It was the 200 starting in Nijmegen yesterday, at the start I met a chap in a red Alpha Romeo shirt, I'm guessing that was Alphapete who I met later on bench somewhere in darkest Limburg where temperatures were in the mid 30's.
Alan, yes it was, though you'd be laughed off the Alfa Romeo forum for your mispelling! Good to meet you.
It was my first overseas event and my wife came along so we built a holiday around it. We rode 70km of the 2021 World Champs course together in Leuven, Belgium the week before and then moved on to NL as the forecast for the 18th grew hotter and hotter.
The obvious comments: the road surfaces in Belgium and around Nijmegen were sublime, along with the cycling infrastructure. Do you know, they actually make the manhole covers level with the road surfaces over there? In addition, the respect shown to cyclists and the yielding at junctions was wonderful.
The event itself was reminiscent of UK ones in some ways - a group of 20 or so riders surrounding an organiser giving a briefing in a car park to begin, some late arrivals so a total of 30 actually taking part. The controls were either manned, receipts or photos and the scenery was lovely on a very comfortable morning. I started a couple of minutes behind the others (needed a briefing translation) so struggled to prevent myself trying too hard early on.
By midday it was getting warm and I've certainly never consumed so much water on a ride. By mid afternoon, after a good chat with Alan, I was to be seen dancing in children's fountains and asking a gardener to train his hosepipe on me (he was reluctant, afraid that the water was too cold!). It was now 35 degrees C. I knocked on a couple of doors to top up bidons and the residents were very obliging and spoke excellent English. The heat began to wain later in the afternoon but at that stage there was a long section near the Maas river which was very open with little shade, and which was honestly a bit dull when I just wanted it all to be over.
The maximum altitude for the while ride was 35m and the minimum was -10m. I came in a couple of minutes under 12 hours which was an hour and a half longer than I would have expected on such a flat course chiefly due to frequent stops to bathe in the shade. There were still five on the road and a couple had dropped out because of the heat. The ice lolly on offer was just what we needed - bliss.
The nearby airbnb had a sauna and a hottub which didn't seem very welcoming after what I'd been through - the cold shower was much more attractive!
