Big Bad Log

Contradictio in Terminis ? Not really, it all depends how you look at climbing . I can climb and still feel very relaxed. Obviously a lot depends on your gear choice. And you need to love wht you are doing. If you hate riding upwards you have a lot of trouble when riding in the regions I frequented today. Of course, when I'm on a climbing ride like today I go and look up all the hills I can find but even when you are not looking for hills, they have a tendency to find you when you ride in Brabant Walloon. First I set out to Sint Joris Weert to greet the riders of the Brabantse Pijl when the crossed under the bridge of the railroad. Technically I was standing on Grez Doiceau territory when I made a couple of pictures of the peleton zooming by. The start had only been given 15 minutes ago in nearby Leuven .

After that I had a couple of places in my mind where I would like to pass, places where I know a hill or two . The difficulty is in making them all fit into a loop without passing too much at the same places. First I rode to Nethen, then into Pecrot where I did a hill and came back down to set course for Eerken. Riding towards Sint Agatha Rode I saw 3 Ferrari's in 10 minutes.. hmm, must be some kind of Ferrari event going on. They all seemed to be following some kind of predefined route . A beautiful red 360 Modena passed me twice. I also saw a red 430 and a grey 575 Maranello. A little earlier I already crossed a yellow 360 Modena. Nice to see these thoroughbreds ride at a leasurely pace. Me, I tackled another couple of climbs before arriving in Ottenburg. From here I rode towards Wavre, not before having done a very steep climb out of Basse-Wavre. In Wavre, after crossing the Leuvensesteenweg I did another couple of hills and then rode towards Dion where I struggled upwards towards the Golf Course in order to arrive in Grez Doiceau. From Grez I only had another climb into Bossut before arriving at Hamme Mille.

In Hamme Mille a last climb awaited me. Even though I felt like having done a lot of heightmeters I was still surprised when I saw the final number. On the climbs I made sure I chose a gearing that had me ride easily upwards. Even though on the couple of 15+ percentages keeping the pace leasurely was of course not easy. At one point even the smallest gear - a 22/23 if I'm not mistaken - proved to be too high to finish the climb without applying some force. But judging from my average heartrate of 121bpm I didn't strain myself . My highest heartrate was 152bpm and this might have been when crossing the 430 - or not.

Ride Stats : 57.5K and 715/716 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h45mins

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