Big Bad Log

This morning saw a lot of showers so I decided to wait until noon to ride out. I connected with the Brabantse Pijl Classic trail at the Zoete Waters. Here the trail was marked with the big arrows for tomorrows' race and also by smaller arrows with D'store on them. These markings would have to guide us back since the race finishes in Alsemberg. The trail meandered through Sint Joris Weert towards Neerijse and then followed the very busy, narrow and dangerous Sint Janbergse Steenweg to Huldenberg. From Huldenberg to Overijse and then towards Hoeilaart. But just behind the E411 the trail turns to the left for a climb and another left towards Maleizen. Here was placed the bifurcation between the 2 distances . It was either 70K or 130K. Pity they didn't have something in between because 70 sounded like 'not enough' and 130 definately was too much. Not so much because of the distance, but more because I spotted a very dark cloud in the 130 direction. I had noted on meteox.be that we had a bit of a dry spell but it looked like it would rain soon. Also, the wind was fierce from westerly directions. It had been giving me a good workout in getting here and I imagined it would only get worse with the showers that were sure to fall.

So I took the 70. It doubled back into Overijse and then on the way to Huldenberg turned left towards Duisburg. In the climb and subsequent descent into Eizer it started to rain. Luckily the wind was blowing in my back now but in Duisburg I decided to don my Gore Tex jacket . It rained quite heavily now and the roads were wet. Splashing water wet my pants and feet. After 15 minutes the rain subsided and due to the wind 10 minutes later the roads were already drying out. Great. The trail now set towards Leefdaal were we turned left towards the Tervuursesteenweg. Having crossed that we came to Everberg and further on it went into Meerbeek . Here I must have missed an arrow. I decided to ride towards Kortenberg or the Brusselsesteenweg - whichever came first and turn right towards Leuven. Having followed the Brusselsesteenweg for a while I saw an arrow on the other side of one of the crossings, leading towards Veltem. Good, I was back on the trail. The last bits of the ride took me through Winksele towards Herent. From Herent we descended towards the Leuvense Vaart. Here a last climb was waiting from the Vaart towards the Mechelsesteenweg. But the trail then dropped into Leuven. I made my way to the start/finish which was situated on the Ladeuzeplein. It had started to rain again and from the color of the clouds I figured it would be a good shower again. I made my way through Leuven towards the Naamsepoort where I had to take shelter from a serious downpour. The roads were tremped again and in that wetness I rode back towards Blanden along the Naamsesteenweg. In all, the ride was easy but the heavy showers made it less pleasant than it could have been. My Polar seized 2h37mins into the ride - probably due to dirt blocking one of the buttons - but unseized itself again after 20 minutes. So I 'lost' 20 minutes and around 7km but fortunately I had a double backup with my GPS and an old Cateye Enduro as well. I include the map of the ride but please note that I missed a turn somewhere between Everberg and Meerbeek and I don't have the first bit between Leuven and the Zoete Waters. Other than that the track is as it should be.

Ride Stats : 74.5K and 425/424 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h13mins
Ride Map :

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