Riding Weekend in Limburg (South of Netherlands).

Well this past weekend was great - a co-worker invited me to join him and few friends in the South of the Netherlands just outside Maastricht (in the Ardennes "Mountains") for a weekend of riding organized by one of the local clubs.

It's a really well known weekend with a 70km MTB ride on Saturday and a 120km road ride on Sunday - encompassing many of the regions most famous/daunting climbs, some of which exceed the 20% grade criteria to become "ass-busters" (ass-buster = a climb so steep you not only feel the burn in your thighs and calves, but also in you BUTT - that's STEEP!).

So here's a shot of us after the MTB ride on Saturday - really hard day. It also helped that we were staying almost 15km from the start/finish, so before and after each ride we'd have a warm-up/cool-down spin - really helped the legs recover!

I don't know if I can really convey how steep the climbs were - you see the pro's ride up them (actually, sometimes you even see the pro's WALK up them!!!) and you think they don't look that bad. But do you remember the last time you watched a pro ride up Alpe d'Huez or Col du Tourmalet? They made that look like a cake-walk too! (Speaking of which, what the heck is a 'cake-walk' anyway: where did it come from? What does it mean??).

Side Note: I just looked up "Cake-Walk" on Google and found that most websites reference it as a dance from the deep south of the US during the days of slavery. The dance - actually more of a performance - was full of exaggerated bowing and bending and was means to moch the posh and grandiose mannerisms of the southern high-society - usually this was performed by slaves (and was at one time obviously strictly forbidden!). A quick search of the Cambridge online dictionary and Britannica online encyclopedia reveal the same references to a 'swing' type of dance. Well, that makes sense with the saying anyway, so I'll buy that for a dollar.

I digress (not that there's anything wrong with that). The weekend was a great time, full of good riding, lots of laughs, yes some booze (Chartreuse mostly), and we left one stinky trailer behind when we left on Sunday night!

Great training though as I felt pretty solid all weekend :o)

Ciao for now!