Hey everyone, my country has changed color this week and I think most of Europe with it!
We don't see this amount of snow very often anymore in The Netherlands, when I was a kid this was pretty normal but the last time we had multiple days of snow was in 2021 I think and although it's pretty, I wouldn't mind if this never happens again 😅 it makes my job on the road dangerous and my cycling trips a lot harder if not impossible... 😠

At the time of writing this post on a Sunday morning, it's -6°C (That's 42,8°F) outside and a warning has been issues for slippery roads until tomorrow morning, so at this temperature I probably need to limit my time outside on the bike to 90 minutes at a maximum to not get too cold, at the same time I need to totally clean my bike again to remove the salt from the roads, then dry it and re-lube my chain plus the chance of crashing with these road conditions so today I'll probably replace my ride with another walk - boring! but it is what it is...

Cycling Sunday Chit Chat

So I'm making this post in anticipation for this weeks Cycling Sunday Chit Chat in the Cycling Community that will probably be launched later today by @nanixxx but due to time zone differences I started to make my post in advance 🙂

This time, the challenge launched too late for my timezone (and schedule) to post it right after launch but that doesn't matter at all, I do hope I will not be the only participant this week though!

Let's see what questions there are!

Which outlet or magazine do you follow most often to keep up with the latest cycling news?

I'm not following the news for cycling at all! I do listen to cycling podcasts to better understand everything about cycling, the best so far is a Dutch podcast called 'Beter Worden' or 'Getting Better when you translate it - I actually found this podcast thanks to another Hive member @beaker007 so that was a great tip! Unfortunately the podcast is now behind a paywall...
Beaker is also a cyclist (also in the winter?) so maybe, just maybe we can lure him in to the cycling community! 😋

When it comes to cycling news, do you enjoy diving into detailed articles and thorough analysis, or do you prefer the speed and simplicity of short clips and quick social media updates?

So, I like podcasts because I drive a lot for work and I can listen to them while driving, on YouTube there are quite a lot of MTB related shorts and some Road Bike things as well, after all they're not THAT different.

What type of content motivates you the most: interviews with cyclists, equipment reviews, or inspiring stories from amateur riders?

I like the (short) YouTube video's from other amateur cyclists, Level Up Phil especially, he's from the UK and about my age and he has funny video's. In general I like video's of MTB'rs filming their run on a trail but also from road bikers sharing the awesome surroundings they cycle in on all parts of the world.

MTB Permit

This week my permit to ride the biggest MTB Trail in Beesd for the new year has arrived so once the weather improves I will explore it, unlike the MTB Trails I explored while on vacation that are free to ride for anyone and the donations to maintain the trails are voluntary, for this trail a permit is required and the funds will be used to maintain the trail.

A one year permit is €18 while a 1 day permit is €6, because this trail is only 10km from where I live the choice was easy! 😊

The Beesd (Mariënwaerdt) mountain bike route has two loops.
The red loop goes around the manor house and the Stapelbakker area (Mariënwaerdt High). It is 12 kilometers long, there is also a blue loop between the railway and the Zeedijk (Mariënwaerdt Low). This loop is 14 kilometers long.

Both loops are easy to connect, so you can ride them together.

As part of the red loop, there is also a green route made especially for children. This route is 6 kilometers long, and children always have priority on this trail so that's pretty cool, children can easily and safely learn how to handle their bikes, good work!

Snow couldn't stop me...

So, last Thursday it was seven days ago since my last ride... my body needed some rest after so much activity while on holiday 😅 and the weather wasn't very favorable to ride with roads still partially covered with snow, ice and slush and my wife told me I would be crazy if I went out with these conditions 😏 I guess I just AM a little bit crazy then 🤣

Before every ride, I plan my route on Garmin Connect so I know where to go and more important: what my distance will be because I don't want to be home too early but also no unexpected 20 kilometers extra, especially when it's cold. This time tough planning had no use because many cycling paths were covered in snow I would need to ride careful on, going very slow and a lot of snow will give me a cold and wet ass too so I figured I would just go out to one of the nearby dykes I knew was cleared of snow and just start pedaling and let the cleared roads take me somewhere. 🙂

Halfway on the first dyke, just before crossing the highway it was really pretty so I had to stop to take some pictures, here you can see the highway, a World War 2 bunker and a very pretty winter environment. Just outside the picture there was a man sitting in the back of his car, piloting a drone to make pictures - nice toy!

It's hard to spot on the picture but the small drone is in the circle

As you can see there's another WW2 bunker, there are a lot of those on that side of the dyke, built by the Germans after their invasion of my country.

Most of the roads were great to ride on, I just had to be careful not to get in to the snow and slush at higher speeds when there was a car on the road, but there weren't that many.

Although I don't like the snow, I love the changes every season and I really think every season is beautiful in it's own way!

There was one part that was kind of sketchy to ride and I was more careful and slow here 😅 no telling if there are solid chunks of ice hiding in the slush, I saw a YouTuber saying slush acts like sand, and it's really like sand making the tires skid from side to side, searching for grip.

Later on my route, when I left the dyke (less wind so that was nice) even the cycling path next to the road was perfectly cleaned with snow, great work of the municipality West-Betuwe, at the side of the meadows a big layer of snow had piled up.

After taking a couple of detours, finding a route around my usual paths that were now covered in snow I found a clear path home and arrived back home after a little over two hours and 49km. The speed was not important today, it was just about spending the time on the bike and get some exercise.

I now understand why cyclist ride less in the winter, it's not even about lacking the commitment to go out but it's just the weather conditions, I will even fail on some Garmin challenges to get to 200 kilometers in the first part of January... 😅

The Good new is, after today the cold is gone and temperatures around 7 degrees will be back which is pretty normal for this time of the year, hopefully the rain will flush the salt from the roads!

Thanks for stopping by and until next week!