Dutch brevets in 2019

[quixoticgeek]

Updated forecast: more wind (force 5/6), higher temperatures (double digits perhaps), the amount of rain depends on the forecaster (ranging from dry to deluge).

The route is also seriously underdistance: according to my GPS-unit, it's only 193km (with quite some shortcuts possible if you wanted to cheat).

Looks like forecast is ZW3, with a bit of W3 during the early afternoon. Still high single digit temps, with only a small sprinkling of rain.

Currently in Amsterdam the wind is battering the flat I'm in such that the building is wobbling, and the sound of it through the balcony railing it's like I have a screaming banshee outside. I had planned on going for a ride today, but this is just crazy wind. Gonna do some indoor body weight exercises instead.

J

[slugbait]

Looks like forecast is ZW3 [...]

That was a bit optimistic: the Dutch mountains were high today, with Beaufort 7 during the afternoon... From the last control to the finish (with strong cross winds), there were bits where it took a lot of effort to not be blown off the road.

(And I bagged 2 tiles, because the route was slightly different than last year

[quixoticgeek]

Looks like forecast is ZW3 [...]

That was a bit optimistic: the Dutch mountains were high today, with Beaufort 7 during the afternoon... From the last control to the finish (with strong cross winds), there were bits where it took a lot of effort to not be blown off the road.

(And I bagged 2 tiles, because the route was slightly different than last year

Well we have a new contender for "Understatement of the year"...

That wind was brutal. I had an interesting array of people on my wheel. For the first 70km or so, I had a pair of Polish (had originally thought them to be Germans) They had a combination of Nav fail, and someone going at about the right speed in front of them. I have no problem with someone just sitting on my wheel, I'd like them to ask first if it's going to be for that long, but I've sat on enough strangers wheels that I can't really complain. Somewhere on the climb out of Apeldorn they left me behind and went on ahead. I last saw them coming into the carpark at the end, as I left for the station. I left at 2232... Me thinks they may not get validated...

At CP2 I saw a young couple who looked absolutely shattered, they arrived after me (which surprised me). I had a chat with them. Turns out they were on their first ever Audax, one of them having only bought their bike two weeks ago! Recognising in them a lot of where I was about a year ago, I decided to pay forward the kindness I was shown last year, and escorted them all the way back to the finish, letting them sit on my wheel on the headwind bits, answering some of their audax questions, and generally keeping them company, I think I may have sold them on aerobars... My over taking one of them on the aerobars whilst not pedalling, as they pedalled uphill surprised them... It was nice to have some company on a ride like this, not had that for a while. They had some questions I couldn't answer, so I have pointed them at Ivo. With a few hundred meters to go, I urged them to empty the tank and get there before me, so they could finish their first Audax, not last.

I really enjoyed the ride, even if there was an evil combination of headwinds *AND* hills. 1333m of climbing, in the Netherlands!

Oh and the trains were broken on the way back so I had to cycle home from Schiphol... ah well helps the eddington number, even if my arse could have done without it...

Time for bed. Heerlen in March is the next BRM I'm doing.

J

[Zed43]

My experience didn't quite match the picture MyWindsock paints of this brevet (51% tailwind? really?)


As slugbait said, esp. on the last bit riding on the dike, all exposed, there were parts you really needed to lean into the wind and have a firm grip on the hoods to stay in control.

My garmin only credits me with 782m of climbing, guess you encountered a few more Dutch Mountains than I did 

Again quite a number of riders: 85. Last month it was 70+ (predicted weather was shite), and 115 on December 28. A notable increase compared to the previous year I think. What about brevets in the UK, is there an uptake in the number of riders as well?

[quixoticgeek]

Yeah, I get a 50.6%. I think mywindsock may not take cross winds into account so well, especially when they are as strong as we had yesterday.



J

[Ivo]

Due to major roadworks closing the Afsluitdijk the route of the Amsterdam 400 is completely changed.

[Zed43]

I asked Joost if he was aware of the closure just this morning But it's reassuring to know there will be a BRM400 at that date regardless (PBP qualifying etc).

Race around the Netherlands which starts on May 1st will also be overjoyed hearing about the closure...

Closure is for bicycles only and will last until 1 april 2022. There will be busses that take bicycles, but I doubt they'll run at O-dark-hour when us randonneurs would need them.

[slugbait]

It is bizarre to close it for 3 years. Although for most (non-race/audax) cyclist the bus will be a reasonable alternative.

[quixoticgeek]

Due to major roadworks closing the Afsluitdijk the route of the Amsterdam 400 is completely changed.

Oh. I just emailed you about this. Looks like you knew already. Apologies.

J

[quixoticgeek]

I asked Joost if he was aware of the closure just this morning But it's reassuring to know there will be a BRM400 at that date regardless (PBP qualifying etc).

The new route is up on the website. Looks like a lap of the Hollands. Interestingly, it shares much the same route as RatN from Den Helder to the Hoek. Looks like I get to ride that bit twice in 3 weeks...

If we have SW winds, it's gonna be an interesting experience...

Also looks like on the leg from Hoek back to Amsterdam, it covers a number of tiles I was missing... Not that I'm addicted, honest...

Is it me, or has the time changed by 1 hour to 2000 rather than 2100 ?

Race around the Netherlands which starts on May 1st will also be overjoyed hearing about the closure...

Race is gonna get longer, but the time limit will increase too...

Closure is for bicycles only and will last until 1 april 2022. There will be busses that take bicycles, but I doubt they'll run at O-dark-hour when us randonneurs would need them.

Yeah, I did wonder if they would be 24 hr or not. I also wonder how they will react to velomobiles...

A friend did ask "why didn't they just re-purpose one lane of car traffic". Which to me would be a more sensible option... But hey, car is king or something...

J

[Wobbly]

Race around the Netherlands which starts on May 1st will also be overjoyed hearing about the closure...

Race is gonna get longer, but the time limit will increase too...

I've not heard anything from the RatN organisers about a change of route or increase in time limit. Where are you getting your info from?

[Zed43]

Is it me, or has the time changed by 1 hour to 2000 rather than 2100 ?

Seems to, yes.

Glad to see this route also has a manually operated ferry (ie you turn a crank that moves the ferry over a fixed chain).

Race around the Netherlands which starts on May 1st will also be overjoyed hearing about the closure...

Race is gonna get longer, but the time limit will increase too...

I read on the fiets.nl forum that the Houtribdijk (aka N307) is closed as well, so that makes is quite a bit longer.

[quixoticgeek]

I've not heard anything from the RatN organisers about a change of route or increase in time limit. Where are you getting your info from?

I emailed race control last night. They are aware, and looking at other route options, and will update us as soon as they have a solution.

Is it me, or has the time changed by 1 hour to 2000 rather than 2100 ?

Seems to, yes.

Glad to see this route also has a manually operated ferry (ie you turn a crank that moves the ferry over a fixed chain).

Oh that's going to be fun. Where about's is that ferry?

I read on the fiets.nl forum that the Houtribdijk (aka N307) is closed as well, so that makes is quite a bit longer.

Oh crap, that's going to make things even more of a pain. Eek

J

[Zed43]

Oh that's going to be fun. Where about's is that ferry?

It's the voetveer Vlaardingse vaart. Bring a pole stick and you can practice your fierljepping skills 

[Wobbly]

I've not heard anything from the RatN organisers about a change of route or increase in time limit. Where are you getting your info from?

I emailed race control last night. They are aware, and looking at other route options, and will update us as soon as they have a solution.

Given that the Afsluitdijk is about 700km into RatN riders will be pretty spread out so I would have thought the shuttle bus would have sufficed. I realise this might be a significant problem for tandem and/or velomobile riders if their bikes won't fit on the bus of course!

[quixoticgeek]

For those not watching the RATN thread in the racing section.

The revised route is out. We get an extra 24 hours, and an extra 200km! 1890km total. Check the website for more.

J

[rob]

I do think that’s a real pity.   One of my greatest memories of the long rides I’ve done was riding along there in the baking heat on the Dutch Capitals 1400k in 2012.

[slugbait]

I'm examining the route for next Saturday, but the first 45km are surprisingly lumpy. Although the worst climb in that bit seems to be the "King of Spain" (see http://heuvelsfietsen.nl/Gulpen-Voerendaal/Koning_van_Spanje.php) which is still very gentle compared to the Gulpenerberg that climbs to the same plateaux. Luckily, we have the cobbled climb up to the citadel of Namur to compensate

[quixoticgeek]

I'm examining the route for next Saturday, but the first 45km are surprisingly lumpy. Although the worst climb in that bit seems to be the "King of Spain" (see http://heuvelsfietsen.nl/Gulpen-Voerendaal/Koning_van_Spanje.php) which is still very gentle compared to the Gulpenerberg that climbs to the same plateaux. Luckily, we have the cobbled climb up to the citadel of Namur to compensate

That first 40k looks very lumpy...

Have imported the route into komoot, which makes it 314km, and has a weird loop in Heerlen at the end... What's going on there?

J

[slugbait]

That first 40k looks very lumpy...

Have imported the route into komoot, which makes it 314km, and has a weird loop in Heerlen at the end... What's going on there?

J

When I look at the track via https://opoto.github.io/wtracks/ or the Wahoo-app (in both cases the full gpx-track at max res), I don't see a weird loop in Heerlen and it's only 307km long?

The climbing is not too bad, most of it is very gentle gradients. From an average speed perspective, the only bad thing is that the descents are pretty abrupt. For instance, from Romsee to the Meuse river, that is a bloody steep descent, if I recall correctly. At least it runs parallel to the "Haute Folie"-climb; the steepest climb I've seen outside of Yorkshire...

[Ivo]

That first 40k looks very lumpy...

Have imported the route into komoot, which makes it 314km, and has a weird loop in Heerlen at the end... What's going on there?

J

When I look at the track via https://opoto.github.io/wtracks/ or the Wahoo-app (in both cases the full gpx-track at max res), I don't see a weird loop in Heerlen and it's only 307km long?

The climbing is not too bad, most of it is very gentle gradients. From an average speed perspective, the only bad thing is that the descents are pretty abrupt. For instance, from Romsee to the Meuse river, that is a bloody steep descent, if I recall correctly. At least it runs parallel to the "Haute Folie"-climb; the steepest climb I've seen outside of Yorkshire...

The descent from Fléron to the river is indeed quite steep but not that technical. Most of it is simply a straight line. But do brake early at the end, you'll enter a roundabout which you don't want to do with 70km/h. A few years back I spent part of the descent in the gearbox of a quad before it moved aside to let me pass. Descending the Citadel is actually more work.
For the northeners, beware that in the Maas valley between Liège and Namur the wind turns with the valley.

[quixoticgeek]

Why is the opening time of the finish control listed as 1903, and not 1900? Not that I'm going to be anywhere near the pointy end, I was just slightly bemused to see that opening time...

J

[slugbait]

Why is the opening time of the finish control listed as 1903, and not 1900? Not that I'm going to be anywhere near the pointy end, I was just slightly bemused to see that opening time...

J

Maybe they just want to mess with us? Audax Club Parisien has a nice spreadsheet for calculating opening times, but that gives a number different from both 19:00 and 19:03 (it's 18:00 in case your wondering).

[quixoticgeek]

Why is the opening time of the finish control listed as 1903, and not 1900? Not that I'm going to be anywhere near the pointy end, I was just slightly bemused to see that opening time...

J

Maybe they just want to mess with us? Audax Club Parisien has a nice spreadsheet for calculating opening times, but that gives a number different from both 19:00 and 19:03 (it's 18:00 in case your wondering). I'm

Is that your bike I spy at the same hostel as me?

J

[slugbait]

Is that your bike I spy at the same hostel as me?

J

If it's a black/blue Specialized Roubaix, then the likelihood is pretty high. But I'm currently in the city centre for dinner at a very mediocre Indian restaurant.