Big Bad Log

Friday April 20th:

I arrived in Houffalize around 1pm. I had to wait until 5pm to check in at the hotel, so why not do a mountainbike ride in the meantime. Yes, please. Unloaded my bike and started out on Houffa trail number 2. This starts out by taking the road in the direction of La Roche and then steeply disappears to the left on tarmac, later in the forest. The trail shares the first few k's with the number 3 and also the number 1 trails.A quick downhill into the forest, followed by a wet uphill - wet because of a little stream the trickles down along the trail - yiehaa.. Another downhill, this one tricky and dark due to the heavy coverage of the pinetrees.
Some gullies here so watch out, steer carefully and easy but decisive on the brakes. I was on my Litespeed so had to re-adjust to the lesser brakepower of the XTR V-brakes as compared to the strong Hope Mono Mini diskbrakes on my other bike.
Another steep uphill follows after which the trail mellowed out a bit, but rest assured , in Houffa even the mellow trails are tough . I noticed that the signage was IMPECCABLE and it would remain so during the rest of the ride.
After a long drop from the crest of the hill down to the river Ourthe I crossed the la Roche road again only to disappear into the forest again for another 3k climb, another 200 heightmeters. After that the trail loops towards the North of Houffalize.
Trail number two turned out to be around 29K - I had briefly incorporated a bit of the WorldCup circuit in the beginning which accounted for an extra 3K or so - and it was close to 660 heightmeters. Hillfactor 22.5 , yeah, this is Houffalize allright.
After trail number 2, I decided to do the number 3 trail next . This I had also done the last time I was here and I knew it covered 34K and a little more than 700 heightmeters.
The first bits were the same as the number 2 trail but then number 3 veers anticlockwise to the East - as opposed to trail number 2 which loops clockwise to the West and later to the North of Houffalize. It could be my imagination but I noticed that some tarmac bits had been cut short, opting for offroad tracks instead.
That is a good thing, one can not have enough singletrails. The tracks were dusty and dry, but the wind was cold so even though the sun was blazing, it was not really warm. After a little less than 4 hours riding I arrived back at the hotel.

Ride Stats : 64.5K and 1385 heightmeters in 3h47mins

Saturday April 21st:

A good breakfast and at 8.45 am I left the hotel. It was fiendishly cold - just above freezing - in the ourthe valley and I wore every bit of bike clothing I has with me. I had an appointment with "Moster Blond" and a few other gentle bikers from the Brussels BigM group. MB had procured a map from the La Roche trails and we were about to do one of the new trails. She chose the #2 trail and for me it was a hit. It started a bit boring but at least uphill with a long tarmac climb out of La Roche all the way to the Parc de Gibier. From there on the climb continued, taking us in 7k from 237 to 572 heightmeters, with a little downhill drop in between but we just lost 30 heightmeters in that . Gasp, that was 365 heightmeters in one go. Wow, looking GOOD. After that, it obviously went downhill for a while , but mostly on bigger forest trails. Until we came at a very nice fast downhill section, with some rocks, gullies, roots and other selected nasties that had a lot of us riding back up again to do the downhill bit once more. GOOD.
This was just after passing the little village of Samrée. The downhill went on until we had to climb a long stretch upwards again. Now we were really on a typical La Roche trail. All of a sudden the trail went down, megasteep and in such beautiful landscapes that I had to stop to take some pics. We dropped into a nice little ravine with a stream crossing the trail at the bottom. After that was following a steep, long and rather difficult climb. This section of the trail was really fingerlicking GOOD . Pity there was another stretch of tarmac bringing us down towards crossing the La Roche - Houffalize road. Another steep offroad climb followed which we shared with a few hikers and which brought us nicely back on the plateau again, another good bit for me. The view from the plateau towards Maboge was fantastic. The trail had one very steep downhill up its sleeve, which dropped us back onto the big road from Houffalize to La Roche. From there another 2K saw us back into La Roche. In all, the trail incorporated some very nice uphills, with at least three great downhill sections. I must say I did not like the tarmac sections but perhaps there are no other options. If you know the area, I guess you can do that middle bit a few times in a row. At the end of trail # 2 we had 27.5K and 702 heightmeters but you must substract about 2 K and some 50 heightmeters because of the climb we did twice. But, 25.5K and 650 heightmeters still nets a Hill Factor of 25.5 .
Back at the town I said my goodbyes to the rest of the group and biked back to Houffalize. Just before entering Houffalize I saw a nice singletrail ondulating parallel to the tarmac road, which I got on and followed for 2.5 k or so. When I exited that little trail I saw the markings from Houffa trail #6 which obviously uses that singletrack. Another change to the old trails .
I had a good days biking with some great trail company (you know who you are - thanks boys and girls )

In the late afternoon I got an SMS from "Miss Piggy" , she was at the Expo area and it looked like a good idea to join her and stroll along the many stands with her and her little boy. I met up with a lot of people on the way - who are now probably wondering where I got the instant family from - and the pleasant temperatures made me really enjoy the walk, relaxing before race-day .
Meeting up with Jurgen Vanden Driessche from http://www.xcluziv.net/ gave me a chance to talk about my favorite topic, titanium bikes. Until the women got bored with all that tech stuff and we had to move along that is..
I also met Fons Moors from www.fonsmtb.be and Thierry from O2 Bikers.
Thanks Julie for coming over and accompanying me . I had a grand couple of hours.

Ride Stats : 84K and 1320 heightmeters in 4h47mins

Some pics from the Houffa and La Roche trails here (CLICK)

Sunday April 22nd:

Today I concentrated on following the Womens' Elite race, something I have been doing for 12 years now in Houffalize. Today was no exception and I went out on the track to get some pictures from these athletes I admire so much.

My Houffalize 2007 Womens' Elite Picture gallery (CLICK)

After the Womens' race I met up with "Moster Blond" and some of the BigM gang again and we had a fine time following the Mens' race. Some spectacular biking to be seen at the new downhill section at "Le Arsenal" along the La Roche road.

The beautiful weather made this a very rewarding weekend and I really had a grand time, riding my bike, checking out the Expo area with Julie , taking the pictures from the Womens' race and following the Mens' races with my friends .

I want to thank all of them for being there and making this weekend into what it has become.

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