A cycling enthusiast shares his most memorable long rides of 2024

It was fantastic to ride all alone on these routes with no one in sight for as long as I could see.

BHPian aneezan recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Its December, and so I thought of compiling a few of my more memorable rides during 2024. Not posting all long rides(for lack of photos).

1) Eindhoven-Zwolle 200K: After the Gran Fondo(120K) in May, I was preparing for a border to border ride in June. The plan was to go south from home, touch the NL/BE border and then ride to the north of the country(right up to the coastline). Initial plan was to camp for the night and return by train the next day.

But what would have been a 300km ride was cut short because I had to return home the same day due to something urgent; and so ended up at around 210km at Zwolle. The ride was enjoyable overall, the breeze was cool and rained too in some areas(nothing too heavy) along with a small climb about 2/3 of the way.

2) De Maashorst 100K: A ride through The Maashorst forest reserve. I had read that it is famous for bison and wild ponies, but couldn't catch any of them on my route that day. It was fantastic to ride all alone on these routes with no one in sight for as long as I could see. Some portions of the bike pathway turned into dirt sections. Navigating through these was challenging but added to the fun.

3) Eindhoven to Amsterdam(200k): I drafted a lengthy route to Amsterdam. The direct route would be about 150km, but I wanted to ride through Kinderdijk, Rotterdam and then to Amsterdam.
The weather was perfect, sunny all the way. A gentle breeze helped push me north as well. Took in amazing sights along the route, passed through windmill towns, sand meadows, polders, plains, forests, and cities. Enjoyed every bit of the journey.

4) Amstel-Gold 110K: Summer was over and autumn in full swing, I wanted to do just one more before winter kicked-in and something a litle more challenging than the previous ones. Chose the Amstel-Gold race loop. Got the route map from the race website and loaded the bike in the car one Friday morning.

The ride was even more challenging than anticipated. The route has about 1800m of elevation, with some sections well over 17% gradient. It was a slow suffer-fest, but successfully completed it. There is an actual race for amateurs during April/May which I may join in 2025, but that's for later. I couldn't take a lot of pictures during this ride since the weather was gloomy throughout and rained. I wanted to make it back home before dark.

The route is lined with these race-route sign-posts throughout.

That ends 2024, hopeful for more such rides in 2025.

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