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The hardest ride of my life. After reading about Jan K's record of 18x18 VeloViewer tiles, I thought I could best his already impressive effort (www.strava.com/activities/3544570054). And so I did exactly that. But then again, I didn't. 

I set out at 4:16 on the longest Saturday of the year. Packed with bread, bananas and energy bars, warm clothes for the night and three inner tubes which I hoped would be enough. Fully committed having to ride through the night to make it just after sunrise. 

I didn't sleep so well the night before, due to loud hardcore music coming from a nearby party that even my earplugs couldn't keep out. Closing the window meant a very warm and short night's sleep.

My route was 531 kilometers over sometimes tough terrain, with lots of twists and turns which made navigation difficult, especially in the dark. A lot of gravel roads, some chunkier than others, and then the occasional meadow, mountainbike trail, and even people's backyards. All in all I'd say 80 kilometers unpaved. I wanted to do a continuous single-line route crossing all the tiles, so no back-tracking into tiles. This added about 25 kilometers, but I thought it was worth it. I broke it up in seven segments of 77 kilometers, for a total of 539, to make it more manageable mentally.

Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/2708971222207763782

The first hours were relatively easy, despite two flats in the first 100 kilometers due to pinch flats on chunky gravel. That meant I had to detour a little bit to find extra spare tubes. A little nap around noon energized me for the following hours, with another one around 17:00. Just over halfway, my sister and nephew surprised me with a visit. That boosted my moral for the night ahead. As always, at the end of the day I made up time I lost during the day with little bakery stops, and was well on track again. 

Around 22:00, I noticed my Garmin screen had frozen. It must've been a kilometer or two, so I wasn't too worried, even though it showed a straight line where it should've shown hundreds of turns.

Then came the night. On the longest day of the year, it felt like I went through the longest night of my life. I was really tired. Not from the cycling, but I was just very sleepy. I don't function well without at least six hours of sleep in normal life, let alone cycling 400 kilometers that day. With three power naps I was able to keep on going, although I was losing time fast.

Just ten kilometers from the hotel, I had another flat on a forest road. Plagued by mosquitoes, I changed the tube, and pierced it putting it back on the rim. So I had to change my fourth tube. The mosquitoes were killing me, and this was probably my lowest point of the ride. So close, and yet so far.

I arrived at the hotel at 10:30, after more than 30 hours since setting off, from which 'only' 20,5 hours of riding. Too many flats, bakery stops and power naps.

Still not too worried about the gps-track, I asked Mathias Krallmann from www.fitfilerepairtool.info to help me retrieve my data. Unfortunately, it seems eight hours of data is actually missing, even though the distance is accurate. It's disappointing for sure, but there's nothing I can do about it anymore. I went the distance and crossed the tiles. They say if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen. Believe me: it happened.

Will I try again? Probably. But I'll change some things for sure. What I've learned, is this:
- Rest/sleep more the week before.
- Go tubeless.
- Get gravel tires, since there's too much risk getting pinch flats on 80 kilometers of unpaved roads. They're slower, but steadier.
- Bring an extra GPS device for back-up.
- Think again about the continuous line. It's more efficient to back-track into tiles.
- The difference between 15 and 20 hours of cycling is huge. With 15 hours, you can end before midnight. Cycling through the night is very tough, at least for me. 
- Breaking the distance up into bits helps. 
- Last but not least: stay in the saddle. It's tempting to stop at the bakery store. Just take the extra sandwich with you, and eat it on the bike. With more efficient use of time it's possible to end around 4.00 am.　

🎷🐛 348.2 new kilometers

-- From Wandrer.earth

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Elmar Hogenboom

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Schaatsen met Anne en Jurre

Amsterdam Light Festival

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Amstel 🚃 -> huis 🏡

Met Joost en Jesse van de Tegeltjeswijsheden-podcast

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