Tag Archives: Lasne

If you are going to make tracks impassable for cyclists, this Belgian farmer sets the standard

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Blocked fields

Thanks to brilliant campaigning organisations in many countries, not least CTC and the Ramblers in the UK the idea that farmers can randomly block or destroy rights of way is declining.

We have a fantastic local charity here called Lasne Nature who have waymarked over 250km of routes even in our small commune which are a great community resource and should draw people to the area.

Clearly this guy never got the memo, this is the most impressive ploughing I have ever come across. Straight across one of our routes. Beautiful lines of course. But even poor Murphy the dog stopped after the third dip which was half his height.

Time to go the long way round!

Mountain biking Belgium

30 days of biking: days 8-13 @30daysofbiking (with added @1dayalmostbiking)

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Failed the challenge, but a really pretty dreadful start to the cycling week did get better and better.

Day 10 consisted of an hour of pretty unsuccessful bike fixing in the morning and much more disastrous hour sitting in an immobile car in the evening. Time when I should have been riding. So @30daysofbiking is going to be @29daysofbiking even if I have many days when there has been more than ride. Do you think the hour spent working on the bikes counts? I did sit on one and wiggle the handlebars?

Broken crank

For the state of dignity I will continue to the month end – here is the rest of this week’s diary which did have an excellent end. Day 7 was already covered – not the best start here

Day 8 – the “ouch that could have hurt” ride.

Snapped crank as I left the station. One of those incidents which could have pitched me onto the ground, but it was only a wobble.

Forced to catch a ride home. 10 minutes.

Day 9 “Who ploughed up the path” ride Belgium

Out for an hour on the mountain bike with the dog, only to discover that one of our local farmers has ploughed up the path I chose creating a surface almost unrideably lumpy and I fell off once. Murphy liked it, with his 4 wheel drive he was looking back and laughing.

60 minutes.

Day 10 – bummer. “Sit on saddle in shed” not ride

10 seconds?

Wet saddleDay 11. “Forgot my saddle cover” wet bum ride,

This isn’t a good week. Just from the station 25 minutes.

Day 12. “Paris – oh Paris”

Thank goodness, I needed a lift. See the full post here

paris cycling 2

Day 13. “The eccentrics of Ceroux” ride

Today I had two rides. I spent an hour with my wife and the dog gently taking in our local lanes. We went over to the village of Ceroux which I have photographed several times before.

However this time because we were going slower we noticed a street of houses that seem to be eccentrics corner. A giant stainless steel windmill that seemed to be made out of car wing mirrors, a dragon chimney pot and close proximity social housing for birds.Ceroux BelgiumBrabant Wallon BelgiumBrabant Wallon Belgium

Genesis EquilibriumAfter we got back I gave myself a special treat and got out my new road bike for a thrash on dry, clean roads. I have hardly ridden it since I was given it as a leaving present by my colleagues at CTC, now I really was able to enjoy it. No photos, sorry – too busy enjoying myself.

It is a Genesis Equilibrium compact road by the way, steel all the way.

150 minutes and a great way to end the week.

Paris Roubaix write off

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Not Team Sky – nuff said.

Not Sep Vanmarcke for second place. (Amazing ride by the way.)

Me. The closest I got to the Arenberg Trench was this.Arenberg Trench

Woke up this morning feeling terrible and certainly not safe to drive, let alone ride a  bike. Instead of the lovely 50km ride through the countryside of Belgium and northern France on our first decent spring day I spent my time moping about.

This afternoon I felt slightly better and in honour of 30 days of biking I pottered round the lanes for 45 minutes. Feel rubbish now, probably not a good move.

Next year 😦

Day 7. This should cheer me up ride. 50 minutes.

Brabant Wallon

Countryside transformed

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The blizzard was the worst of the year. Holed up inside watching the wind scoop the snow into weird shapes in the garden with all the roads around us impassable. Belgian travel chaos even made the international news, the boss is stuck in Paris etc. etc.

I may have mentioned that I am over snow.

But the effect of the snow drifts was to alter the shape of the countryside around us a remove certainty underfoot. Most of the roads and tracks are sunk some distance below the surrounding fields which means they were like magnets to the snow drifts and impassable to traffic, not something common in Western Europe in March, or rather not historically normal. Who knows with the changes in our weather systems.

Brabant Wallon, Belgium

This photo is our road, about 500 metres from the house. No, not the line running left to right, that is a track. The dark line heading up to the hill is a one metre high verge. It hasn’t been passed by a single vehicle all day.

So we staggered about late afternoon, falling down holes and watching the dog almost swimming in powder snow. Great fun. But it can stop now. Personally I’d like to see a daffodil flower. That would be nice.

Photo by Kevin mayne Wallon Brabant Snowy track Murphy in snow

I am just so over snow

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I am just so over snow. Sorry if I am spoiled by comparison to some readers who are in Canada or eastern or northern Europe. But just at the beginning of the week there was a moment when I thought spring might be coming.

After a week without much ice and snow on the ground I was treating myself to a 3 hour road ride this morning. At last a chance to ride skinny tyres and a lightweight frame.

So I woke up to this. This was forecast as light flurries.Snow in Lasne

My wife is beginning to ask questions too. “I thought you promised me the weather here was just like the UK?” My response that it is snowing across the whole of northern Europe is beginning to come across as a bit lame. But Belgian colleagues are promising me this is a cold one this year.

My only chance is was to go back to the mountain bike. If the best bike riders in the world could not start the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne semi-classic today I am certainly not safe on these roads.

I mean I love mountain biking and there is a fantastic network of tracks round here. But time is up.Lasne Nature marked route

I wandered lonely as a cloud

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Autumn skyBeautiful skies on Sunday’s walk.

And the temptation – because the tiny sign to the left of the trees means there is a path up there. One I haven’t walked or ridden yet. One for the future.