Another beautiful sunny morning and I could not resist taking the Vortex out for yet another long ride. I decided to start along the tracks of the Haasrode - Huy - Haasrode ride - which was also taking place today - and then past Jodoigne iject myself on the L142 ravel route. And indeed, as I expected, the HHH crossed the Ravel at Huppaye. So from there I followed the 'Croix the La Hesbaye', a tarmac bikepath following the trail of the old Line 142 railroad. You can read more about this here.
The wind was blowing rather strong from the northeast - again - and while I passes through Eghezee and Vedrin I knew the way back home would be difficult. But at least on the way back the track would go downhill. Now I climbed until I reached the 200m mark . At Cognelee the trail started to descend , an 8km long descent riding towards the Saint Servais area of Namur. Arriving at the end of the line I turned around and took a picture of the bike at the 43K waypoint.

I then started the long ascent back to Cognelee. Pausing for a bite to eat overlooking Saint Servais and again taking some pictures.

The wind was blowing from the right now, and from time to time it was blowing hard in my face. But all went well and again I passed Eghezee and now followed the Ravel to Jodoigne and Hoegaarden. Here I left the L142 and rode towards the Marollen Kapel , Oorbeek and Hoksem. Riding on towards Kumtich and Willebringen I was quickly back in Bierbeek and Haasrode. The wind was blowing in my favour now - at last - and on the downhill into Blanden I nearly did 50kph. Good solid long ride in excellent circumstances ;  dry and sunny , with only the strong northeasterly wind playing spoilsport to make the conditions perfect. Still managed a good average and had a low heartrate of only 113bpm on average throughout the ride.

Ride Stats : 120K and 655/695 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 4h23mins

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