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28th May; The green bicycle paths of Nederland

The mother of all bicycle shops in Alkmaar, Bike Action, turned out to be closed on Mondays. So my idea that I would have a fully equipped bike ready for testing today came to nothing.

However since it was high time to test anyway, and certainly also test the rider, I set off around 18:00 in the general direction of Egmond aan Zee with the basic bike, T-shirt, wind jacket, bicycle shorts, camera and the Nokia mobile.

It was a windy day, certainly at least force 5 straight into the face all the way to Egmond aan Zee, on the way back things were of course very comfortable with the same wind from the back.

Found no fietsroute #1 unfortunately; think I have to do some serious map reading before making another attempt. Or probably I will just get on the bike paths along the main routes going south/south-west, and possibly locate route #1 as I get closer to the coast. Since Bike Action was closed I had no bike computer installed, however according to the map I should have done about 20 km.

And the experience from the ride (on the 10 to 1 scale)?

The bike 10

The rider 4

The scenery 7

Overall 6

The bike was indeed perfect. Why people prefer to use mountain bike types with rough tires on long rides is beyond me. The touring bike built after racing bike principles, light frame, racing bike angels and narrow tires, rides very well, and also allows the rider a lot of changes in the way one sits and how one works the bike. And the rider? Not too bad. Could have been better but things will improve. The overall impression is that the scheduled daily distance of about 80-100 km distances covered in a day seems fairly realistic.