A Small Selection of Familiar Faces on the Coffee Ride

It probably was too mild. I certainly wasn't wearing my balaclava, and one pair of gloves was also plenty. So the old guy with his wife (I assume it's his wife, although she could be his sister too; he doesn't strike me as the type to have a mistress) on the tandem wasn't out to stare at me. Just when I had decided to wave and say hello he doesn't show up. Regulars we did see were Gert and Roelie de Groot of Westbroek, cousins of my dad's. They were out for a ride again, and this time I yelled out their name, and mine, as I passed them. (So maybe they'll call my mom today, to ask what that was about). They're in their eighties, but tough, and used to being outside. It was a very nice day. Hardly any wind at all, 2 degrees C in Loosdrecht, 4 in Maartensdijk (6 on the way home, there). I left a little late and decided to make up the time by going above the required 17,2 m/h average that gets you to the Vuursche Boer in an hour. I did something between 18.4 and 19 (just under 30 k/h, and 56 minutes of riding), which really caused me to break the no-sweating Coffee Ride rule. This ride out was a little workout, in other words. But it was a very fine morning, and the Utrecht delegation--now regularly adding a few miles to its ride in--agreed that riding the road bike on a calm day like today is a wonderful feeling. Needless to say, the ride home--Maartensdijk, Westbroek, Polder Bethune, Vecht river South to Utrecht, North to Nederhorst den Berg--only extended the pleasure. If the weather keeps improving like this, pretty soon that word, pleasure, won't come into it any more. Instead, it will be about pain again. And coffee stops? As my cycling mentor, Thijs, says: you can get coffee at home.