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.
Ride Stats : 49K and 140/170 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h02mins
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.
The next couple of days a lot of rain a,d wind is forecast, only saturday promises to be tth odd dry day out.
Ride Stats : 27.5K and 415/395 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h55mins
