At last a dry day or at least most of it. When I rode out at dusk it started to rain lightly. There was a strong wind blowing as well. I decided to do the Meerdael Bloso, or at least as much as I could ride without leaving the forest . The Green was wet with the new rain but when I reached the Zoete Waters again after a tough section against the wind in the Dyle valley near Korbeek Dyle, the wind had dried up most of the trails. Temps were around 10 degrees C so not too bad for this time of year. In Meerdael Forest most of the trails were pretty dry but of course on the flat sections the water could not escape and things were muddy. I took an alternative downhill towards Nethen, which turned out to be more dangerous than the one I wanted to avoid. The long uphill near the Savenel wall was mushy, sapping strength out of my legs. I decided to add a part of the Red Bloso after completing the Blue loop and things went well near Valduc where I had the strong wind in my back pushing me along the field road parallel to the forest . A muddy bit in the forest and then I cut the red loop short, avoiding Bierbeek and the long uphill which I knew would have me with the wind straight in my face.
I had to do a bit of adventuring in Mollendaalbos because there were a couple of big trees that had fallen over the path. Had to climb with my bike on the back, over the trees and through some thorny bushes. I guess I must have picked up a thorn there because after a while back on the bike I felt my rear tyre losing pressure. I stopped and decided to change my inner tyre.. checking a nearby tree I saw the number 6 over 2 other 6'es. Yeah, with a white half moon shining above my head and an owl making some eerie noise behind me, things felt a little spooky all of a sudden. I found a pointy bit in my outer tyre but couldn't get it out completely. So I broke the point off , inserted a new inner tyre and partly pumped up the tyre. From that point I took the shortest way home because I feared there might still be enough left of the thorn to penetrate my inner tyre again. Luckily I managed to get home with a badly twisting rear tyre. The last sections were very muddy to make things even more difficult. But I had a good distance nevertheless and felt tyred but satisfied having done at least one ride in this windy and wet week.

Ride Stats : 46K and 430/500 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h42mins

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