[Dachs6]

Crammed in a couple hours before winter turns snowy and icy here in Belgium. Spun it out to Leuven (a very interesting city with a cool history, now home to ABInBev). Grabbed a couple of shots of some cool art, a wall painting and a sculpture.

Not quite the girl with a pearl earring, but definitely in the style of a Dutch Master. Note the background, this was commissioned by the largest brewer in the world.

And then a sculpture I’ve ridden by a bunch of times on the Leuven “fietsring.” I find it very cool, the details really drive home the name, “De ontvoering van Europa.”

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[Dachs6]

En route to the distal point of an elongated loop to central Antwerp I passed by a large public park popular with the walkers and joggers, though it is not popular with cyclists judging by the Strava heat maps. It is called Broek de Naeyer.

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[Dachs6]

Now for the last wormhole (3/3)

Last, but also quite famous if you’ve ever been to Antwerp (and especially ridden a bicycle there) is the Sint Annatunnel. Opened in 1933, the escalators are original. 574m long, and 31.57m underground, it is a marvelous thing to behold. 3 photos: the western entrance building, a shot of the escalator, and the tunnel itself.

Enjoy!

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[Dachs6]

So today’s ride, really a Tour, as they say in Germany, was full of wormholes. In fact, our illustrious prize sponsor claims the ride was all wormhole. This is not true, but it had many. I’ve selected the 3 best ones, one because it really was vital to making this ride happen, and 2 because they were the whole point of this ride! To view the ride https://www.Strava.com/activities/4739724918

The first wormhole was in Hoboken, not the one in New Jersey. It made crossing a railroad grade safe and effortless by passing under it and connecting the route to the path that would take me to the second wormhole (more below). I’ve dubbed it the Hoboken Rail ondetdoorganag.

Number two was just a few more kms later. It is one of several tunnels in Antwerp (the larger metro area) that permits foot traffic and nicked to cross the Scheldt river without much fuss and completely separate from cars. It is named by the municipality as the Fietsertunnel Rechteroever. 2 is pics, the entrance and the tunnel itself:

And, because of upload limits…this is 1/3 and 2/3 of the wormholes from today…

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[Dachs6]

Thanks to the keen eye of our sponsor, a very special wormhole has be identified. It’s a bike path that uses a tunnel so that a major highway, The R0, goes from an impassable barrier to nothing more than a line on a map when you’re on two wheels. It beautifully decorated with some classic Eurotrash Street Art.

The Wormhole is in Zaventem, Flemish Brabant….that’s Belgium for this not familiar with old world place names. It shall forever be known as the Zaventem R0 Wormhole.

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[Dachs6]

Oops…rode to the Observatoire royal de Belgique (Royal Belgian Observatory), took a photo, and just realized that I also needed my bike in it. [emoji51]

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[Dachs6]

Team 4 members, this is our thread…in reality, it is probably the tertiary mode of communication since email and potentially SMS is some much easier to manage and interface with. But the thread is here, and we can use it if necessary. Go ahead and follow the thread, with the instruction in the post above, or make a post and you should be automatically set to follow and receive notifications of added posts, etc.

[Dachs6]

Took a little spin to a park outside Mechelen, the Vrijbroekpark. Nice paved trail inside the park, and a wonderful country roads and bike path route to/from.

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[Dachs6]

I’m in. Don’t know the lbs… 83.5kg this morning. Want to finish at 77kg. That’s about 15 lbs, give or take a few grams.

Rule 24?

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[Dachs6]

@KLizotte 200737 wrote:

Imagine my shock when I saw how much damage the helmet sustained from a low impact, largely non-weight bearing incident….Any experience with either helmet in real life crash situations?

Late to this thread. I’ve crash tested a few…

I crashed head first about 3 years ago on gravel, demolished my Prevail though the inner lattice held it together as the styrofoam ribs broke apart. I had no concussion, but a lot of road rash and my shorts were finished.

Then this summer (Aug I crashed on a gnarly gravel to asphalt transition wearing a Prevail II. The impact was head first again. Helmet foam held together much better this time, again no concussion. Then Sep 25, while wearing a Specialized Evade (1st Gen) I had a car turn in front of me while I was on my road bike, I grabbed the binders but rims brakes on wet carbon…head first into a car window at 35km/h. Helmet crushed in front, no concussion.

Higher end Specialized helmets perform as advertised, in my experience.

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[Dachs6]

@josh 204014 wrote:

Don’t worry, his miles don’t actually count. Here’s a post that indicates they’re invalid:

I think he’s making it a point to ride AROUND Brussels, adds a lot of miles (or Kms as they call them there) though [emoji6]

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[Dachs6]

@AnthonyClayman 204013 wrote:

The guy who is no 1 right now lives and bikes in Belgium…

I hear that guy crashes a lot…

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[Dachs6]

@camiller 204116 wrote:

The sign must contain the word “park” on the sign. So to clarify, if the recreation field is listed as a park and has “park” in its name on the sign then it can be used for #parkfinder. I did have some exceptions in the rules, like not using a cemetery even if “park” is in its name.

What if the word park is in Flemish (park) or French (park)? 😮

[Dachs6]

@mwolf00 204032 wrote:

Hi everyone. I’m a gravel grinder and I’ve started tagging my rides with #dirtybiker – man is this dirty work so far this year! Have fun out there. Try to rinse your bike off when you can!

I took over this pointless prize last year, and I hadn’t considered doing it again, though maybe I should. Hmmm. Give me a few days to think on it. In the meantime keep tagging.

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[Dachs6]

@Boomer2U 203621 wrote:

So it’s then true: #micromiles make a BIG difference!

Under 9.9999999999999 miles, yep. Apparently. Ride 10+ and it’s not an issue? I’m just guessing here.

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