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| Tales from the Woods |
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| 24-02-2009 |
 Smeysberg |
This evening I wanted to ride to the Smeysberg. Initially to see how fast I could ride on the downhill. At work we had a discussion about top speeds on a bike and I know that on a good day with no wind and with with fast tyres I could get 75-80kph on the 17% downhill into Huldenberg. So I set out to see how fast it would go today. Obviously since I was there I took advantage to make it a good climbing training. I rode up every side of the hill and then some other climbs in nearby Neerijse to put the icing on the cake. According to my Polar my top speed on the first of two downhills was 70.5kph, according to my Cateye the top speed was 73kph and according to the Garmin Edge 705 I got 67kph on the first pass and 68kph on the second downhill. I am inclined to believe the Garmin. The Garmin also indicated that the climb gradient of the road parallel to the Smeysberg is 17%, what I am inclined to believe as well. I then rode towards Neerijse where I added a couple of extra climbs before returning over SInt Joris Weert and Zoete Waters. I had my Lumicycle HID light again on the bike , light which has a new bulb and shines as bright as ever. I included a picture of the dreaded Smeysberg, seen from the Sint-Jan-Bergse Steenweg in Huldenberg. The fact that you see it lying in a straight line before you like that is enough to grab your chest tight if you have to tackle it by bike from this side. The steepest bit is a 17 degree angle and it climbs from 35 metres at the bottom towards 95 metres at the top in about 1 kilometer.
Ride Stats : 40K and 415/432 heightmeters in 1h47mins
1095/8425
24-02-2009, 20:10 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 22-02-2009 |
| recovery |
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Today I only felt like doing an easy recovery session on the rollers, flush out the legs so to speak. With Rainbow and Nightwish on my MPS3 player and a good book about the demise of the Templars in the 14th century time passed quickly. Outside it was raining.
Ride Stats : 15K in 41mins
1030/8010
22-02-2009, 17:58 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 21-02-2009 |
| Lasne and Céroux |
A dry day so I rode out for a long ride. I wanted to ride up to Céroux so I started out over Sint Joris Weert towards Terlanen and Tombeek. From there the Bergstraat took me upwards in the direction of Maleizen. From Maleizen it is only a short ride down towards Genval and its lake. Here the fun was about to begin. This area is very hilly with lots of small rivers that have eroded deep valleys. So to get from one town to another usually involves climbing out of one valley and descending into the next. Before long I was in Lasne and from there on I tried to find my way towards Céroux. Not a lot of indications - although in Lasne every street, ruelle and alley is named - but I figured riding into the Rue d'Ottigies would get me in the general direction I wanted to go. Whilst climbing out of Lasne towards Chapelle Saint Lambert I could spot the Waterloo Lion on its butte on the horizon. Up on the crest I rode towards Ottignies and had to conquer another valley before being able to see Ottignies and Wavre in the distance. I spotted a cycling road marked with Céroux and decided to follow that. And indeed, after an initially nice road I ended up on a bumpy cobble track spewing me out on the road from Ottignies to Céroux. The same road I followed yesterday when I rode towards the Team Presentation event. Riding into the centre, taking a couple of pictures and then turning back towards Ottignies and Wavre. I stumbled upon the Maleizen tour markings and followed those into Limal. I couldn't resist the very steep climb along the Rue de Marechaux - it says 20% but my GPS said 21% - and then dropped back down again to ride around the Walibi area and then climb towards Bierges. The climbs were beginning to make my legs hurt. After Bierges I rode towards Rosieres and entered Tombeek again. Here I left the Maleizen tour and made a loop over Ottenburg and Pecrot to reach Nethen and Hamme Mille. I had a good ride, very hilly but the weather, although overcast, was clement with 7 degrees C average and no wind to speak of. Ride Stats : 81.5K and 760/792 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h50mins1015/8010
21-02-2009, 17:47 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 20-02-2009 |
| RVCO Blancs Gilets Team Presentation |
This evening was the press presentation of our club, taking place this year in the Salle Jules Ginion in Céroux-Mousty, a quiet village just south of the language border. Our new club is a fusion of the Vélo Club Blancs Gilets of Grez-Doiceau, my club for 8 years now, and the Royal Vélo Club d'Ottignies, which is a more road-orientated club. This results in the Royal Vélo Club Ottignies Blancs Gilets - RVCOBG - the biggest club in Brabant Wallon, with 130 active competition riders. Me being one of them, I had to attend the presentation to receive my licence and also to have my picture taken - alone and with the group. My friend Roger accompanied me to the presentation and we had a good time, eating mussles in garlic sauce and enjoying the Teams' presentation. First the cadets and juniors were presented, then the Masters - me included - to finish off with the Elite Men and Women. The new club jersey has distinctive Swedish colors with Renault Group, Libert and KM10 being the head sponsors. The company was truly international because next to me was sat a Norske family, their little boy being the Norwegian champion. A nice touch was that the club had provided him with little Norway flags on his collar, the sign of the champion. Very friendly people who are in Belgium for 3 years and during that time their boy can continue racing bikes in our club. I made some pictures from the presentation - from the 10th row but still you can get a good feeling of what was going on.
I will post some pictures from the official presentation when they are published. I am very glad I attended this presentation, I had a good time and saw a lot of old acquaintances.
20-02-2009, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 18-02-2009 |
| LF6 |
Took a day off from work to be able to do a long ride. This day promised to be the only dry day of the week so it was now or never. I decided to take it relatively easy and follow the LF6 , the Vlaanderen Stedenroute number 6. First I had to get to Hoegaarden and I looped over Hamme Mille and Tourinnes-la-Grosse towards Meldert and then further on to Hoegaarden. There I could follow the LF6 over Outgaarden, Laar and further on until I had about 2 hours and 43K on my counters. I took a 180 and rode back over the same quiet backroads towards Hoegaarden. There I took another way back home, bringing me to Meldert, Bierbeek and Haasrode. The average temperature was 4 degrees C but a nasty easterly wind made the ride a bit tough during the first part. But when I turned the sun came out and with the wind blowing in my back most of the time the ride back was relatively easy. Nevertheless I felt tired and satisfied when I arroved home, a good long slow distance ride in relatively good conditions.Ride Stats : 87K and 550/535 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h56mins933/7250
18-02-2009, 16:57 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 14-02-2009 |
| Haasrode Tour |
Today saw the return of the sun and with temps of around 0 degrees and a sharp northerly wind I set out for a ride along the tracé of the Haasrode Tour. This road ride loops over Haasrode, Willebringen, Hoksem, L'Ecluse, La Bruyere and Pietrebais and returns over Cocrou , Grez-Doiceau, Archennes, Pecrot and Nethen towards Sint Joris Weert and the Zoete Waters. In all a very nice ride along quiet roads. I took the opportunity to stop frequently and take some photographs with my new Sony DSC-W300. The size of the pictures is a whopping 4224x3168 pixels and around 4MB of data. Obviously this makes for a very good base on which to resize the pictures to a more portable format. I usually use 1280x960 but for this camera I will resize them to 1600x1200 whicj still yields a big picture but one which fits nicely onto any computer screen. I fiddled a bit with the various options and found the various Scene recognition modes very interesting to work with. The camera recognizes some predefined scenes - like landscape, counterlight or portrait - and adjusts shutterspeed and diafragma accordingly. I also chose the color rendition to be natural, a bit less saturated than the normal Sony color rendition. What I found so far is that the camera is pretty easy and straightforward to use, and also very fast to start up and acquire focus. Something that might come handy when speed is of the essence, like in capturing wildlife. Some pictures from todays' ride :
Ride Stats : 72k and 555/534 (Polar/Garmin) heightmeters in 3h16mins
846/6700
14-02-2009, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 13-02-2009 |
| Sony DSC-W300 |
A wet, cold and dreary day, so I stayed indoors to have a nice recovery ride on the rollers. Rammstein and Guns and Roses to keep me company and a book about the demise of the Templars to waste the best part of a hour. My legs felt fine and fresh. I hope to be able to ride out tomorrow.I took possession of a new camera today, a nice and shiny Sony DSC-W300. The last year or so I have been making many pictures during my rides with my Sony-Ericsson K850i GSM and even though the 5MP pictures aren't bad they just didn't live up to the high standards I am used to. Obviously no pocket camera can touch my Nikon D2X but the 4MP Sony DSC-P9 still delivered better pictures by far than the K850i. It just is a bit too heavy and cumbersome to take along. Thats why - when I had to get a new GSM - I chose the K850i because it also sported a 5MP camera. But other than in very bright conditions I feel the K850i delivers pictures that are a bit flat and have also a lot of chromatic abberations. The lens is very tiny and just can't compete with dedicated pocket cameras like the DSC-P9 and the DSC-W300.
So I went looking for a new and better Sony , preferably lighter and smaller than the DSC-P9. When I came upon the titanium-covered DSC-W300 and checked out the reviews it got I was quickly convinced to order one . I also ordered a 4Gb memory card and a strong carrying pouch. The DSC-W300 is smaller and lighter than the DSC-P9 and with a whopping 13.6MP it even offer a higher resolution than my D2X. The Carl Zeiss lens should guarantee crisp pictures but obviously that remains to be seen. I will have to familiarize me with the myriad of functions - dismissing the superfluous, finding the necessary - and it will keep me company on rides to come. I took a little picture of it with my DSC-P9 so you get an idea of what it looks like. Ride Stats : 26K in 1h01mins774/6145
13-02-2009, 19:47 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 11-02-2009 |
| Cold and Wet |
The weather was dry with a cold wind blowing from the northwest when I rode out for a short road ride. Starting out through the Weertsedreef towards Sint Joris Weert and Nethen, then making my way towards Hamme Mille and Tourinnes-La-Grosse. It started raining, or at least it looked like rain, it might have been wet snow as well since it was cold and wet. When I came into Beauvechain I turned towards Opvelp. Over the high plain I could feel the wind getting stronger and it also started to rain/snow a bit more . In Opvelp, turning towards Bierbeek, I began to feel the full force of the wind and I understood the last 10K or so were going to be tough. The rain was now falling moderately hard, but the wind made it feel like a real sleet storm was blowing into my face. In Bierbeek I passed a girl on a bike without any lights. Stupid girl, she was hardly visible. If it wasn't for the rain I would have lingered a bit and ride next to her because there was nothing wrong with my illumination. Bright up front and sufficient in the back. But she couldn't follow my pace and I rode on towards Haasrode and Blanden. I was glad to be home, my bike - freshly cleaned- was again spattered with mud and salt. Oh well, its winter isn't it. But its still sad to see an hours worth of cleaning go down the drain in just a few minutes. At least it WAS clean before it got dirty.
Ride Stats : 32K and 200/208 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h28mins
748/6145
11-02-2009, 20:07 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 10-02-2009 |
| Another Tacx workout |
I downloaded another Tacx workout program to keep me busy indoors while outside rain and wind were making things too nasty for any biking plans I might have had. The program was a combination of strength and longer intervals, making it rather tough. I cut some of the intervals in half to make it more feasible. Still it gave me a very good workout. The program is still downloadable from the Tacx website through this link. I include the polar readout. The red dots mark the several sections of the training. As you can see the speed in general was pretty low, but the focus was on pushing a big gear with moderate rpm. Also the recovery sections are only 1 minute in length through the bulk of the program. Sections 6, 8 and 10 are the tough ones with section 12 being another heavy one with alternations of a 1 minute standing power sections and sitting down for a 1 minute recovery section. You can see this on the speed graph. Section 13 is a recovery section and section 14 is another tough one with 2 minute intervals on the big ring with a 50, 60 and 70 rpm 2 minute section. I was glad this one was over. After that, a 10 minute cooldown got my heartrate nicely down to 117bpm. Ride Stats: 29K in 1h25mins716/5945
10-02-2009, 19:31 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 07-02-2009 |
| Climb-it |
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 2h38mins653/5650
07-02-2009, 14:52 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 04-02-2009 |
| Dirty and wet |
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 1h55mins597/5035
04-02-2009, 19:30 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 03-02-2009 |
| tacx bike strenght/power workout |
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. Ride Stats : 23K in 1h01min
557/4700
03-02-2009, 19:34 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 01-02-2009 |
| Magura Durin SL first ride |
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 1h19mins534/4700
01-02-2009, 18:54 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 31-01-2009 |
| Grez Again |
Another cold and dry night made way to a sunny day. I decided to ride to Grez-Doiceau again to do the O2 Bikers roadbook one more time. I already rode it at the end of last year but this time I would add a couple of extra loops (mostly climbs) and cu out the long passage through the water in Longueville. When I left it was minus 2 degrees C but the sun quickly made it feel a bit warmer. There was a very noticeable easterly wind but on the whole the temperature was very nice. Before long I was in Grez and once again on the roadbook O2 Bikers magazine published a few months ago. The trails were very tricky today. Reason for that was that all the sections where the sun could get through - mostly in the fields and on the sunny side of the forest rim - the track became unfrozen, muddy and very slippery. Also, the mud would cling to my WTB Weirwolf tyres and the got thrown off on the bike when the pace picked up again. Before long I was glad I was in the forest and a bit sad that it didn't freeze a bit harder. Especially the section near Longueville where I also struggled the last time - with fallen timber and deep ruts from the excavators - was a muddy hell. The forest lies in a valley and riding down towards it in a doubletrack over a field already gave me a little taste of what was going to come. In the forest itself I only had to walk a few sections, the falling trees where gone but the heavy machinery used to haul them out left the track hopelessly difficult. At the other side of the valley I came to a field road which was basking in the sun. For about 5 to 600 meters my bike turned into a mud collection. But before plunging into another forest and onto a singletrack which would lead me to Pietrebais, I took a little time to scrape off the worst of the mud, lightening my bike at the same time. I noticed 3 roe-deer in the forest - elegantly skipping up a steep slope. They didn't pause long enough to make a picture. By now I began to feel the remorseless succession of climbs and descents which typefies the first 2/3 of the roadbook. Only upon reaching Pietrebais does the trail mellow out a bit. But it still remains quite challenging, don't think its an easy track all of a sudden. I added and extra climb in the Chaumont Gistoux area and another after dropping down towards the river-track in the Longueville valley. There, instead of follwing the track through the - partly frozen - rivulet, I decided to climb out towards Longueville, follow the tarmac towards the Bois de Glabais. There I took the steep sandy downhill to meet the track again at the bottom. After Cocrou and the long climb into the Bois de Linsmeau I also decided to add an extra climb up to Gottechain. Only to drop down again towards the field track leading into Grez Doiceau and the end of the roadbook . In all the track was a little longer in this version and also with some more heightmeters. When returning home I did an extra climb into Bossut to beat the wind. Ride Stats : 59.5K and 825/835 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h44minsO2 Bikers Roadbook (including extra sections) : 38.5K and 645 heightmetersPS: for the original map and gps track check my 27th december 2008 blog entry 514/4305
31-01-2009, 17:47 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 26-01-2009 |
| Eghezee |
Wanted to do a longer road ride today so I set out towards the Ravel 2 that starts in Hoegaarden and goes all the way to Mariembourg. Making my way over Bierbeek and Meldert to Hoegaarden, I enjoyed the sunny and near-to-windless conditions, with temps of around 4 degrees Celcius. A good day for an long easy ride. Over Jodoigne and on to Eghezee. In the summer I ride all the way to Namur but with temps like these I prefer not to ride too far. In Eghezee I turned my bike around and rode back to Jodoigne. A particularity of this Ravel - which is an old railroad track turned into bike track - is that the slope of the hills never is more than 4 degrees. This was the maximum slope the locomotives in the time the track was still used for railway traffic, could handle. As a rul one can say that the track gently climbs from Hoegaarden to 7km from Namur , with a few little dips in between and then makes a long drop into Namur. One of these dips is just before Eghezee where the track descents from 150 to 135 meters and then climbs back up to 150 meters in Eghezee.Just past Jodoigne I left the Ravel to head towards Saint Jean Geest and Melin. Melin was the place where it froze -23.1 degrees C a couple of weeks ago. The coldest spot in Belgium or at least in Brabant Walloon. From there I rode on towards Hamme Mille and into Meerdael forest to complete a very satisfying ride that left me with a tired feeling in my legs.Ride Stats : 80.5K and 445/465 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h35mins412/3210
26-01-2009, 19:32 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 24-01-2009 |
| Urban Antics |
Yesterday saw a real downpour with lots of wind as well. So riding offroad was out of the question today. Instead I decided to go for a ride along the Leuvense Vaart. To get there I have to ride through Leuven passing the Tervuursepoort and then towards Leuven Yacht Harbour. The weather was good with not a lot of wind, a shy sun and the streets all but dried up. Riding along the Leuvense Vaart is a bit boring but it gives you the opportunity to ride a lot of distance with relatively low strain levels. Only hte wind can play a part but today it only blew mildly on the outgoing leg of my ride. When I reached Kampenhout Sas I rode over the viaduct and came back along the other side of the Vaart. Here the first stretch is offroad but it is a well-maintained dirtroad with only a few puddles . In fact, it was drier than the tarmac on the other side of the water, because the tarmac was less exposed to the sun and the wind than the dirttrack. Coming nack near Leuven I followed the R23 circular road back to the Tervuursepoort. Coming back into Blanden I crossed my friend Roger who looked like he just started his ride. 
24-01-2009, 14:36 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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| 21-01-2009 |
| Dark again |
Another dry day and even though my bowels have been making funny noises since last sunday I was eager to go out into the forest this evening. I had mounted the Schwalbe Mud Shark 1.5 tyres, a very grippy but also very dangerous tyre on tarmac or anything harder than a muddy track. The forest proved to be rather dry, considering that it had been raining on saturday, sunday and monday and with temperatures of 3 degrees C average I was pretty comfy in that area as well. I selected a couple of nice climbs and not-too dangerous downhills - bearing in mind the very small profile of my tyres which offers a lot less traction for braking. I saw 4 roe-deer and when night fell a lot of illuminated eyes, probably rabbits. My Lupine tesla shone brightly for about one and a half hour and provided me with good vision on the tricky trails of Meerdael Forest. I had mounted my mud fenders but they proved to be all but obsolete. I got a good workout and even managed to make a good photograph of the bike illuminated by my Tesla helmet light. 
21-01-2009, 21:08 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf
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