Big Bad Log

This evening saw the first weekly ride of the KBC Mountainbike club in 2009. We meet every thursday at 6.30pm near the Sporthal in Heverlee and do a mountainbike ride varying from 1h30 to 2hours or more. This evening we were with 10 riders, which is not bad for a first outing. Obviously the nice weather - it was still 18 degrees C when we started - lured all of us out of hibernation and had us gather together anticipating a good ride. We had the privilege of doing a new loop the bikers from Meerdael 2000 are conceiving in partnership with the Movin'Bike bike fair which will take place in October 2009 in the Brabanthallen . This loop will ultimately be used for an organised ride on the 11th of October if all goes well. The loop will concentrate on the areas to the northeast of Leuven, instead of the regular Meerdael 2000 ride - which will take place on October 25th - which concentrates on the Meerdael area located south of Louvain but also goes towards Brabant Walloon and even all the way south towards Grez Doiceau.
But today we were in for a very nice ride, taking us along narrow and winding bits of singletrack, from Heverlee towards Korbeek Lo and then up and over the crest towards Kessel Lo and Linden. Here we were riding into the area known as Hoog Linden, with some nice undulating passages in the forest. The trails were excellent, dry and fast. A couple of nice winding singletracks , some surprisingly steep climbs and ditto descents. Before long we arrived at the Chartreuzebos were we climbed again before descending towards Linden . Crossing the Diestsesteenweg and we were on a narrow tarmac road taking us up and then down and up again on a very nice passage into another bit of forest . We arrived at the road connecting Kessel Lo with Pellenberg. Here we rode left towards Pellenberg but after a couple of hundred meters we took a sharp right and then descended along a very tricky track in a hollow road.

Zooming all the way down to a road the led us towards Lovenjoel where we crossed the Tiensesteenweg . We then rode on dirt roads for a couple of kilometers leading us through the fields towards Bierbeek and the Brabanthal. Here I split of from the main group to ride directly home. The sun was already under the horizon and I arrived home just when the last bits of light were disappearing into the dark. Very nice ride , fast but still manageable. The group was very homogenous and we didn't have to wait for very long at the top of the steepest climbs. Thanks to Joel and Frank for offering us a great thursday evening ride.

Ride Stats : 41.5K and 390/403 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h5mins

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