6000 Dutch cyclists, some very expensive road bikes, an awful lot of bananas, boxes of krentenbollen (currant buns), thousands of litres of sports drink, several tonnes of penne bolognaise at the finish and, for us, a little over five hours in the saddle…the 6th annual Classico Boretti ride. Continue reading
Category Archives: Cycling
TEXEL – up close and personal

‘Brandweer ‘ – Texel’s miniature fire engine. I noticed the key was hanging in the ignition, ready for any emergency. May all their fires be small fires.
Excuse me for harking back to last weekend’s cycling trip to Texel Island. There were a few little things worth mentioning that I missed in my previous post.
What makes Texel so attractive to Dutch people and to a handful of knowledgeable German visitors is its small scale and its olde worlde charm. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling, Holland
HOW FAR TO THE TULIPS? – cycling there from Amsterdam
The Dutch countryside is nearly all beautiful. The nice thing about cycling out from Amsterdam is that you can ride in any direction with the wind at your back, then take the train back home.
I did just that today. I set out with no plans, and found myself blown inexorably towards the tulip fields. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling, Holland
HORIZONTAL RIDING – Texel Island
This island is 20 kilometres long, 10 kilometres wide and has more than 135 kilometres of cycle paths. It’s not hard to guess which country we’re talking about.
Texel, the most southerly of the Dutch Wadden Islands, is flat. Mostly. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling
DUTCH ID – the best electric bike?
Is this an exciting step forward into the future of our cycling or an admission of defeat? We’ve bought an electric-assist bike.
Was this a good decision? Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling
AMSTEL LOOP RIDE – 44 km of pleasure mingled with pain
The Amstel Gold race, perhaps the Netherlands’ most important cycling event, is on TV today. My modest ride along the Amstel River wouldn’t qualify as ‘gold’; it was more ‘aluminium alloy’ class.
But it wasn’t raining, the sun was making an effort to break through, and I needed to get some serious kilometres in before the Classico Boretti cycling event exactly three weeks from now.
Either my Brooks saddle or my rear end has changed shape since they were last in contact seven months ago. They’re no longer a perfect match. My loop was hard work, and that gave me an excuse to stop and admire the scenery along the way. Continue reading
Filed under Cycle touring, Cycling, Holland




