Coffee Ride!

Just got home from the first "meet-in-the-middle" coffee ride since arriving in Holland last August. If you're in Holland and happen to be reading this early Saturday afternoon: get out there, because it's a beautiful day (and it's not going to last). Left the house a little before nine, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. High 40s, moderate south wind. The roads/bike paths were damp to wet, and they were scattered with leaves. In other words a perfect fall morning. I had forgotten how close our destination, Lage Vuursche, really is (only 14 miles), and got there about 20 minutes early. So I did an extra little loop where I got to watch a young dog off its leash in search of its owner lose its way, run into the busy Soestdijkerweg, and almost get run over by a car. The Lage Vuursche restaurants don't open until 10 am, so that's when we entered de Vuursche Boer (owned at one time, I learned, by the great Gerrie Knetemann) at the head, it turned out, of a steady stream of (mountain)bikers. One group was the team I joined back in September for one of their training rides on the road and may still join: de Eendracht of Loenen aan de Vecht. Didn't recognize any of the guys, although one or two looked vaguely familiar. They were gone again before I could walk over for a chat. We rode back together to the Vecht river by way of Maartensdijk, Achttienhoven (where this van Dijk family originates), Westbroek, and Tienhoven. There, the Utrecht delegation of one took a left, while the Nederhorst den Berg contingent took a right to ride the tailwind all the way home. 39 miles, and probably not even an 18 m/h average (you're not supposed to care during a coffee ride, just like you're not supposed to sweat, or take the chain off the small ring).