Coast to coast for Kika finished!!

Dear readers of this blog,


Last wednesday the group of velomobile riders arrived in Washington D.C. the final destination of Roll Over America. It was a great journey and a fantastic experience. I want to thank you all for your contribution for both charities (Kika and Innova). If you would like to find more information on ROAM then see this link that collected everything together.


Some statistics about the tour:

• We travelled 28 days of which we had 2 days of rest and 26 days of riding
• We covered 5178 km (3236 miles) (averaging about 200 km / day, 125 miles / day)
• Longest stretch: 270 km (168 miles)
• Shortest stretch: 91 km (56 miles) 
• We crossed 4 time zones
• We crossed 15 states (OR, WA, ID, MT, ND, SD, MN, WI, IL, IN, OH, PA, MD, VA, DC)
• We climbed approximately 30.000 meters (90.000 feet)
• We turned our pedals approximately 1 million times

Daily updates

My first plan was to give you, the readers of this blog, the possibility to read a daily update for each and every day I'm riding through the USA. Unfortunately I have not been able to post these daily updates for quite some time. First of all the lack of an Internet connection and second the lack of time didnt allow me to do that. Now I do have connection let me give an idea of how a general day during our trip looks like:

5.30 Alarm and time to get up!
After I get up I start immediately packing all of my stuff. Especially packing the sleeping back, air matress and the whole tent take up quite some time. Immediately after that we start with breakfast. We have breakfast with all the dutch participants of the tour. We make coffee and eat bread, yoghurt and fruit in serious amounts!
After breakfast we clean up the remainings and the rest of our tent and so on. We put all the lugage on one place so our support crew can load it later in the Van that takes all of the luggage.

7.00 Start to ride!
I leave the campground around this time. Most of the participants have already left by this time so I'm kind a late together with my riding buddy Maarten Heckman. Before leaving we fill all of our water bags and bottles and take quite some Banana's, cliff bars, cookies and so on. We start riding!
All of the rides have been mapped out in our GPS devises, so we only have to follow the coloured line!
The evening before our tour captain Josef Janning holds a so called Riders Meeting where all the specifics of the ride of the next day are explained.

8.00 Getting into the mood!
After half an hour to an hour of warming up the most difficult part of the day passed: Getting your legs warm and ready for another heavy day. In the beginning of ech day you always wonder how you are going to make it through that day since you feel the sourness of your leggs of all those days before. Best thing is to take it easy and slowly start getting warm.

10.30 Coffee time
Most of the time we stop around this time for a coffee, some large cola's and some donuts or small pastries. When we stop at a gas station it also means that we explain to all the people there what we are doing. Stopping anyware means that people come and want to know everything about our bikes, our trip and so on.

12.00 Lunch time
We stop around this time and try to get a healty lunch. Thats quite challenging sometimes. Fat and fastfood dont go well with exercising. So we try to get something healty somewhere. Next to the food we normally drink quite some coke's to get some more sugars in. After lunch we've normally covered at least half of the day stretch. So most of the time around 60 to 70 miles, now we get ready for the rest of the cyling day

15.00 quick breaktime
.In the afternoon we try to make a long stretch untill we start feeling tired and feel we need a rest. One other stop is most of the times something like 25 miles before the end of the stretch of that day.

17.00 arrival at campsite
The arrival time at the campsite depends on the lenght of the day. When we have to cover around 150 - 160 miles its most of the time a bit later. After arrival we take some drinks and have some rest. Then we start putting up our tents, unpack all of the luggage and start fighting for a shower. We experienced that a lot of campings are fitted for RV guests so the facilities are small most of the times and not too many showers around.

18.30 Dinner
We most of the times eat at the campsite. We (or at least Winda, the wive of Maarten) is cooking us a great, healthy meal. We have dinner with a group of dutch riders. After eating we clean up.
The unlucky people arrive pretty much later at the campsite because they had some technical problems on the way or because it took them more time. We have 2 SAG (support and gear) vehicles that can take care of them. We have around 8 places for stranded Velomobiles on these vehicles.
So quite often after we had dinner and start to relax the people of the SAG team still need to come in with the riders that got stranded.

21.30 Time to hit the sack!

Day 10: Billings - Miles City

The last day before our restday was supposed to be a tough day. We had to cross 150 miles on this day. The track was pretty easy, only in the beginning and in the end we had some serious hill climbing, in between there was a lot of flat terrain. That allowed us to cross these miles pretty easy. We averaged about 20 miles per hour on this day which is the fastest during the whole trip. I recently read that incects could provide a serious souce of food for the future. Looking at the amount of grasshopper we met during this day I certainly believe so. In the fast decents it was like a constant "plopping" of grasshoppers against the CIBERQuest, and ofcourse against my sunglasses, T-shirts, legs and so on. People along the road promised us that it would only become worst when we would move further east... something to look out for.
During the lunchbreak the restaurant servant allowed me to take their icewater in my camelback (this is an isolated back of water that can hold about 1 gallon of water which I can drink from a tube). I was so thankfull for that because I could sip from that great cold water for the rest of the road. That felt so good during the enormous heat in the afternoon.

Day 9: Harlowton - Billings

This day almost felt like a restday. Only 100 miles to ride on an easy road that was slightly going down. We quite clearly left the mountains and were driving in a hilly area. Just before Billings the road became pretty busy so we had to ride on the shoulder of the road again. Then it started to rain. On our bikes we have a special cover that enables us to almost ride completely covered. Only the head sticks out of the bike then.
The last part of the trip was a steep decent into Billings, we had to cross the city in order to get to the GOA campsite. This campsite was perfectly equipped with all facilities that we needed. After 1 hour of arrival a tremendous rainstorm broke loose. We all had to hide in the toilet facilities.
During the night some party animals came in late and decided to keep us awake unfortunately...

Day 8: Helena to Harlowton

What a great day! The scenery on this day was just beautifull. It doesnt require any words, just enjoy the photo's:

Day 7: Missoula - Helena

After a day of relaxing it was time to ride again. We headed out of Missoula from the Interstate 93. This was not the nicest route but the easiest and quickest. At Garisson we took the exit and started the climb to the Mac Donalds Pass. This was a very serious and heavy climb. The temperature was high again. A reporter from Elenair.com took a picture from me on the pass (second last photo on this link). After the decent to Helena the fun was not over. We had to move to Kim's Marina which meant another 600 feet of climbing.

Day 6: Missoula Restday

Today we enjoyed a restday at the KOA at Missoula. Great to regain some strenght and get things cleaned and so on. The students of the local massage school payed us a visit. Thanks ladies for a nice massage!
Further we were invited by the local bike club of Missoula for some snacks and drinks. Some of their members made a test ride in our velomobiles. Ofcourse the local press payed us a visit. Find more information here

Day 5: Three Rivers Resort to Missoula

What a beautifull cycling day! We started riding in the rain and in the cold! What a difference compared to the last couple of days! Ahead of us was a 90 miles ride to the top of the Lolo Pass, and the decent to Missoula ofcourse but that doesn't hurt your legs anymore. Those 90 miles did!! The beginning was a beautifull ride along the river. No cell phone service, almost no cars and just a beautifull scenery. Me and Maarten were climbing with a nice and easy pace. Then we arrived at the foot of the Lolo pass. We had some lunch there and then started the last far steeper part of the climb. That was quite challenging. The lowest gear was almost not enough, it didnt have anything to do with cycling anymore, rather working your way up to the mountain throwing water over my head every now and then. Finally I reached the top and we headed down with some considerable speeds of around 50 miles/hour. From the foot of the mountain it was something like 15 further miles to the campground in Missoula. And today we have a restday! great after 5 days of riding in a row and covering around 600 miles.

Nice movie!

Checkout this movie that was made when we set off from Portland. The CIBERQuest is also visible several times

Day 4: Hell's Gate State Park to Three Rivers Resort (Lowell)

An easy day only 750 feet of climbing and only 100 miles... easy!
A nice road next to the river going slightly up. Every now and then a bit hilly.
So all in all a very easy and nice day. We took it easy and were at the campsite around 3.00 pm and had some time to swim in the river!

Day 3: Hat Rock Campground to Hell's Gate State Park (Lewiston)

This day was a very serious day on the total schedule. We had to take three serious climbs. Fortunately the gradient was not that big in the beginning of each climb but each end just before the top was quite steep.
I am driving together with Maarten Heckman, my cycling buddy that I have trained with for quite some time. We have the same pace and next to that its nice to have company and to help eachother when something might go wrong. Since this day was expected to be very long and serious we left really early (around 6.00 am). We arrived at the campground at 6.15 pm so not bad at all. The latest participant on this day came in at the campground at only 10.15 pm so it was a real serious physical effort.
Temperatures were extremely high again and in this area there is no shade anywhere. Next to that its pretty deserted so we had to plan ahead for water and food often. But we made it, our support people (Maarten's wife Winda and my father Jacques) help us very good. They put up tents, cook, buy groceries and so on. Most of the riders need to do that themselves. After a day of more then 12 hours of cycling that can be pretty tiring. On this day we rode 240 Kilometer (150 miles) again, we climbed in total 4500 feet.

Day 2: Cascade Locks to Hat Rock Campground

This was the first day of serious riding. For the biggest part of this day we headed out on the I84. We were confronted with some serious heat! Around 95 till 100 degrees was something thats quite shocking for a dutchman that just left from a cold climate. I drank a serious amount of water, cola's, milshakes and some more. On this foto a nice view on mount Hood:
Total distance was around 240 kilometer (150 miles). We ended up at Hat Rock Campground in Hermiston. Some riders got in very late and some didnt make it at all and needed support from the support truck that we have with us.

Day 1: Portland - Cascade Locks

Roll over America has set off!
We gathered together at a big fountain at the riverside in Portland. All the bikes together. A lot of interested people asked one million interesting questions! NBZ made a live report which can be found here.
The CIBERQuest was included in their photo gallery which can be found here
After that we set out of Portland and took a beautifull cycle path. The route has been developed by local enthusiast that helped us along the route.
After some time we needed to take a piece of interstate:

Since we needed to cross a tunnel later the local autorities were so kind to install a riding roadblock. So we were escorted through that piece of highway and were able to cross the tunnel without any cars!
We arrived at Cascade Locks KOA campground and setup the tents for the first time!
Tomorrow longer and more heavy day ahead!

Great Vibes !!!

Arrived to Portland! After a long flight and all necessary immigration administration at the airport we've made it to the Days Inn hotel here in Portland. The enthousiasme about Roll Over America already started in the plane. The flight attendant recognized my Tshirt and asked me enthousiasticly if I was one of the riders! She knew that due to the fact that a lot of other riders flew with United to Portland. She liked it very much and was even able to explain to me that we are having a "official" ride through Portland on thursday before we start our trip. She was going to attent together with family. Great!!
We picked up the bikes yesterday from the warehouse, the reactions of people in the city were also great. They just love it and shout all kind of enthousiastic questions / comments. If we keep these kind of responds during the ride it will be one great experience with everybody along the route.
The bikes are stored in the hotel in a conference room. Packed with all kind of colours and models. Today some final prep. and then we are off. Can't wait!!

My dashboard for Coast to Coast ride

During my tour I will use my Garmin Oregon 450T as my main "cycling computer". The GPS is very flexible when it comes to the setup. The current setup I will be using during the ride. On the first field the current altitude is shown. This might come in handy when we are climbing and the altitude of the mountain is known. That gives some "motivation" to know how many meters still need to be climbed. Next to that field the daytrip distance. This field will be cleared at the start of every new cycling day. Than one very important field which is the heartbeat. On this screenprint I didnt wear a heartbeat strap so no measurement was made. The heartbeat is very important, especially during climbs. It gives you the possibility to control your pace and not go to fast. Going to fast means a very though end of the day being completely without any energy. I know the hearbeat that I am able to keep up during a whole day. The next field shows the current time. Then the speed, not very important but nice to know. The average speed of the ride is shown in the next field. Another field that might come in handy is the expected time that the sun will set. Then another very important field. My knee saver.. the amount of RPM's that I am making on the pedals. The pace should be at least something in between 80 and 100 turns per minute in order to keep your knees healthy. Then my battery life and the last is the total time stopped during the day.

The next screen is another setting of the GPS which shows the route that we will be following. Thanks to some great people the whole route that we will be following has been loaded in the GPS. Its a matter of following a line in order to stick to the route. Further a nice feature that Maarten figured out is the elevation profile of the route that is shown above the map. Nice to know what kind of mountains are coming up on the rest of the route.

Sunday training ride

Today Maarten and me made a nice training ride. Based on a route that I rode last year as part of the world Randonneur Brevet we startet riding. The wind was strong but we could benefit from that for quite some parts of the route. In total around 185 kilometer with an average of around 31,5.

Training in (between) the rain!

Everybody who lives in the Netherlands and reads this blog must admit that is has been a challenge not to get wet being outside. Such a lot of rain over the last couple of weeks. Especially now i'm not able to use the CIBERQuest thats quite challenging. So for quite some training for the last weeks in the rain.

On the foto above I was riding in a weekend trip to the "Posbank" while there was an organized bike trip that was passing this point. The photographer also took my picture. Not a bad one if I must say. 

On one of the other rides during the evening I ended up in such a rain that I waited and found a shelter:

Some more training for the last couple of days

First of all since quite some viewers from abroad visit this Blog I've decided to completely transfer into English. The CIBERQuest is on its way to the US sailing somewhere on the ocean. The two containers will arrive on the East Coast end then move to Portland by road transport.
The last week I've been quite busy keeping my shape on my spare bike. This is an M5 Carbon High Racer:

This bike is completely different then the CIBERQuest. Only two wheels and the position on the bike is more leaned back. So I hope I will not have to adapt too much to the CIBERQuest once I arrive in the US.

Last week two nice evening trainings executed of around 90 kilometer each. Today a nice ride of about 175 km going to a hilly area in the Netherlands called "De Posbank". Great ride, nice weather just some drops of rain, a bit windy but further everything great. Shape is good, today I was able to ride with quite some wind, some climbing just by myself with an average of around 33km/h which is not a bad score.

Below the three trainingrides:

De CIBERQuest gaat de zee op!

Alle Europese fietsen die deelnemen aan ROAM zullen via de boot worden verscheept naar Amerika. Als verzamelpunt is gekozen voor Groningen. Daarom vertrekken we op donderdag 2 juni al fietsend naar het hoge noorden. In Eembrugge is de groep compleet en fietsen Maarten, Bert, en ik in noorderlijke richting. Herman heeft zich ook nog bij ons aangesloten maar maakt slechts een rondje en rijdt voor de gezelligheid een stuk mee. De tocht is prachtig, het lijkt wel of geheel nederland aan 't recreëren geslagen is want wat komen we veel campings, jachthavens, huisjesparken, bootjes en vooral fietsers tegen. Ter hoogte van Giethoorn loopt 't wat minder voorspoedig omdat Bert last van zijn maag krijgt. Na wat pauzeren en wat eten onderweg komen we uiteindelijk rond een uur of 20.00 aan in Groningen na een prachtige tocht.



Vrijdag 3 juni staat in het teken van een tochtje met een groepje ROAM deelnemers. In totaal gaan 5 Nederlanders en een Deen van start op weg naar Bourtange, een oud vestingsplaatsje vlakbij de grens van Duitsland. Wederom een mooie tocht (uitgezet door Wilfred). Eenmaal aangekomen in Bourtange stonden 5 velomobielen opgesteld tussen een aantal terrasjes. Dat zorgde dus voor heel veel aandacht en vragen van de toeristen.  Op vrijdagmiddag kwam Magdalena de spareparts brengen. De fabrikant van onze fietsen (velomobiel.nl) heeft deze keurig voor ons gereed gemaakt. Ze zijn op zaterdag samen met de fietsen in de containers geladen.



Op zaterdag is het tijd om de fietsen in de containers te laden. Omdat ik op vrijdag al terug naar huis ben gereden met Magdalena ben ik blij dat de andere deelnemers de CIBERQuest hebben ingeladen. De fietsen staan vastgesjord op een pallet, omwikkeld door bubbeltjesplastic en ingepakt in een kartonnen doos. Hiermee zijn de fietsen stapelbaar in de container. In totaal worden er 17 fietsen ingepakt in een 20 en een 40 voets container. De containers zullen na de bootreis aankomen in de oostkust van de US en vervolgens via wegtransport naar de westkust (Portland, ons startpunt) worden gebracht.

Onderstaande foto compilatie geeft een beeld van donderdag, vrijdag en zaterdag.

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Laatste voorbereidingen aan de fiets

Op vrijdag samen met Maarten naar de fabrikant van onze fietsen (Velomobiel.nl) in Dronten afgereisd. De CIBERQuest moest nog worden voorzien van een set versnellingen waarmee de hoogste bergpassen mee kunnen worden genomen. Daarnaast wilde ik nog een paar kleine aanpassingen laten doen zoals het toevoegen van twee armsteunen en een speciale afscherming voor de ketting. Om 7.00 uur vertrokken en langs 't Amsterdam Rijn kanaal gereden. Na zo'n 30 kilometer kwam ik Maarten tegen. Vanaf daar via Weesp en de Hollandse Brug Flevoland ingereden. Vandaag gekozen voor een mooie route langs de Oostvaarders plassen. Met de wind in de rug was 't daar prima rijden. Om 11.00 uur aangekomen in Dronten, daar hebben we de mannen daar vervolgens zo'n 4 uur bezig gehouden met onze beide fietsen. Op de terugweg nog wat aardige filmpjes geschoten die hieronder te bekijken zijn. Op de terugweg langs 't Amsterdam Rijnkanaal reed ik met een gangetje van 42 a 43 km/h toen ik plots wat gehijg achter me hoorde. 't bleken twee wielrenners te zijn met tijdritfietsen. Ze reden aardig door! Dat is natuurlijk altijd een uitdaging dus heb ik even gas gegeven. Bij 55 km/h konden ze 't niet meer bijhouden en gaven ze de hoop op. Leuk! Uiteindelijk na zo'n 200 km rond 18.45 weer thuis aangekomen.