Hey everyone, it took a little longer than usual to get my cycling post because of some real life shit I had to deal with, which caused a little stress which caused me to not be in the right mood to write.

The weather in The Netherlands lately have been really nice and many cyclists got on their bikes again for the very first time this year, it's been a while since it was that busy with other cyclists and even on the MTB Trail we were not alone, last week we even met a 7 men strong MTB group which my daughter tried to keep up with. 😄

On the trail last week, my left crank came loose for the THIRD time 😡 but at least now I can fix it myself so the ride doesn't have to end and I have to walk home, at ride one legged like the first time. 😅
It's now ten months ago I have bought my bike so I made an appointment for the yearly maintenance in the first week of April. I am not sure what they will check but I guess it's the front suspension under leg maintenance, checking brake fluids and all bearings on the bike, as well as checking whether I have put the crank back like it should and to make sure those two pinch bolts hopefully never come loose again. 😏
At the same time, my daughter's Merida Juliet front suspension is also getting some love so that's probably going to be an expensive day!

Fifty Miles!

So, the night before my ride I was making my route on Garmin Connect and the planned route was 80+ kilometer... I did want to go on a longer ride because the weather was forecasted to be perfect, low wind speed with sun and 10 to 14 degrees Celcius but I figured 80 was a bit too much, so I changed the way home to take 10 kilometers off.

That morning, while I checked if Fitbit agreed I could do a little crazy today I got the 'All Okay' with a very high recommended target to get to today.

When I got the one of the many dykes I like to ride on, a truck was backing up on the small road so I had to wait, good time to snap some pictures for my post!

Soon, that little devil on my shoulder started to speak to me that it would be kinda bad-ass to break that 80 kilometer anyway 😇 so I told myself I would see how I would feel at the point I changed my route home.

The original, longer route IS nicer to ride and I guess I was just kidding myself to see how I would feel, because right there, I probably already made up my mind to go for it.
With 25 kilometers left, my bottles where empty so I checked Google to see where I could refill. The water companies here in The Netherlands made water tap points for active people of any kind to refill their bottles which is great and only 500 meters from me there was such a tap point but I discovered during winter months the tap point is closed and doesn't open until April. 😣

As an inexperienced cyclist, these are things I have to learn and discover I guess but it meant I was going to be cycling the entire last hour without water and more important, fuel IN my water. At that point I had better eaten my backup energy bar I always take with me but I underestimated my total effort and just continued pedaling.

Spring is my favorite time of the year with everything getting back to life and the trees full of blossom 😍 and on long rides like this, I visit villages I don't visit very often which is always cool.

Last week, I commented on a post another community member made I always tried not to take straight, long roads because they feel endless but today with this great weather it didn't bother me much, well not until the last hour anyway.

I had never got this far to the East before getting on the dyke following the river so this time I could ride over 30 kilometer before leaving the dyke, the last 30 minutes started to get uncomfortable but I really wanted to break that 80 kilometer so I even took a little deviation on my already extended route because I wasn't sure it would take me over 80 but then a bridge I needed to cross to get home opened right in front of me to let a boat pass 😏 I didn't wanted to wait so I decided to take the next bridge which added 3 more kilometers to my ride but what I didn't thought of was I would now have to ride with headwinds the last 8 kilometers, the wind had picked up a bit and wasn't very strong but it was enough for my empty legs. 😅

Once I arrived home I got the Garmin message I earned a new badge!

That's a pretty one! 😊
To be honest with you I didn't even know exactly how many kilometers the 50 mile would be so I only discovered this when I was home.

Stats

With my daughter now being able to get to 40 kilometers, my total distance on Sundays is a little less but so far I can make up for it on my solo Thursday rides and I am 154km ahead to eventually reach my 4000km yearly goal.

I will skip this Cycling Chit Chat because like Moose, I don't watch a lot of movies in general. Instead I like watching series. I do watch a lot of cycling content on Youtube like GCN, or GMBN and also some YouTubers like Level Up Phil.

I do have a topic for a later Chit Chat: share with us how you like to prepare for a (long) ride, do you have certain rituals or items you always take with you?
And how does your cycling closet look like if you have a special place for your cycling gear.

Thanks for stopping by!