Sunday Biking

Sunday Biking

Last Sunday I took part in an organised cross-country bike ride at Prinsenbeek, NL.  Some years ago it was this event that inspired one of my earliest columns/blogs.The column, reprinted here in a slightly altered form, later appeared in the collection 'Letters to Kyrgyzstan':

Holland is mostly flat and has a large network of asphalt roads and purpose built cycle paths. These characteristics make it an ideal country for bicycles. Just about everybody has a bike. People use them to ride to work, to school, and to the university. To do the shopping and for leisurely rides around the countryside. Many of us ride the bicycle for sport.

At the end of September we put away our racing bikes and prepare our mountain bikes for the winter.

In most places, worldwide, mountain biking, like road racing, is a summer activity. In The Netherlands and Belgium, however, it has developed into a winter sport. We live close to Belgium and during the winter, on both sides of the border there are mountain bike events nearly every week. The concept is simple. The organising cycling club sets out a route, the cyclists pay a small fee and, starting whenever they choose, they follow the arrows. Half way there is a refreshments post. All sorts of people take part, from Olympic champions and cycling pros to sporting grandmothers with their grandchildren. Some see it as a recreational tour, others as a personal challenge. Some will be racing against their friends and team mates while still others will treat it as a relaxed winter training.

In the beginning of the season these events provide spectacular pictures as lines of brightly dressed cyclist weave their way through the woods and forests over paths covered with
autumn leave or as they appear through the early morning mists on the shores of lakes and rivers. As the winter progresses it gets colder, wetter, windier, and especially muddier.
We all have our own ideas about how to stay dry and warm. None of them work. We ride through wind and rain, we ride when it freezes, and sometimes even when it snows.
You can see us arriving at the finish on our muddy bikes. You may not recognise us at first as we too are covered from head to toe in mud. We are cold and wet because we slipped or took a tumble on a particularly wet part of the circuit or because it had started to pour with rain. Maybe both!

At this point you may ask: “Do you do this for FUN?”

You won’t get a direct answer - but follow us into the sports centre, club house, or café, as we peel off our wet outer garments with stiff, cold fingers and put on dry T- shirts . Inside it is crowded and smells of damp clothes and sweat..... and...there is something else. In the corner there is an improvised table where two cheerful ladies are serving ‘erwtensoep’, a Dutch speciality, thick pea soup, out of a huge pan. We find some empty chairs and a table, after finishing the soup some of us drink tea, coffee, chocolate flavoured hot milk or my choice: dark beer. As the warmth creeps slowly back into our bodies, we will begin to tell our individual stories about the ride that morning. The falls, the obstacles, the wrong turnings and especially how good (or bad) we were. You will see the colour slowly coming back into our faces as the stories become more enthusiastic and somewhat exaggerated.................. and then, at last, you will get your answer:

“Of course it’s fun, why don’t you join us next week?