Today I decided to do an easy recovery ride. My recent troubles with the shifting Sixpack axle precluded any real long rides, so I settled on a 60K loop. Starting over the Zoete Waters , Nethen and Hamme Mille, I turned towards Pietrebais and then cut left towards Sart Melin. Passing through beautiful little villages just south of the language border, Saint Remi Geest, Saint Jean Geest (pronounce SainJeanGee) I hooked up with the Ravel. Turning left again towards Hoegaarden. On the long climb out of Hoegaarden I noticed the axle had shifted again and the right crank started touching my frame when I applied the power. Luckily I found a solid cobble and I hit the left side of the crankshaft a couple of times to shift the entire axle back towards the left. High above Hoegaarden I took a picture of the view and then rode down towards Meldert. Another climb and turning right towards Willebringen and later left towards Neerijse. Passing Bierbeek I was nearly home. In Blanden I crossed my friend Roger and we had a chat in the warm afternoon sun. The warm and calm weather we have enjoyed this last week has been exceptional. But when the sun sets you feel the cold rising, after all it is late September.

Ride Stats : 61K and 415/475 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h52mins

7508/76260

26-09-2009, 19:21 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

A beautiful sunny morning and I couldn't wait to get on the Moots and hit the road. Short road section to Bierbeek and the start of the "Meerdaal 2000" ride I was going to recon today. This organised ride is taking place on Sunday the 25th of October,starting next to the Borre and the football fields. Please mark this ride on your calenders, it will be worth it.
The organisers gave me the GPX track to the longest distance, supposedly 65K. The track was made by someone connecting the dots on a map, and what that meant I was about to find out later.  Starting at the Borre the track veers to the left towards the southeasterly section of Meerdaal Forest. The forest was still fairly cold but the sun was heating up the fields I arrived in after a first section of trees. I noticed the trail on my GPS was not exactly following the road lines on the map, and at one time I was sent into a track that dead-ended. Mm, first drawback of drawing tracks on a map, you are never sure if the road you select is still there. But no worries , I turned around and chose another road to arrive where I should arrive. After all, this is my backyard and I know every nook and cranny here. A passage through the fields into and out of Tourinnes la Grosse. The sun is out in full september force and warms up my skin. Life is great.

Crossing the N91 and making my way towards the south I notice a hunting party to my left. But the guns are pointed in the other direction, no worries. A very nice section leading up through a difficult stony and rubbly track into the Bois de Linsmeau and then back down into Cocrou. Crossing another busy road and I'm making my way towards yet another forest patch. A 20% uphill makes me sweat and at the top I turn left for a quick downhill on tarmac. My GPS dictates me into a very narrow singletrail I know from the 2008 Belgian Championships Marathon track . Going down it is easier to negotiate the narrow track with a rivulet running parallel to it. Its dry now and everything is fine but I can imagine a lot of slipping and sliding when this trail is wet. At the bottom I cross a concrete bridge and then follow the track towards a tarmac road. Taking left here and then after 500m turning right for a very beautiful climb in a hollow road in the Bois de Beausart. At the top of the climb I stop for a little snack. While I'm eating I'm noticing 2 F-16 jetfighters passing. They are making fly-by's on the Beauvechain airstrip and I advance into the fields to make a couple of pictures. The powerful jet engines make the air tremble - chicken skin on my arms and legs.
When I look at my GPS I notice something is wrong. It is pointing me back to the north, back to the start. What has happened ? I stop, manually stop the navigation, select my track again and let it re-navigate and check my position. To my surprise I'm way off the trail! I turn to the south down into Pietrebais to reconnect with the proper trail I should be following. A bit further I see that the track veers off again. The Edge beeps and re-calculates its position when it loses the track, and when it does that it doesn't navigate you back to where the track lies, but it navigates you back to the start ! 
So that is what happened before as well. At one point it must have lost the track, and it can recalculate very quickly. So quickly you don't even notice it. In fact, there is only one way you CAN notice it has recalculated you towards the start. There is NO trail behind you ! Normally when navigating a gpx track you see a purple trail before you, but there is also a purple trail behind you. When it has re-calculated, you only see one part of the track. Check the pictures to understand what I mean.

Surely enough, now that I begin to pay more attention to the track I notice there are often moments when it runs next to the lines on the map. This is because it has been drawn on a PC, and is not an actual track made by riding on the trail. And when cutting a corner, or by plainly sending you into the field or the forest, the GPS gets confused, "loses" the track and promptly recalculates. OK. Lesson learned. I would have to stop at least 15 times, more frequently towards the end of the trail. Perhaps the trail drawer got sloppy I don't know, but it surely breaks the rhythm.
Ok, back to the trails. In Pietrebais there is a very nice singletrack climb bringing me towards the "Ferme de la Sarte" . This is Biez and there now follows a nice loop bringing me up towards Longueville. At the Chapel they choose a track that leads down into a deep gully, passing this and a very steep and difficult climb awaits. Great, I'm really enjoying this part of the ride. Long downhill down into Bonlez and directly turning to the right for a long climb up the ridge again. Dropping into downtown Biez and then taking the trail towards la Royenne. I notice my rear tyre seems to be slowly losing air and I stop to put some more pressure in it. I take the difficult and steep singletrack up towards Biez and after the church another singletrack leads me down towards Grez-Doiceau. This is "Accro Bike" country and the trails are very familiar to me. The heightmeters quickly accumulate and the pace needs to be watched, lest you overstrain yourself. The track now turns to the north and of course the singletrack climb towards Gottechain could not be left out. Great and difficult track. Will be slippery when wet though.

After Gottechain the trail then heads for Archennes, using another rarely used trail. Care has to be taken. The grass has been mown but still there are some ruts hiding and waiting to catch the wheels of the unwary. The climb out of Archennes and onto the La Malaise plains will surely start a lot of bikers wondering why they did not choose one of the shorter distances. Full attention is needed for the downhill that almost brings you into Florival. But the next hill is already waiting around the corner and after that a sweeping trail through the fields brings you high above Pecrot. Down along a sandy forest track with roots, ruts, drops and back up again in a long hollow road. Arriving in the Bois de la Hocaille, passing the beautiful white chapel, crossing the Rue de la Malhaise and veering left into a singletrack taking me eventually down towards the railroad. But not quite since the track turns right and then left to follow the railway for a while towards the Bois de Beaumont. Arriving in Nethen and passing the La Hetraie camping I am back in the Meerdael forest. And a 22% climb makes sure immediately that the ride is not over yet. Past the Weertse Dreef into the Kouterbos the terrain finally becomes less hilly and in the neighborhood of the Zoete Waters I have another bite to eat and put some more pressure into my rear tyre again. The last couple of K's into the Mollendaalbos and past the Blanden cemetery make for a nice cooldown .
I arrive back at the start with close to 70K on my counter and indeed almost a 1000 heightmeters. Not to be under-estimated, and I hope the trails will be dry on October 25th. The region is beautiful and demanding but the reward is a very nice ride and some challenges along the way, both technical and physical.

Ride Stats : 84.5K and 1015/1145 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 4h50mins

7447/75795

25-09-2009, 21:27 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

I had plans to do a big offroad ride today but when I woke up it was raining and it kept on raining lightly throughout the entire morning. So I had to change my plans. Looking at the Time Trial World Championships in Mendrisio where an astonishing Fabian Cancellara degraded the rest of the field to also-rans I decided to do an easy recovery ride in the late afternoon. So I took out the Hilset for an easy spin along the 30K Road Bloso route starting in Heverlee. Nothing much happened , it was around 19 degrees C and very quiet and the roads had dried up nicely.
When I got home my attention was pointed to a big bird sitting in a tree around 200-300 metres from our home. It looked like a blue heron but to make sure I got the big 300 F2.8 lens out and was able to get a couple of shots in, despite the long distance, the waning light and the difficulty to keep the heavy camera and lens steady. It was a big heron indeed, no doubt resting and checking out the swimming pool of the neighbors.

Ride Stats : 35K and 215/260 heightmeters in 1h34mins

7363/74650

Another beautiful day and even though I felt tired form yesterdays' ride I decided to go out. On the Hilset this time. I am still waiting for the new crank bearings and am bearing up with the shifting axle for the moment. It seems to get worse because I had to stop along the way to hit it back in place with a piece of stone.
I set out over Hamme Mille and Bossut and rode all the way to Dion Valmont before looping back over Bonlez - where I took a picture of a nice F430 with a personalized numberplate . I discovered a tiny little backroad and this brought me towards La Royenne and further on to Grez Doiceau. Back along the busy N25 towards Hamme Mille and I noticed the axle had moved again. But I let it be until I got home were I treated it to a couple of firm blows with a big hammer. Tune may make light and exclusive stuff, but ever since I got this fastfoot crankarms I have had some kind of trouble with it. First the bolts would loosen all the time, the bearings are crap and now the axle is moving perpendicularly. The bearings are won and stiff and I'm guessing (hoping ?) this is what causes the titanium axle to shift. Anyways, if it keeps on shifting after it has received new bearings I might be on the lookout for a new crank.
For now I had an easy ride - really easy because my average heartrate was 99bpm - in fine sunny weather, even if there was a strong wind blowing. I leave you with a picture taken near Bossut.

Ride Stats : 37K and 330/445 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h50mins

7328/74390

This "old wives' summer" doesn't seem to end. Great ! After the 2 straining Ardennes rides from last week I needed to do something less difficult so I opted to ride the 73K distance of the organised ride the Leuvense Brandweer organised a few week back.
Great invention, GPS, because someone was kind enough to upload the track and hey presto, you can ride it yourself.
I connected with the track in Korbeek Dyle. Got the GPS aligned and off I went. The track first goes to the area between Neerijse and Leefdaal. Some very beautiful hollow roads here and of course the track builders take advantage of the rolling hills to score a lot of heightmeters. After a while the track turns to the north towards Bertem where it crosses the E40 a first time. A lot of field trails here, dusty and hard. But after crossing the N3, Bertem forest looms on the horizon. A very nice and difficult first loop here, with a 21% ascent that makes me strain my muscles to make it. Out of the forest for a loop towards the south to gather some momentum for another climb over the ridge. A fast descent along the forest edge and the track then turns towards the east. Another stretch of forest brings me up towards the radar buildings overlooking Bertem. I have a feeling the trails become a little easier now, as we turn towards the east again towards Everberg. But since 'berg' means 'hill' obviously before long another climb announces itself, this time on tarmac. But before long I am back offroad enjoying a nice descent and the trails aims towards the northwest now in the direction of Veltem Beisem and Winksele. My legs begin to tyre from the constant succession of climbs and descents. The trails are still hard and dusty. As I arrive in Winksele and undercross the N2 my GPS is having trouble finding the right direction and I have to take a moment to stop and stop the navigation. Letting it re-navigating the route again brings it back to life and on the right track. The trail now turns to the west for a last but very nice singletrack loop in a forest. It then runs parallel and eventually returns for another playful loop into this little wooded park, called Mollekensveld, if I'm not mistaken. There are some nice dropoffs here. I ride them without much trouble and am grinning when I remember that some people were complaining about them not being marked as 'dangerous' spots. Hey, it's mountainbiking, you can't expect it to be a road-ride. I pass the starting point, the Firemen caserne at exit 16 on the E314 and am now doing the first couple of K's of the ride bringing me back to Korbeek Dyle, where I started. Some nice tracks along the E314 , luckily they are dry , I've done them in other conditions as well and I can tell you, when wet or muddy they are a lot more difficult. When I arrive at Korbeek Dyle, I already have 78K on my GPS and riding back towards Meerdael along the Green Bloso route I stop at the Zoete Waters for a refreshing drink at the well near the chapel. I had a good long ride, not too difficult - especially when coming from the Ardennes - but certainly not easy. The amount of heightmeters will testify to that. I cannot but congratulate the track builders, I'm sure "Carlito" is one of them, on a very well laid-out ride. Here are a couple of pictures I took during the ride.

Ride Stats : 90K and 1060/1220 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 4h58mins

7291/73945

21-09-2009, 20:48 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf