After last nights' rainfall the snow was mostly gone this morning. It was still raining though so I waited until 11am to ride out. The sun was coming through and the landscape looked like it was new. I compared it with the healthy blush a person has when having done a sauna. Almost reborn, the brown and green colors looking good after the days in white. I settled on a long road ride since I knew the offroad would be wet and muddy. With the top layer holding the water because deeper down the frost wouldn't let it through. We'll see how things develop next week. It can either go back to freezing or defrost further. I hope it dries out quickly, thats all.

My ride took me towards Nethen and Pecrot, and then to Archennes and Ottenburg. I didn't ride around the climbs, but went looking for them, attacking them with low gearing and high rpms, just trying to relax during the climbing. From Ottenburg I rode towards Wavre and then down into Tombeek. Back up on the other side making my way towards Overijse and Huldenberg. Here I couldn't resist tackling the Smeysberg - twice. Once on the long and steady climb along the road exiting Huldenberg, then back down the Smeysberg road - 65kph max here ! - before climbing back towards the crest along the much smaller Kleinwaverstraat. I then dropped down towards the road to Neerijse, followed that to Neerijse where I rode along the N253 in the direction of Leuven. Obviously I did another climb along the J.Vranckx straat towards the Langerode veld. I then rode back on the crest towards the Blokkenstraat which I followed back down to the N253 again. Then into Egenhoven and along the Arenberg campus towards Heverlee and further on to Blanden. A good ride, with a nice average temperature of 7 degrees C and notwithstanding a rather strong wind blowing from the west I did enjoy it very well. The push of the wind in my back on the final stretches from Leefdaal towards Egenhoven and Heverlee is one of those rare joys only bikers get to experience.

Ride Stats : 61K and 590/650 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h54mins

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