Cold and even some light snow during the day. This winter is surely one of the worst - or best if you like snow and ice - since ages. I can not remember seeing that my snow in one season or so many days with freezing temperatures. Luckily we can dress for the occasion and I did ride out after watching the finish of the competitors in Paris-Nice. I only wanted to do an easy recovery ride so I chose to do a loop involving little climbing, instead focussing on easy roads. My loop took me through Heverlee, Egenhoven and then towards the crest above Leefdaal. There I turned left towards Neerijse and then continued towards Sint Agatha Rode before turning towards Sint Joris Weert and the Zoete Waters to close the loop. The average temperature was 1 degree C and there was an unpleasant breeze blowing from the northeast.
Today I saw an article where they stated that this july Minister Schouppe wants to introduce the European Car Registration Plate in Belgium. The colors of the Belgian car plates are now red lettering on a white background. Minister Schouppe wants to change this to black lettering on a white background. So far so good but the next step is more difficult to come to terms with. The European plates all have 7 digits . In our system the oldest numberplates have 5 digits and the newest ones 6.
So all Belgian cars must be fitted with NEW numberplates that are comform to the European system . Quite a big change. The worst change is for the owners of personalized number plates. In Belgium you can get a personalized plate for 620 or 874€, depending if you want 6 or 5 digits . Obviously the combination must be available and has to include at least 3 numbers and 2 or 3 letters. Some combinations - like the abbreviations of political parties and the like - are of course forbidden.
Now Mr Schouppe, in all his wisdom, also wants these personalized plates to have 7 digits, so he came up with the bright idea to add the digit 9 (or 99) in front of the combination. So someone who now has the number plate JAN-001 will get 9-JAN-001.
I can understand the frustration of all those who see their investment brutalized and changed into something hardly personalized at all . I doubt that Minister Schouppe will offer those people the possibility to get their money back. There are already Facebook groups who protest against this action and demand that the personalized number plates are left alone - they can become back on white that is not the problem . Time will surely tell how this will evolve.

Ride Stats : 34K and 250/280 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h33mins

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