The Race around The Netherlands 2019

The Race around The Netherlands does exactly as it says on the tin; it takes you from the bleak and windy north to the punchy climbs filled south. And everything in between. Mostly wind though. 😉

Last year I raced and finished the Transcontinental Race. It was an overwhelming experience that left me with mixed feelings. I had a lot of issues with traffic in Eastern Europe and I even got scared. Really scared. So scared that I cut most days short and didn’t push myself to my limits physically.

A few months later I saw the RaTN was being organised again. This looked like the perfect race to test my abilities. Not too long and most importantly, safe. Most of us know the cycling infrastructure in The Netherlands is second to none so I could leave all my “traffic-fear” at home. With the race having a fixed route and my gear already bought and tested during the TCR I only had one job: train. I don’t have a coach so I just made myself a rudimentary training plan with a mixture of long weekend rides, short and intense weekday Zwift sessions and some core stability excercises.

The day before
I got to Amerongen by car and was accompanied by my parents and girlfriend. It’s a 3 hour drive from Ghent (Belgium) and I didn’t feel nervous at all. I just felt ready and eager to start the race.

When we arrived in Amerongen I unloaded the bike and took it for a quick spin in the parking lot. My rear derailleur wasn’t working. I told myself to stay calm and just try and solve the problem. Maybe the battery was flat (it’s Di2) so I hooked up the battery pack. Nope. Maybe it went into crash mode because of the transport? I resetted the junction box and my derailleur went up and down the cassette. So the derailleur isn’t broken. Next step, is the cable still plugged in the junction box? That seemed fine. Now I was out of ideas and the nerves started to come. I asked around but no one really knew anything about Di2.

There was a bike shop close by so I tried my luck there. The friendly salesman couldn’t help me as this was a citybikes shop but he referred to another shop a few kilometer down the road. “They deal with Di2 all the time.”
I commandeered my dad and his car and went to the store. I explained the issue, told the salesman the steps I took to try and solve the issue and when I was done he said “I have no idea how Di2 works”. But he helped me look for another shop and 20 minutes later I was on my way to the 3rd shop, this time in Veenendaal. Nerves started to become light forms of panic. It was nearly 18:00, what if we can’t solve this? Is my race over already?

In Veenendaal I had to wait another 15 minutes before I could explain the situation to one of the mechanics. He had a quick look, grabbed a Di2 cable tool and pulled back the hood on the shifter. The second he did that I felt like such an idiot. Ofcourse, I hadn’t checked the cable connection in the shifter itself. And yes, it turned out it came loose. He plugged it back in and everything was working again. I could hug the guy!

I still don’t know how that cable could have come loose, as it is wrapped in the bartape and protected by the rubber hoods, but I was back in the game. Back from panic to excitement. And to top it all off, when I got back to the start, my girlfriend and I got a call to notify us we had placed a winning offer on a house! Now I was the owner of both a working bike and a house. This was almost too much. 🙂

Photo by Derek Boocock

Day 1
I got up at 6:00, put on my kit and got to the start. Nerves, the good ones, started racing through my body and stomach. Ideally you have a big breakfast for any long ride, especially one like this, but I couldn’t. So I forced myself to eat some bananas and yoghurt. I decided to eat more during the first hours of the race.

Photo by Derek Boocock

7:50 and racers and supporters gathered in front of De Proloog, our gracious host for this event. Michael Wacker, main organiser, gave a quick briefing with some basic rules and some safety pointers. Ten minutes later he wished everyone a safe and fun race and off we went! The sun was shining, it wasn’t cold and the wind would be in our backs later today. Perfect start of the race.

We were only 120 racers and after 10 minutes I had found my spot where I wasn’t drafting anyone. I got in an aero tuck and focussed on the task at hand. But soon after I got overtaken by a group of at least 10 riders. Wtf guys. “Hey, are you guys riding in a group? No drafting!” I yelled. Just one of them raised a hand as to say “sorry man, can’t help it”. Just 20 minutes ago Michael had said no drafting and here they were. Drafters. I got so pissed off at the lack of respect for the race and racers who adhered to the rules. They disappeared into the distance and I wished them all a flat tyre. Seems petty, I know.

Just to be clear, I would never wish anyone got any mechanicals, unless you’re cheating. So I felt sorry for Bas Vlaskamp when I saw him standing by the road fixing a flat. 20 minutes later he blew past me at an incredible speed. I have to admit, I was really questioning his tactics of racing that fast and his decision to wear a skin suit in an ultra race. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one but he proved us all wrong by winning the whole thing. Kudos to you Bas!

The next few hours passed in typical long distance fashion. Thinking about nothing, just pushing the pedals and taking in the scenery. The only reminder of being in an actual race is slowly overtaking someone or being overtaken. For example by Marcel Graber in his recumbent. I have to admit I was a bit starstruck. Here was the winner of TABR2018 that I had dotwatched for 2 weeks last summer and now we were riding side by side. I fully expected him to fly away on day 2 and finish way ahead of me. But I later learned he had to scratch due to knee pain.

Photo by Adventure Bike Racing

The route took us through the Hoge Veluwe. A national park with beautiful scenery but unfortunately I had to focus on all the tourists on their little rented bikes swerving all over the narrow little paths. Because we had to stop and go a lot a few of us grouped together. One of them was Robbie Ferri who’s always upbeat. And this was no exception. “This is so beautiful!” he shouted. No argument there Robbie. 🙂
But I was kind of glad once we got out back on the open road again. Back to the aero tuck.

Photo by Adventure Bike Racing

There were two things I wanted to focus on during this race and improve compared to the TCR: time management and fuelling. Making sure I ate enough and try and lose as little time as possible. The gas station right next to the course at kilometer marker 175 seemed like the perfect place for a first stop. And I wasn’t the only one with the same idea. Marcel was there already and at least 5 other racers stopped here to grab something to eat and drink. I stopped for a total of 20 minutes. I felt like I rushed the shopping, eating and pee break but 20 minutes go fast. 🙂

Before the race started I did some research on the weather. I found out that last year, at the start of May, the temperatures at night in the north of Holland dropped to 2°. Couple this with the certainty of wind and my decision was made to only sleep in hotels. It was now 17:00, 250 kilometer deep into the race and I stopped to make a few phonecalls and find a hotel around 400km. Some more research I had done beforehand was make a list of hotels with 24 hour check-in. First hotel was fully booked but there was room in the second one, near Emmen.

Once it started to get dark I was so relieved to have opted for the hotels strategy. Yes, it’s more expensive and maybe less “adventurous” compared to sleeping in the rough but finding a good bivvy spot is too stressfull. Stress I can’t shake off once I’m bedded down which results in a bad sleep.

Around midnight I reached the hotel, just a few hundred meters off the route, and was welcomed by very friendly staff. Apparently another racer had also picked this hotel and they already knew what I was doing. Always nice when you don’t have to “shock” people with your stories and they even assumed I wanted my bike in my room. Perfect!

A quick shower and meal and max 15 minutes of smartphone time later I set my alarm for 4 hours. A perfect first day.

Strava: Day 1 // 398km

Day 2
At 6:00 I was back on the bike. The beginning of the second day is when the “real” ultra-racing starts. A short night, no more adrenaline from the start, a tired body from the day before… I also knew today was going to be a lot harder with the western winds up north in Friesland.
I didn’t start too hard to give my body the time to adapt and bought some food at an Aldi. The cold wind made sure I didn’t stay too long in the parking lot.

People often ask me what I do to occupy my mind during these seemingly endless days. One of the things that helps me is adding small milestones or “interesting” places in my cue sheet. Today I was going to hit both the most easterly and northerly points of the race. Nothing special, just to keep my mind active and something to look forward to.

The race organisers also made sure we had some distractions by adding nice spots throughout the race. One of those spots was Boutrange, a beautiful little 16th century village with cobbled roads and lifting bridges. I had no time to stop and take pictures but luckily some people did.

Photo by Adventure Bike Racing

Having passed the most easterly point the route now turned west and I got my first taste of the wind. Just a strong breeze but I knew that was only a sample of what was to come. But I didn’t mind or complain. I almost welcomed it. This was one of the reasons I had entered this race. To fight the elements (and not the traffic).

30 kilometers later I rode back in a northern direction straight to Groningen. One of 2 big cities we had to ride through (the other one being Rotterdam). A lot of stop and start and an open bridge were very time consuming but I told myself to not become frustrated. All part of the game. Besides, the wind was getting stronger and past Groningen I had a 30 kilometer stretch with a tailwind.

Around midday I stopped to look for a hotel for the night. Not an easy task in the northern part of Holland. It’s pretty remote with a bunch of small villages scattered around and no 24 hour check-in hotels. I also knew another 400 kilometer day wasn’t really feasible with the windy section still coming up. After some googling I found a hotel at kilometer marker 330. Below my daily target but it just meant an early night and an early morning. I was happy with my decision as it felt like a good strategy.

I went on my merry way and an hour later the real fun began. Near Eemshaven I turned west and fought a 55 kilometer long battle with what felt like a storm. Averaging only 21 kilometers an hour it was almost 3 hours of non-stop pushing hard. Passing a farm was a 10 second relief from the wind before hitting the wall again. I was suffering. But in a good way.

Photo by Derek Boocock

At 215 kilometer it was time for some food. While enjoying the not-so-haute Dutch cuisine I checked the tracker for the first time. I can’t say I’m fond of the legendstracking website because it’s very hard to use on mobile and even harder to determine where you are positioned in the field. I saw a few front runners and a big group of about 25 to 30 people spread over the next 50 kilometers. It looked like I was the last tracker in the group and behind me was a small gap. It was nice to see I was still in the “first” group and positioned somewhere around 35th. (As the tracker website is down now I can’t verify this.)

After 40 minutes I got back on the bike, ready for the next 50 kilometer of stormy headwinds, or so I thought. But there was hardly any wind because now there was a dyke between me and the sea. What a relief. Instead I was at the start of what I would later find out was called the sheep-obstacle-course. It started as fun but turned into a chore quite fast. The obstacle course is a series of small gates with a spring on them. You must push the gate open, maneuver yourself and your bike through it and let go (and hope you don’t smash your bike or yourself). Now you are cycling in a field full of sheep. Until you get to next gate. Rinse, repeat. I didn’t count the gates but it must have been at least 20 I think. Very time consuming.

Around Harlingen the route finally turned south again and it was nice to feel the wind in my back. It took me 6,5 hours to cover 130 kilometer but I knew everybody would be slow here. No stress. Harlingen is also the place where I met Igor, cap 27, for the first time. We just exchanged greetings but little did we know we would almost become allies later in the race. More on that later.

With fuelling in mind I bought a lot of food in the Albert Heijn in Harlingen, filled my backpack and raced to my hotel 40 kilometer down the road, in Stavoren. After a quick check-in without any take-my-bike-to-my-room issues I settled in my room. It was 22:30 and I had covered only 330 kilometers but as said before, I was fine with that. My plan was to be out on the road before 5:00 the next morning.

Strava: Day 2 // 330km

Day 3
4:15. Alarm. Get up immediately (this is the hard part). Quickly put on kit while eating some breakfast. Pack my stuff away. Carry my bike down the stairs and try to not wake anyone. Be out the door at 4:50. This is what most mornings look like.

It was dark when I arrived and was still dark when I left so I didn’t see much of Stavoren but it gave me a mental boost as it felt I didn’t waste any time. The wind was still blowing from the north so the day started easy. I took in the beautiful sunrise and was happy on my bike. The thought of crossing the 1000 kilometer marker today and be over halfway was another uplifting thing.

I passed Andrew, cap 43, who was standing next to the road checking his GPS. No legwarmers and it was only 5°. I guess some people are harder than me. I had my legwarmers on and was still a bit chilly.

Not long after I got to the shore of the Ijselmeer. A dedicated cyclepath and the wind in my back made for a fast 25 kilometers at an averge of 30 with peaks to almost 40 an hour. This felt so good. I was flying. Couple this with some rain, a rainbow, seagulls, sheep and windmills and it’s obvious this was a fun section.

Close to Lelystad the parcours turned south-west and the tailwind became a crosswind. The next two hours I did what we, ultra cyclists, do best: think about nothing and just pedal. The next stop was close to Amsterdam. 120 km done for today and it wasn’t even 11:00. Nice. I got a bit lazy and lost track of time which resulted in a 50 minutes stop.

Luckily we didn’t need to go through Amsterdam but just brushed the outskirts so not too many stop-starts. Right outside Amsterdam there were some small roads with lovely scenery. The sun was out and life was good.

Fast forward to 200 kilometers in and I needed a hot meal. I didn’t really wanted to stop, I hadn’t even covered 100 kilometer since my previous stop/meal but you have to listen to your body during these races. Even if your head doesn’t want to.
Whilst waiting for my plate of penne I booked a hotelroom for the night near The Hague. I felt good and had a lot of confidence in my capabilities of cycling +400 kilometers today.

When I came out the restaurant I bumped into Andrew again. We had a quick chat about how things were going and when we turned into the next headwind section I pulled away, fuelled by the hot food. 60 more kilometers of hard winds until I rounded the tip of North Holland in Den Helder. Averaging only 23 km/hour made for a 2,5 hour battle with the wind.

When I got to Den Helder the race organisers showed their true colours again and made us go over the dyke and onto the promenade right next to the sea. The wind was blowing so hard and I was pushing the pedals even harder: 18km/hour. I couldn’t go any faster. I just laughed. Look at you, you silly bike person. Why are you here? 🙂

I didn’t mind because it was only a few kilometers before I turned south which meant a tailwind, and more importantly, the northern part of the race was done. A very nice to-do I could mentally tick off from the list.

Now the dunes section started. Another very nice section of the route on a twisty and rolling bikepath. The rain came and it was quite warm climbing in the dunes with my rain gear on. But the scenery was lovely. Lots of rabbits running around and some nice forest-y patches.

Photo by Adventure Bike Racing

At 7:30 I passed an Albert Heijn which fit perfectly into my stopping and eating schedule. While being in the Heijn someone approached me. “You’re Tom right? I’ve been following your dot and saw you were in the shop.” It was a bit surreal some stranger knowing your name and wanting to talk and congratulate you on the race. I felt a bit rude to end the conversation after 10 minutes but I had to get back on the bike.

An hour later I reached the mandatory ferry we had to take. It was raining and chilly and that’s where I saw Andrew for the third and final time that day. Still not wearing legwarmers. We had a nice chat while waiting for the ferry and he told me he had booked a hotel room just a few kilometers down the road and I was quite jealous. It was past 22:00 and I still had to cover 60 wet and dark kilometers.

It turned out to be a nice 3 hour ride. The rain stopped and there was almost no traffic. The world around me was quiet especially when I entered the dunes again. It was just me, my bike, a few meters of road in front of me … and dozens of rabbits with a death wish. Good grief. They kept shooting across the path, sometimes just a few meters in front of me. I really had to stay focused and try not to hit one. Until that one little guy. He jumped across right next to me and I had no way of avoiding him. I ran him over with my back wheel and almost fell. “Shit!” I stopped and the adrenaline started rushing through my body. Damn that was close to crashing. I turned around but no rabbit to be found. Hopefully the little fella only had a headache.

Every time I got to the top of a dune the tall buildings in the distance came closer and closer. One of them was my hotel and at 1:30 at night, after +20 hours of riding, I finally reached the front door.

“Hi, I have a reservation”
– “Hmm, that reservation got cancelled.”
“Sorry?”
– “Yeah, there is no credit card number provided”
“But I made the reservation over the phone, this afternoon. Nobody asked me for my CC number”
– “Sorry, but it’s cancelled. Let me see what I can do.”

The guy started tapping away on his keyboard with a frown on his face and sighing. I got nervous, it’s the middle of the night and I need sleep. I can’t afford to go out again and find another hotelroom.

“Do you still have rooms?”
– “Yeah, yeah, that’s not a problem. I just need to make a new reservation, by hand instead of just checking you in”

Goddammit man, you made it look like you were fully booked. You’re just annoyed because you have to do some extra work. But once I told him what I was doing his mood changed and he was in awe. I even got a 30 euro discount because of the short night. Nice.

I raced to my hotel room, took a quick shower and jumped into bed. Set my alarm for a few hours and fell asleep instantly. Another good day with 407 km done.

Strava: Day 3 // 407km

Day 4
Because I arrived late I woke up late. It was almost 7:00 and when I opened the curtains I saw a racer passing by. It felt like a case of FOMO, people are already racing and I’m still inside. That’s a silly thought ofcourse but still. I made me hurry even more.

I checked out of the hotel and the second I got into the street it started hailing. A nice cold wake up shower.

Rotterdam was the second big city we had to cross with a lot of stop and starts. No fun to be had here. I had started the day late and wasn’t making any progress. The section past Rotterdam was another headwind so it meant it had taken me 3,5 hours to cover 65 km. That’s 18,5 average. But I didn’t panic because I was certain that once I passed the Maasvlakte I’d turn south and I would fly to Middelburg. Oh how wrong I was.

Normally I put a lot of research in my routes but I neglected this next section. It turned out I wasn’t really going south, more south-west and the wind wasn’t really coming from the north, more north-west. I endured one of the craziest crosswinds next to the sea. I just had to lean into the wind, try to hold my bike upright and hope for the best. The wind caught my front wheel once or twice and I had to be very focused and alert. Man this was tiring.

The views on the Deltawerken (don’t know what you call these in english) were impressive. Man made structures trying to control the sea. But again, very blowy. 🙂

When I finally rounded the most westerly point of the course I also said goodbye to the North Sea. Enough of you, give me some inland. I made my fourth and final hotel reservation near Baarle Hertog but this hotel closed at 1:00. I had 7 hours to cover 145 km which seems fine if all goes well but a mechanical and some slow hours in the dark could really eat up time quickly.

During the supermarket/food stop I decided to try and ride it in one go. No more stopping except to grab some food from my seatbag or to change clothes. The next 6 hours I was fully focussed on getting to the hotel. It hailed, the wind was blowing and it got chilly in the dark (around 6°) but I didn’t mind. I tried to entertain myself by make up silly songs and telling stupid stories out loud. Only fellow racers will understand this I guess.

A few kilometers from my hotel I passed Igor again. I was looking forward to my bed so I didn’t stop to chat and pushed on. At 23:30 I reached the hotel. A very friendly guy checked me in and didn’t mind me taking my bike to my room. He even offered to lend me a hand. Just as I was about to go upstairs Igor walked in the hotel. He didn’t have a reservation but got lucky as there were still rooms available.

When I got into bed I started thinking about the next day. “Only” 435 kms to get to the finish and I was placed somewhere between 15th and 20th place. I got really excited. If everyting went ok tomorrow I would hit my target of sub 5 days and, unexpectedly, get a top 20 spot! I so needed the sleep but I didn’t want to. “I’ll just dig deep tomorrow and sleep 5 hours now.”

Strava: Day 4 // 337km

Day 5
When I woke up my muscles felt really stiff and sore. Nothing was really hurting but the overall feeling wasn’t good either. And I was still tired. I had a good sleep but way too short. I forced myself to get up and get myself pumped and ready to go. Final day! In 24 hours this will all be over! But it didn’t really help. The first few kilometers the road surface wasn’t smooth. I think you call it bloc pavé, these little brick like stones. I hated them.

I had my first stop after only 50 kilometers. I don’t drink coffee so I drink lots of energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster. While I had some food at a gas station I checked the tracker. Igor was in front of me. Damn, he slept even less than me. After 20 minutes I forced myself back on the bike. Even with food in my stomach I didn’t feel energized. This was one of the first times during the race I didn’t really enjoy the cycling. Especially because of the hills that were lying ahead. To add insult to injury when I stopped at a gas station for a toilet break a guy was looking at me and my bike and the only thing he said was “it’s going to rain”. Thanks, just what I needed.

Around midday I stopped at a chip shop and when I sat down to eat I felt how tired I really was. I needed a lie down. I got my chips to go and started looking for a place to have a powernap. I found a bench and rested my eyes for 15 minutes. I got back on the bike and didn’t know what to do really. Should I get a hotelroom for a few hours? Wouldn’t that be weird? Am I going to lose too much time that I won’t make up even though I’m rested? Lots of questions as I entered the hilly part of the course.

It may sound weird but these hills helped me. I had properly researched this part and I knew every hill was closely followed by the next one. So every time I got up a hill I could go “just one more”.
I feared the Keutenberg with the 20% part. I was certain I would have to get off the bike and walk. But I didn’t. That’s when I realised I was tired but my legs weren’t. And at the top someone from the organisation was making photos. We had a nice chat and I posed for the camera.

Photo by Adventure Bike Racing

The final “big” climb (4km @ 4%) was Camerig. That’s where I finally decided I would try and ride through the night. I descended to Vaals where I found a pizzeria. I ordered 2 large pizzas, had them wrapped in aluminium foil and filled my bottles.
It was now 18:00 and before me lay the last 230 kilometers of this race. I was still tired and this would only get worse. I had no idea what was going to happen. This was new to me and I was a bit apprehensive.

I had to go through some smaller cities like Heerlen and Landgraaf which were quite busy during this time of day so a lot of stop-start, again. The wind was still blowing, a headwind again, and I couldn’t get into the aerobars anymore because my neck muscles had stopped working. Another side effect from the fatigue. I knew from the TCR, where I had the same neck issues, this could only be fixed with a good nights sleep. But there was no time for that. By now I was within 200 km from the finish. I forced myself to keep going.

That’s when Igor appeared again. Someone to talk to and distract my mind. It reminded me that I wasn’t alone in this. Other racers are also suffering. It’s my challenge to try and out-suffer them.

As you know we had bumped into each other a few times but now was the first time we actually spoke with each other. We compared our experiences during the race. How it’s been, where we slept. We both planned on going through the night. “I just want to finish this.” said Igor and I laughed. “Same, man. I want this to be over!”

I asked him if he knew what our position was in the race. “I think we are 10th and 11th.” Wow! I never expected that! I was racing for a top 10 spot?! “So, how do you want to do this?” I asked. “You want to race for it?”. He just sighed and said “I don’t care man, I just want to finish. Besides, you’re the better rider.” I didn’t believe him but it was kind of true. Every time I had seen Igor it was me overtaking him. I was faster on the bike but he slept/stopped less. But I wasn’t planning on stopping anymore, so I might be able to grab that 10th place.

With 170 km to go my focus totally shifted to try and beat Igor. The surge of adrenaline made me starting to ride faster and I pulled away. But that didn’t last very long. After 10 kilometer I had to slow down and even stop to eat. What was I doing? “You’re still tired” I told myself, “slow down! You still have to ride the whole night!” While I sat down and ate some of my pizza Igor passed me again. I had to change my strategy. I don’t need to drop him now and feel like being chased the whole time. No, I just had to keep level and drop him at the end. That was going to be easier.

With this new plan of attack I continued my ride with Igor having a 5 minute lead. Only 10 kilometers further I already caught up with him. “See? You ride faster.” I told myself.
We navigated through Roermond but 10 minutes later my legs didn’t want to listen to my brain and I sped up again. The next hour and a half I was in the zone. I was certain I could keep this speed and ride all the way to the finish.

But I couldn’t.

After 325 km fatigue really hit hard and I made a mistake. For some reason I stopped on top of a bridge and decided to take a small break and eat something. It took me almost 10 minutes to realise how cold it actually was (2°) and I had made it worse by sitting in the wind on this bridge. I felt like an idiot. I got back on my bike and still had to ride over a 100km. This was over 5 hours in the dark and cold. I didn’t know what to do really.

Was I going to give up my ranking and find a hotel? Would I just try to push on? I had brought 2 emergency blankets and my bivvy bag. Maybe I could have a powernap here somewhere, off the ground and out of the wind. But I was afraid of hypothermia. It was freezing now. I didn’t know how well those emergency blankets worked, something I should have tested before the race. As a test I wrapped one of those blankets around me under my jacket. It was nice to feel I got warmer when I started cycling. It looked like it worked. But lying down and not moving is something completely different.

I was too tired to continue and I decided to try and take a power nap. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep for hours and I would keep a close eye on my core temperature to make sure I didn’t get too cold. I found a picnic bench next to a gas station, wrapped myself in the second emergency blanket and climbed in my bivvy bag. I was down for maybe 2 minutes when Igor passed by. “Are you ok?” he asked. I told him I was fine and just needed some rest. I closed my eyes.

“Is it ok if I join you?” he asked a few minutes later. – “Ofcourse, there is another side to the bench. Be my guest.” He also got in his bivvy bag and said we just needed a 15 minute nap. Everything would be fine after that and we would be fully energized. A nice thought.

I don’t know how long we slept exactly but it was probably around 25 minutes. I could feel the cold creeping in. I told Igor I was getting cold and was going again. He decided to do the same. It was so hard to start pedalling. I was cold and tired. Igor passed me and I could only see this taillight in the distance. But as I got warmer, still wrapped in the blanket, I got back to him.

We started chatting again, wondering why we were doing this. We still had hours of cold night to go. I felt like a smartphone with like 1 or 2% battery left. Turning off bluetooth, wifi, lowering brightness,… anything to try and stretch the little energy that was left in me as long as possible.

The temperature had dropped below 0 and everything hurt. I was holding on to the arm-rests to stay as upright as possible because my neck was almost gone. Just. Keep. Going. Slowly I dropped Igor again. This was it. 60 kilometers to go and I wasn’t going to stop again. Sufferfest.

All I wanted was to finish and today was so hard. 60 km became 50 and 40. The sun rose slowly but daylight didn’t energize me any more. I was done. Running on fumes. I tried to eat something, I even had a gel left that I had dragged along for the past 1870 kilometer.

Those final 20 kilometer were so hard and so slow. Every bump in the road hurt, every kilometer harder than the previous. I recognized the final kilometers. I almost couldn’t believe it. Exactly 24 hours ago I had left my hotelroom and now I was here. Back in Amerongen. I turned onto the little square in front of De Proloog and was greeted by my girlfriend and parents. They also rode through the night from Ghent to see me finish. Speaking of dedication. 🙂

Michael Wacker opened the front door and took my picture. My first question was “do you know my place?”. -“Yeah, I believe you’re 10th” I was so happy with that. I fought all night to get that result hoping Igor was correct when he said we were riding 10th and 11th and he was. He arrived half an hour later and we shook hands and congratulated eachother. What a race.

Strava: Day 5 // 437km

Thanks Michael and Adventure Bike Racing for the awesome race and beautiful hard route.
Thanks other racers for being so inspiring.
Thanks fans, friends and family for all the cheers and words of encouragement.

Special thanks to Sofie for being the best girlfriend ever and giving me the opportunity to chase my time consuming dreams. 😘

What’s next?
I loved the race. I never had to be scared of traffic and I could fully focus on racing. I really tested my limits. And now I want to go again. I’m already looking at other races and will pick one to race next year. Just watch this dot. 😉