There definitely is bad weather. But for a lot of things the climate throws at us, there is something to (buy and)… Read more

  • A good kick in the butt

    December 25, 2019 by

    The past month has been slow cycling-wise. As I wrote, I fell into a bit of a hole after my last Brevet as regards motivation or more fittingly the sheer lust I normally feel to push the pedals long and hard was completely absent. I just went to the usual Sunday social rides which –… Read more

  • AlpX – The Day before

    October 15, 2019 by

    Greasing the chain for the final time. If you look closely you see the Zugspitze above the rear wheel and the Wendelstein to the left. Between both the Achenpass lies, which we will take tomorrow. The mountains are calling us. (By Agnes, who will ride with Holger and me)

  • Preparing by doing it – BRM200 Wuppertal

    October 15, 2019 by

    I started this randonneuring thing only last December with a 200 km Brevet through the longest night of the year from Wuppertal to Venlo. Ever since I‘ve been very fond of the no frills approach and the special charm of Wuppertal. Last Saturday there was another Wuppertal brevet with the fitting title of „Into the… Read more

  • On quitting

    October 9, 2019 by

    While so far posts have been mostly jocular while considering some serious and not so serious subjects, there are the very serious topics that don’t allow for (much) kidding in my book. I mentioned that there is mostly a liquid delimitation i.e. a grey area between “can’t” and “won’t”. There are situations where you don’t… Read more

  • Funding opportunity

    September 23, 2019 by

    „Extreme-cyclists Jonas Deichmann and Philipp Hympendahl ride off. 18.000 km from the North Cape in Norway to the southern end of Africa and all that unsupported. The goal is to do this in less than 75 days – a whole month faster than the previous world record. They started on September 8, 2019 and will… Read more

  • One hill

    September 22, 2019 by

    This is the Vollrather Höhe , a lone and artificial hill protruding from an immense plain. Used by local cyclists to get their legs used to climbing. Which is enough to train conquering (not only fighting) the most HC climbs. It‘s Sunday. Don’t expect too much.

  • Start on your doorstep

    September 17, 2019 by

    Just imagine you would be one to walk the Camino de Santiago. Now imagine you take a train or even fly to … say Paris and set off walking to Santiago de Compostela from there. And now imagine you would start a journey with the same goal mostly along the same paths from your doorstep. …… Continue reading Start on your doorstep

  • #Vorfreude

    September 16, 2019 by

    Make the most of a Big Thing(c) by making a great big hubbub about it. Read and re-read the FAQs. Read reports on the previous edition*. Obsess about your bike and equipment. Compile a playlist of ridiculous songs on your favourite streaming service. Study the route on Komoot and Google Maps, use street view. Prepare… Read more

  • Further

    September 15, 2019 by

    Did you read the one about Spoils? That was about a patch for my Randonneur bag showing a road bike and the word „Further”. Why? Because you may want to cycle further. Is that all? No. The book missing above is quite obviously “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest”. That book made its author Ken… Read more

  • Spoils

    September 11, 2019 by

    Another part of preparation for an endurance effort is – at least for me – to spoil yourself. Before to prepare or after to reward. Why is rewarding – which you do after achieving something – preparation? Because you teach yourself that exertion brings tangible rewards. Because these rewards might be things helping you in… Read more

  • Rain Lover

    September 9, 2019 by

    I do not like rain, sometimes I even hate it. Yet, this morning when I commuted to work in full rain gear, I had a smile on my face I normally only have when the sky is blue and the temperature is 30+ (Celsius). I was always wondering whether I will ever be a badass… Read more

  • Compulsory Staring

    September 9, 2019 by

    Cycling either has you staring at a distance of 10-30 m (looking for the way you need to take), 1 m (at the wheel of the cyclist in front of you) or at arm’s length (at you GPS/Galileo/In-Russia-GPS-stares-at-you thingumabob). Why not stare into a distance of 2-3 m for one hour and watch this little… Read more

  • A lucky draw

    September 7, 2019 by

    Sitting quite tiredly at the not-so-glamorous train station in Venlo/Netherlands after I rode there from the finish of the “BRM 200 Merselo – Frank Simons Memorial” brevet, checking my emails compulsively as I am prone to do, my head suddenly exploded ….… Continue reading A lucky draw

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