Sunday, July 17, 2011

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.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

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:







Monday, June 13, 2011

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:





Sunday, June 5, 2011

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 recreƫren 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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