Today I wanted to follow the fluorescent yellow C G markings I noticed a while back. Picking them up in Blanden I understood very quickly C and G meant Chaumont Gistoux. The 50K ride more or less follows the Ludo Dierckxsens ride - minus all the nice bits. The ride stays far away from the many challenges as it passes La Bruyere, Longueville and Chaumont-Gistoux. It then loops towards Bonlez and Grez-Doiceau and further on towards Archennes and Florival. Very nice scenery but not something I hadn't seen many times before. I need to check out the 100K loop that splits off just past Beauvechain, perhaps this will offer some more challenges and new roads to discover. The legs felt good but my bum hurt throughout the ride. The weather was sunny though and there was nearly no wind .

Ride Stats : 57K and 305/379 (Polar/Garmin) in 2h29mins

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26-07-2009, 13:49 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

A thunderstorm early this morning added a couple of litres more to the already well-filled puddles. Nevertheless it cleared out and apart from a very notice-able wind the summer feeling was there. The sun was out most of the time, only at times obscured by some clouds that didn't carry any rain with them.
I rode out around 11am and made a nice little loop, catching up with yet another new set of arrowing in Bierbeek. Following them towards Beauvechain and La Bruyere and continuing towards Pietrebais, much like I did yesterday. I stopped to take a picture in Pietrebais, seems they are again having a little scarecrow competition.

This time I rode into Cocrou for a little extra loop away from the busy Chaussee de Jodoigne before entering Grez-Doiceau. From Grez I rode towards Bossut and then made my way over the cobbles towards La Malaise and Pecrot. Riding through the fields I completely grasped that summer feeling. The smell of the hay, the warmth of the sun and the cooling breeze in my face. Wonderful !
From Pecrot I rode to Sint Agatha Rode and then following the river Dyle towards Sint Joris Weert. The river was filled to the brim with brown water, witness of the heavy rainfall if the last couple of days.

Ride Stats : 50.5K and 310/258 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h18mins

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24-07-2009, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

This morning saw a real downpour of rain. So much so as to nullify every chance of riding offroad today or tomorrow. It kept on raining hard until noon, and then things dried out a little, with the occasional drache national - shower - in the afternoon keeping things too wet to ride. Oh well, there was an interesting Time Trial to watch on TV.
By 6pm I looked at meteox.be and did not find any more showers in the vicinity so I decided to take my chances and ride out. On the road of course. I noticed some new arrows a few days ago and I rode over Hamme Mille towards Beuvechain to pick up on them and see where they went. I followed them towards La Bruyere, Pietrebais, Grez Doiceau, Bonlez and Chaumont. At Chaumont I decided to loop back and leave the rest of the arrows for another day. I rode along the road from Perwez to Wavre and then climbed out of Basse-Wavre towards Ottenburg. Down towards Eerken and Pecrot and upwards again to Nethen . Back over Sint Joris Weert and the Zoete Waters to close a nice loop.

Ride Stats : 60K and 475/466 (Polar/Garmin) in 2h38mins

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23-07-2009, 21:16 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

Yesterday brought some thunderstorms, but not a lot for our region. Even though it did rain quite heavy for about half an hour. I did an easy recovery ride this morning, looping over Bierbeek, Opvelp and Meldert towards La Bruyere and Pietrebais. Coming back over Hamme Mille to complete the loop.
Yesterday I went to the Open Door in the 1st Wing Airbase in Beauvechain and managed to shoot a lot of pictures of airplanes. You can see those on my Flickr page.

Another event was the heavy fall of Jens Voigt in the descent of the Petite Saint Bernard in the Alps, during the Tour de France. He was riding at 70kph when the right part of his handlebar broke off after hitting a bump in the road. It didn't look good, and todays newspapers say his condition is serious. My thoughts go out to him and his family and I hope he will recover soon.

Ride Stats : 40K and 230/252 heightmeters in 1h45mins

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22-07-2009, 12:26 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf

I had to wait until noon before the skies looked less threatening. Last night saw some rain showers but when I rode towards Grez-Doiceau I didn't notice a lot of puddles. The trails were nearly dry. Great. Some menacing clouds were still present but during my whole ride I would be spared from rain. Great.
When I arrived in Grez I chose a course track I had made a while back as a loop starting from the O2 Bikers Roadbook, but with - a lot - of extras added, my kind of extras, meaning extra climbs and descents. I have made this loop for Julie - Miss JuJu aka Miss Piggy - but so far we have not been able to get together to actually ride the loop. I hope she will read this , if not I'm sure we will get around to riding the lap later this year. High summer and the trails are quite overgrown now. I wear long trousers - against the insects - and that also help to fight the nettles and brambles. The loop consists of a lot of climbs and descents, not too long but most of the time very steep and along some very narrow trails or tracks. The area is well-known from rides like the 'Rando des Cocquelicots' and the 'Accro Bike' and I have managed to achieve a great loop, building on the work the O2 Bikers crew did and adding the trails I know in the area. As usual I took a couple of pictures along the way, but if you search for 'Accro Bike' or 'Grez' in this blog you will find many more entries and more pictures of the region.

At the end of the ride I had 945 heightmeters in 55.55K. Which says enough about the difficulty. The trails were great today and the sun was out most of the time. I add a link to the GPS track for those who want to download it and ride the track as well. I would like some feedback , it's always interesting to hear what others think about a track.

Ride Stats : 80k and 1120 heightmeters (Polar) in 4h37mins
GPS Track on Garmin Connect : CLICK

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20-07-2009, 19:58 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf