Looked like it would stay dry after a night full of showers. Offroad would be very wet so the Vortex came out again and I set off for an LSD ride starting out towards Bierbeek . I was thinking about friends and foes of a biker when the wind was blowing me up the hill out of Blanden. The wind can be a friend but it can also be a foe, as I was about to experience whilst my ride developed further. From Bierbeek I rode towards Opvelp and then took a right towards Beauvechain. The wind was blowing in my face now. Not straight on, more of 3/4th from the front. But it was blowing hard and gusty. So I had to take a firm hold of my handlebar. Downhill towards Beauvechain and then straight through towards La Bruyere. Little umleitung here taking me to the entrance of the 1st Wing Airbase. Stopping to take a picture with my new Samsung Galaxy S 2. It has a build-in GPS and when switched on you can add the GPS coordinates to the picture. Cool.

From La Bruyere I rode towards the big road to Eghezee. The cloud cover was menacing but I decided to take my chances and hope to avoid the other bikers' foe; rain. From Happeau I rode towards Longueville. On the road towards that little town I overtook 3 bikers. I decided to stay with them for a while, so they became my friends while we took turns in the front against the wind. In the downhill from Biez towards Grez I went too fast, or they decided they wanted to slow down. Anyways, I was on my own again riding through Grez and then taking the road towards Hamme Mille. Wind was blowing from my left side now and a little from behind so I was soon doing 45kph in the long downhill. Turning left at the lights and here was my foe again, blowing straight in my face while I battled to reach Nethen and the relative cover of houses next to the little river. From Nethen I took my usual stretch , taking me from Sint Joris Weert to the Zoete Waters. Another loop into Oud-Heverlee and then from Heverlee along the Naamsesteenweg into Blanden. Only a couple of stray drops so the forecast on meteox.be was proving to be correct. Lots of clouds but no rain to speak off. Another friend of the biker , that www site.

Ride Stats : 61K and 445/445 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h14mins

4676/47340