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| Tales from the Woods |
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| 02-07-2012 |
 Ligny |
Wanting to ride some more in the region behind Wavre I was looking for tracks and I came upon a track starting in Ottenburg and heading all the way to Sambreville. Not sure wether I could complete the whole track I noticed there was the possibility of a shortcut in Ligny. Riding up to Ottenburg provided a nice warmup completed mostly on the 34 in front. When I wanted to ride down to Wavre along the Chaussee de Ottenbourg I had to turn back because of roadworks. Never mind, I would do the detour along the Noire Epine and then along the N4 and the Chaussee de l'Orangerie to arrive in Basse Wavre and continue along the track in my Edge 705. Wavre was - as usual - quite busy and dangerous with people having no attention at all for cyclists. But I survived and soon I was passing the Walibi parc and then onwards to Ottignies and Court St Etienne. Still very busy roads but some nice backtracks as well. Crossing the N25 things got serious with a steep climb out of Sart Messire Guillame. Once on the plains I was heading for a high broadcast tower. Mellery, Tilly and Marbisoux were the next villages on the list. The sun was coming out and it was quite pleasant weather with only a minimal amount of wind and temperatures around 22 degrees on average. Passing through Tilly I paused to take a picture. My sister will be pleased with that, her surname being Tilly.
From Marbisoux I was nearing the N93 where the Tour de France would pass in a couple of hours time. The police was already busy with roadblocks so I knew I did not have a lot of time to cross back, unless I wanted to wait for the circus to pass. I did not want to do that, so that gave me another incentive to cut the ride short at Ligny, some 52K out, and ride towards Sombreffe where I passed the N93 again, heading for Chastre. Nice rolling roads gently ondulating up and down but mostly staying on the plateau. What wind there was seemed to be blowing in my back as I headed north towards the N1. This is a very busy road with no real bikpaths so I decided to leave the N1 asap instead of following it all the way to Wavre. Through Corbais and Corroy Le Grand I came to Chaumont. I decided to add an extra loop following the N243 in the direction of Perwez. But I turned left and came through Maleves, Sainte Marie and Wastinnes. The church where VDB married was at last out of its scaffolding so I paused to take a picture.
Onwards I went and through Opprebais I reached Incourt where I crossed the N91 riding towards Dongelberg. No chance to visit the castle - the gate was closed - so I rode on, taking a left towards Lathuy. On the N240 I took another left and then a right to arrive at the 1st Wing Airbase and La Bruyere. Nearing 4 hours and with the sun gaining strength I felt it was time to close up so I rode to Beauvechain and Opvelp for a last loop bringing me to Bierbeek and Haasrode before entering Blanden with a very solid ride under my belt.
Endomondo track
Ride Stats : 120K and 830 heightmeters (Garmin) in 4h23mins
5184/52935
02-07-2012, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 23-06-2012 |
| Haasrode Huy Haasrode phase 2 |
After a couple of days of welcome rest and rain, today announced itself as being a better day. The sun was out, albeit sometimes obscured by small clouds, and it was dry and with temperatures around 20 degrees C it looked good.
I rode out around 10AM and set out towards Haasrode to pick in on the Haasrode Huy Haasrode track. The idea was to follow it for 100K, the first part I already did a couple of days ago, but this time I would continue past Wasseiges and only at Acosse would I turn to the right to pick up the return track. The wind was blowing from the Southwest and it would prove to be a mighty adversary throughout this ride. At first it was more or less coming from my right side, sometimes to my advantage, sometimes slightly against me. When I passed Autre-Eglise and turned to the right for a little detour I was on new territory. Passing Folx-les-caves, Jandrenouille and Barchon I came upon the big Route de la Hesbaye . Here the wind was blowing in my back and at a pace above 40kph I arrived in Wasseiges. Taking a right turn towards Meeffe and a little bit later I reached Acosse, where I took another right, off of the HHH track. I was in the province de Liege now and another right turn took me back towards Wasseiges. The wind was coming from the left now and it bothered me. It was quite strong and I was glad I could take another right on the N924. In Wasseiges I headed north and passed Jandrain and Orp-Le-Grand on my way to Noduwez. Here I turned towards the west and the wind was now more or less blowing straight into my face. Tough couple of kilometers to reach Pietrain. Another turn towards the north and I got a breather until I reached Saint-Jean-Geest. On the Ravel 2 for a while and into Hoegaarden. I was now on familiar territory but I would still face some tough kilometers riding towards Meldert and Bierbeek. I made a mental note that this is a ride better done when there is little or no wind. On the high plains there is not much protection and the passages into the valleys of Mehaigne and Grande Gette are too short to offer much recovery. Still, I was able to put in a good effort with an average heartrate of 128bpm and just over 27kph average. There were also quite some heightmeters in this ride, nothing spectacular but just mildly going up and down all the way. I also noticed I passed the 50.000 heightmeters mark during this ride.
Endomondo track
Ride Stats : 107K and 750 heightmeters (Garmin) in 3h55mins
4758/50100
23-06-2012, 15:15 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 12-06-2012 |
| Niner |
The weather forecast for today wasn't very inspiring for long pointed rides. So my original plan to do part of the Haasrode - Huy - Haasrode ride was put into the freezer and I settled for an orbital ride instead. Starting out over Bierbeek and Opvelp I met up with a very experienced veteran roadie and we chatted about riding up difficult and/or nigh impossible mountains in several countries while we rode together towards Beauvechain. Here our roads seperated.
In view of the forecast thunderstorms and rain I took a right towards Tourinnes-la-Grosse , then looped into Nodebais and descended into Hamme Mille. The weather was quite pleasant so far with some clouds obscuring the sun from time to time, but no wind to speak of and temperatures of around 22 degrees C. Still , far away on the southern horizon the first signs of vertical cloud buildup where already visible. As I sped along into Nethen I came upon a biker who was riding a 29 inch orange/black Niner . He was making a good speed and I settled for a couple of moments behind him. I noticed his right elbow was aiming slightly out of true. When I passed him and made a comment about his bike he recognized me. And indeed, as soon as he spoke I recognized him myself. Benno W . It had been a while since we last met - HERE to be exact - and we had a lot of catching up to do. He decided to ride along my way for a while and that was fine by me. Even though he was riding on big mountainbike wheels and I was on fast roadie tyres. Still I remember he always was in a good form and I was sure he would be able to follow my pace. I noticed he wasn't wearing a helmet and I was a bit worried about the speeds we were going to be making. But all turned out fine. I rode towards Pecrot and Florival and then up to Ottenburg. The hills were part of the plan to incorporate some heightmeters and try to stay on the big ring as much as possible, in order to get some power in the legs. I could still feel the aftermath of the Ventoux adventure so I was feeling quite strong. Benno tagged along nicely and I gradually upped the speed as we were descending into Terlanen and then attacked the Holstheide. Careful on the downhill along the Smeysberg. A truck was blocking the roadview mirror so there was no way to tell if any traffic was coming out of the right-of-way side street. Only after passing the truck did I let go of the brakes , netting a maximum speed of "only" 65kph instead of my usual 75kph+ here. Turning right and following the Sint Jansberg Steenweg through Loonbeek, Neerijse and Korbeek-Dyle we could again make good speeds, zooming along on the flawless tarmac. The wind was slightly to our disadvantage. In Egenhoven I turned right towards the Imec site and then along Arenberg and further along towards Oud-Heverlee and the Zoete Waters.
Riding a roadbike soon makes you appreciate a good road, especially since most of the roads in our country are not quite that good. And I'm not even mentioning the condition of most of the bikepaths. They are a serious disaster. I do prefer staying on the main road as much as possible, at least there you can be sure there is no stray glass or other nasties waiting to have a go at my skinny tyres.
A last loop from Vaalbeek towards Heverlee and back along the Expressweg took me into Blanden with a solid 65K on my GPS. Given the circumstances and the threat of rain I was pleased with that, and even more with the average speed. Given the amount of heightmeters 28kph is not half bad. Benno came along for a quick water refill before riding home. He still had 20 minutes or so to go and I'm sure he made it home in time and beat the rain. The dark clouds are upon me as I write this, there is some thunder and lightning but no rain to speak of yet.
Endomondo track
Ride Stats : 65K and 585 heightmeters (Garmin) in 2h19mins
4293/47050
12-06-2012, 13:48 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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