A faster 100km

Little e and I set out again to see how many kilometers we could get under the belt. We started out following a standard route, leaving Utrecht towards Bunnik, passing Houten, going through 't Goy, and then crossing the bridge onto the Lekdijk. The Lekdijk is an unpredictable beast. Sometimes there is a killer headwind, but today we had a handy tailwind. At Wijk bij Duursteden, little e and I parted company, she headed back towards home to compete 47km, whereas I continued along the Lekdijk to Amerongen. My average speed was creeping up to 30km/h.

My initial plan was then to take the hill to Overberg and then heading home (77km) with the option of extending my ride to 90km or even 100km. I felt strong by the time I'd finished the hill, so I decided to go for 100km. The problem was that I needed to invent a sufficiently long route, more than 50km, without going to far, and without the help of a map. I also had to be wary of the handy tailwind, which was going to be a brutal headwind on the way home.

I decided to head towards Barneveld and then to Amsersfoort, reversing part of last week's ride. This decision turned out to be quite a good one. Somehow I managed to reduce the fight against the headwind to 15km, at a speed of around 25km/h, so my average wasn't drastically damaged. I struggled against the Laan 1914 hill leading into Amsersfoort, but didn't lose too much time. The run home felt like it was downhill and I managed to keep my speed somewhere between 28 and 30km/h. The problem was that I was getting quite tired and it didn't look like I had enough road in front of me to make it to 100km. With 90km gone, I didn't feel like doing little loops around Utrecht.

At de Bilt I turned towards de Uithof, and cycled through the university, my old stomping ground. As the remaining minutes passed by, my average was starting to drop. I turned towards Bunnik briefly, and then started heading home. There was no headwind anymore. The cycle path was new. I had a new burst of energy. I was certainly going to make the 100km, and with a good time. Totally trashed.

The final statistics: distance 101km, time 3 hours and 44 minutes, average speed 27km/h, and, due to the descent of the hill in Overberg, maximum speed 57.8km/h.

Next week, I want to do it again. But first, I'm off to Berlin for ECOOP.