LtD GRAVEL RAID
Posted By Gravel Union
On the 2nd April 2019
As I crested the last in a series of savage little hills on the German-Belgian border a big wave of satisfaction came my way. I was illuminated and faintly warmed by the sun rising through the tall conifer trees on the edge of the Eifel region. My silhoutte cast an early shadow on the road and my usual profile was extended with the luggage I was carrying in my frame bags. Very early that morning I'd packed my bags and left my new friends sleeping to bikepack back to the Netherlands for a work project I couldn't get out of. I had to leave before breakfast, much the amusement of the other guys because now they were WhatsApp'ing me pics of their campfire breakfast. Still, they were missing the clear blue early morning skies and the evocative smell of morning pine. I was half way through the 4 hour return journey and from this point the route map showed it was mostly downhill back to the Netherlands. That’s something to be satisfied about when you’d usually be sat in an office deep in emails by this point.
The day before I joined a group of riders on the LtD Gravel Raid recon mission. The plan was to ride from Valkenburg in the Netherlands down to Hellenthal in Germany, taking in some of the LtD Gravel Raid routes in the final 20km. Looking at the names of the guys joining me I suspected I was fully in the midst of the Dutch mafia, albeit a very friendly one. And so it turned out. I was the only non-Dutch rider. Not that it mattered a great deal. Chatter in a mix of English and Dutch was easy going during the first sunny and warm weekend of Spring.
The route from Valkenburg started as all rides from the home of Amstel Gold Race should, with an ascent of the Cauberg climb. That was a wake up call after a 5am start and four weeks off the bike! From there we took a succession of gravel paths and singletrack towards Belgium. It was lunchtime and already riders were stripping off arm and leg warmers. The joy of spring had seemingly spread to the towns we sped through as our 'peleton' was cheered and waved through a couple of small villages we crossed en route. Not that we saw much civilisation, we were sticking as much as possible to tracks designed to get the most out of our 38c tyres and our wide ranging cassettes. The course gave us a lot of climbing so, after two and a bit hours, everyone was relieved to grab some food and take in the sun just outside Eupen, Belgium.
So far the chatter had been good and the riding relatively easy but the stop in the sunshine left me feeling lethargic. We had two hours of riding to go though and a dinner date with Laurens Ten Dam to make so we had to push on. We got going again but the group quickly fragmented at the behest of our photographer. Riders were scattered along the road and making wrong turns so, fuelled up with coke and energy bars, I took on the role of brining our group back together - a fast pace line with flared handlebars and frame bags looks faintly ridiculous but it worked as we were soon gruppo compacto but it put me into the red which I didn't really recover from. The steep climbs in the second half of the ride started to take their toll on my lack of fitness and increasing tiredness. Soon I was dropping the wheel in front and beginning to feel hands on my back giving me a push - it certainly wasn't unwarranted after a combination of illness, childcare and work schedules had left my endurance fitness severely lacking.
As the afternoon wore on the distance on my Garmin was reading 80km. The total distance that day was given as a vague 90-100km. I didn't want to ask "how long to go?" but the child in me really needed to know. Likewise the 'Dad voice' coming from the ride leader was "just one more climb and its flat all the way to Hellenthal then". Well that was a lie! What might be flat terrain on gravel tracks is still fairly energy sapping. Despite the stunning location, charging through the forest or alongside blue lakes reflecting the sky, I was suddenly looking forward to the ride being over. We ploughed on through forest of the Eifel region, with the sun by now starting to get low in the sky, and suddenly, with one last loose sketchy and incredibly fun descent we popped out into Hellenthal and the ride was suddenly over.
After congratulatory high fives and a shower and we were sitting around a campfire swapping stories and making new friends. The rosy glow from the day's riding, the hot fire, some great music, amazing beers and some goddamn awful spirits combined to great a 'gezellig' time (thanks for the new vocab Dutch friends) and formed just a part of what riders in September's LtD Gravel Raid will experience.
If you're looking for a gravel experience this season, head over to LtD Gravel Raid to find out more.
Thanks to Carlo Van Nistelrooy and the LtD team for the invitation.