As you will have likely seen if you are alive on instagram recently; Me, Liam Yates and Josh Monk have just returned from the Continent, riding from Amsterdam to Ashdown Forest (and a bit more) over the weekend. Here is the story…
For a more indepth view check: ThingsThatHappen
Day One: Amsterdam - antwerp
Quite the early start, as all adventures are. Flying out of Stanstead at 7am, to land in Amsterdam at 9am. Giving me some time to get the bike out the box and build it up before the others arrived. To everyone’s surprise upon arrival the weather was actually pretty decent, the sun was out and it was closing into twenty degrees even early in the morning.
Much to everyone’s surprise. The first mission of the day soon became locating a bike shop to inflate the tires to an actual rideable level. Something I failed to accomplish even with the mighty power of the frame pump.
But off we rolled; no route, no food, just money and good moral. Off into the Dutch countryside, with a general aim of hitting Belgium before it got dark.
It is fair to say progress started off slow, but once the tire issue was sorted, and a general plan of action had been agreed upon, we hit the roads and off we went. Plagued by a fairly strong headwind all day wasn’t the most enjoyable experience, but nothing could dampen our spirits. Rolling through miles and miles of very Dutch looking countryside, with brief stops for water and food and the odd occurance of just getting bombarded by a massive peloton of school kids on their way home. Progress was good. And we all agreed we would cross into Belgium before it got dark, so we headed for Antwerp on the hope of a cheap hotel. But first came pizza. Dirty greezy Belgium kebab house pizza. And it was good!
DAY two: ANTWERP - Lille
day three: lille - dieppe
