Geoliede machine 🛢🪔✨️

This ride was all about 'confirming' I had everything figured out. Now with aero(?) bars and a promise to myself to make fewer picture-stops.

I ended this ride with only 2 hours and 25 minutes of inactive time, of which I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes hanging out with Caroline and her neighbours, already in Utrecht. That's after the ride, right? So only a little over one hour of standing still in total over 300kms. I'm very proud!! During RatN I'm counting on experiencing a little more pressure, so I feel like I might still be able to win some time somewhere 🙏🏼🌞

The aero bars also seem to be coming in handy. I had to replace the pair I initially bought, because the armrests were too narrow for a bike with this much weight in the front. (I'll be using those on a different bike in the future :-))
Of course, there's also not a lot of 'aero' going on with the crate, but it's nice to be able to give my hands a break every now and then. I also think putting your arms on your handlebar mentally magically tricks you into wanting to cycle faster. Hence, my average speed being much faster in this ride than the former ones – even when I got off my bike several times to walk a few bits to collect Veloviewer tiles. This gives me some extra hope for the actual race 🙏🏼

I finished this ride picking up some delicious leftover sour-dough bread at Caroline's place. A fun warm encounter with fun conversations that made me realise how much energy I still had left in me. Even after 15,5hrs of cycling.

So, conclusion; being able to do 300kms within a 16 hour timeframe and without being completely exhausted... I'm exactly where I want to be. Hats off to myself 👒✨️