Around noon the skies cleared out sufficiantly to risk a ride outside. The wind dried out the streets very quickly. Unfortunately the wind also would prove a formidable opponent, or welcome ally , when it either blew against me or in my back. At long last the Hilset is back, sporting a beautiful new crankset. As I have mentioned a couple of times already, the new crankset consists of a Shimano M960 crank, Hope Ceramics bottom bracket and Stronglight CT2 chainrings. Looks the part and is a worthy replacement to the Tune fastfoot which gave me too much little problems to feel comfortable with.
I had to re-adjust to the position on the bike but pretty soon my body was used again to the Hilsets' manner of riding. A bit dry and hard but also very direct and positive. I put on Nokian NBX Lite tyres in 2.2 section to provide me with the necessary grip and comfort on the long dark evenings in the autumn and winter. The semi slicks will have to wait until next spring. I also mounted my oldest wheelset, shiny silver 1994 Shimano XTR M910 hubs couple to early Mavic ceramic rims. They keep on going, even after 15 years in service. 

My original plan was to ride the Ludo Dierckxsens but I let that go almost immediately when I felt the strenght of the wind today. The LD would take my up into the plains and I would be spending a lot more energy than I would like to , just to keep upright and moving against the wind. 
So I did another tour, taking me first towards Bierbeek and Meldert and then - with the wind in my face - towards La Bruyere. Here I took a 90 degree turn towards Beauvechain, very happy to have the wind blowing from the side for a while. Even then, care had to be taken, especially between houses or behind patches of forest. The wind could catch on all of a sudden, so it was hands on the handlebar all the way. From Beauvechain I rode towards Hamme Mille and then over Nethen and Sint Joris Weert towards the Zoete Waters . From here I added another loop over Heverlee before arriving back in Blanden. Just a little loop more to make it an even 50.5K . Just after I arrived another shower made the streets wet again. I had been very fortunate to find a dry gap of almost 3 hours in which to ride out and stay dry.

Ride Stats : 50.5K and 380/430 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h25mins

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