Gran Fondo Rosa / Cycle with Friends

This years Gran Fondo Rosa we combined with a weekend with cycle friends (Bianca, Lisette, Boukje and Edwin). On Friday we checked in at Landal Heideheuvel in Beekbergen. After unpacking all the stuff, my goodness why was it me again with the biggest bag, with in the background the Giro in Eurosport we sat down for a nice pasta. During dinner we discussed the cycling plans for Saturday. The idea was to start around 10:00 in the morning with a Garmin surprise route of about 50 kilometers. Also of course all the weather apps came to table as the weather forecast, especially on 6 different apps, was not that good last week. Expected rain and thunder was announced. The good thing was that most of the apps showed similar profile now and with the distance we choose we should be able to arrive back at the cabin before it would kick in.

So Saturday morning after a good breakfast we got all the gear ready. Everybody was choosing their outfit, some of us tried multiple, so look at our best. Because cycling with friends means showing of your kit doping. The surprise route took us to a very scenic route in the beginning and the weather was already good, a slight cold start turned into a warm nice ride. With just about 10 km to go we found a nice coffee stop where we had of course some appel pie (without whip-cream, always watching the calories 😉 ). Back to the cabin for a quick shower and then a nice lunch in the sun with beer and cocktails, live is good! After lunch it was time for relaxing so the girls went out for some geo-caching where the boys went for another cycle ride with a bit more temp. This became a nice 32 km with an average of 30+, see strava, bringing the day total to 85 km.

The evening we spend in first grilling some meat outside until the rain kicked in, yes the forecast came true but many ours later luckily. So quickly all the stuf back into the cabin and continue with dinner. Then it was time for some fun. The week before this date someone opted the idea to watch the Eurovision Song Festival on television, so quickly was decided this was a good idea but everybody had to come dressed up. After some (a lot of pictures) we all sat down for the tv and watch the very excited ESF to see our Dutch participant, finally after 44 years, win this contest again. As the voting was a very long and exhausting event we all went to bed for a very short sleep……

Breakfast at 7:00, ouch on Sunday, and a short ride by car to Oosterbeek, to get caught in a traffic jam to the car park, we managed to get started around 10:15 for our Gran Fonda Rosa or in other words “pretty in pink”. The plan was to ride the 80 km with the 5 of us but as the legs were good and the weather even better we decided to split up at the first split. The girls went for the remainder of the 80 km, and according all pictures and stories afterwards they had plenty of fun, where Edwin and myself went for the 120 km. As there was not much wind we picked up speed pretty soon and managed in between the climbs to put the average above 32 km/h. The climbs took at all the speed and in the end the power so I was glad to see the girls at the finish line. After a quick beer it was time to go back to the cabin again.

While everybody showered they clean up and packing started, yes the weekend was already over unfortunately. But not before having a final dinner together. So what else would you eat after a good bike ride in extremely good weather…….. Fries, burgers and milkshakes of course!! Then it was finally time to split up again.

Thanks Bianca, Lisette, Boukje and Edwin! This was a weekend to remember again and cannot wait for the next one!

This was not the only ride I did in Pink this year, I also did Mission Pink together with Lisette.

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