Today saw another bright and sunny day with temperatures just a couple of degrees higher but also with a stronger wind from the north turning towards the northwest. I decided to do a climbing session in Meerdael Forest. I had mounted my XTR wheelset with Nokian NBX Lite tyres in 2.0 width. These are rather narrow and I have to put in at least 2.5 bars in them to prevent snakebites. Also, the narrower footprint makes for less effective braking and certainly not as much comfort as its wider brethren. The forest tracks were mostly dry though and with temperatures of 7 degrees it was pleasant enough to drive through the forest. Before I took off I noticed a strange rattling noise coming from my XTR M952 rear derailler. It took me a while to figure out why my chain seemed to jump on the lower jockey wheel. One of the teeth of that little wheel had been sheared off, cleanly. Thinking back to my last ride I remember catching a big branch into my rear wheel whilst riding the Pecrot railroad singletrack. A branch that also hit my rear derailler. It must have hit it pretty good to take that teeth off !

Anyway, riding the bike it didn't matter that much , but I need to get me a new pair of jockeys one of these days. In Meerdael I followed more or less my secret training loop, leaving out the steepest of descents because I didn't trust the skinny tyres to be able to stop me on time. But as I rode more distance I became more confident in them. Nevertheless upon arriving home I swapped them with the 2.2 versions that are on my Hilset. The Hilset is only used on the road and the skinnier tyres are no problem there. The Nokian NBX Lite is quite a nice tyre. It doesn't have a lot of knobs in the center, making it a good roller, but it has some longer knobs on the side, making it grip pretty good in offcamber situations and in the corners.

The climbs and descents followed in a relentless succession and even though I was riding at a pretty relaxed pace I began to feel the heightmeters accumulating in my legs. I was not surprised to see I almost got 600 heightmeters by the end of my 30K ride. The weather forecast calls for a change of weather tomorrow, with the wind turning even more to the west and thus making the air a bit moistier. In Belgium that usually means its going to rain - or snow as might be the case if the temperatures stay this low. Anyway, we might have seen the last night of freezing for this week which must be a good thing too.

Ride Stats : 31K and 560/585 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 2h11mins

1625/16810