The weather was overcast with a chance of rain so I decided to ride out and have a bit of a climbing session. No offroad, the rain and snow from last week have left the fields and forest wet and difficult to ride. Instead I opted to follow more or less the trail of the 30K BLOSO route which starts in Heverlee and goes over Blanden, Sint Joris Weert, Sint Agatha Rode, Neerijse and Egenhoven. But obviously I had to add a bit of extra to that loop, focussing on climbing sections . A lot of extra as it turned out. I ended up with nearly 60K and more than 600 heightmeters. A fine succession of little climbs along smaller roads adding up to a nice workout . My bike, the Hilset custom Ti that has been my loyal companion on these road rides since May 2005, suffered another layer of muck and grime along these small tarmac roads often used by farmers to ride to their fields . But the bike can take it. It is quickly approching the 15000K mark In fact I would like to offer it a little hommage by posting some pictures I took somewhere along the ride today. Its built with fine components and the only thing I had to change in all these years were the bearings of the Tune titanium bracket and the LX front derailleur shifter that got stuck solid last year.
Ride Stats : 56K and 615/597 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h38mins
A dry day today, but it was misty, cold and damp when I rode out into the dusk. There was still snow in the fields and the main roads were glistening with salt and very dirty. I set out for a long slow distance ride along Heverlee, Oud-Heverlee and Korbeek Dyle. From there I climbed into the snow-covered fields steaming with wisps of fog. Over Bertem and Leefdaal my path brought me towards Neerijse and further on into Sint Agatha Rode. Darkness had fallen completely now as I rode towards Pecrot and Nethen to finish off my loop riding into Hamme Mille and back through Meerdael forest.
The average temperature was a frisky zero degrees C and the damp conditions made it feel colder than normal. Good thing I went out though because the rest of the week should see the return of rain before the temperatures should drop below zero again towards sunday.
Ride Stats : 40K and 335/347 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h55mins
Today the weather was miserable, slight snow and rain provided a lot of wetness and my planned road ride had to make way for something else. I remembered that on the Tacx website they provide some good workouts for the rollers and I looked up a nice one to keep me busy for about an hour. It was their Bike Strenght/Power workout and you can find it by clicking HERE. Check out the rest of their workouts on their website. I had a good feeling in my legs upon completing this program and after a good hot bath and some elaborate stretching everything felt right. I provide the Polar graph for you to check out. You can see the intervals as numbered red squares. The red line is my heartrate and the blue line is the bike speed.
After seeing the women and the men elite race in Hoogerheide I wanted to ride out myself. Today saw less sun than yesterday, with clouds setting in from the east, promising snow during the night and next morning. A good hard track was to be expected and I took this opportunity to have a first ride with the Moots and its new fork. A shiny Magura Durin SL 80. I rode into Meerdael looking for some climbs and descents to see how this fork would make the bike behave. From the onset I noticed that the ride would be firmer than with the Fox. A good thing since I found the Fox to be a bit soft. The Magura offers a relatively stiff ride, not bouncing or bobbing when climbing yet offering enough dampening to take the big hits with ease. Obviously the front wheel has the same or even slightly more lateral stiffness and the bike is a real ace on twisty and and turning singletracks. I had to look out for the frozen ruts which had my wheel jump unexpectedly during a couple of descents but I was never in trouble, always in control. I did feel the tyres getting harder during the ride, especially in the back. With an average temperature of -1 degree C it is clear that the workings of the suspension are a tad more stiff than in normal temperatures but I still managed to get nearly 7cms out of the 8 available in the front fork.
Overall the Magura performs as expected, but I will have to ride it some more in normal temperatures before I can begin to fine-tune the air pressure. I had been warned that the Magura fork would run a bit wet - meaning that there is some oil on the inner tubes after a ride - so I wasn't worried or surprised when I notice a light oily film on the tubes after the ride. The 200grams gained in the fork also makes for a noticeably lighter front end. The Moots has always been an excellent climber but now it has become even more nimble and vivid making it living up to its name - whYBeBeat. I managed to take some pictures even though the light was fading fast due to the approaching dusk.
Ride Stats : 20K and 395 heightmeters (Garmin) in 1h19mins
