Now that I have lived here for 6 years I feel like I am allowed to turn into a road bike fanatic. The Netherlands is a great place for road biking due to the safe bike paths and the lack of hills. After stalking many Marktplaats sellers (Dutch version of Ebay) I was lucky to find one that was the right size and price range. So it’s now official! I have bought my first ever road bike, in a new-ish condition all shiny and red.
Learning all aspects of cycling on a road bike sure is a learning curve, such as what all the different components are as well as the ‘do’s and dont’s‘. A Dutch book that I still need to read is ‘Vrouw & Fiets’ written by Nynke de Jong and Marijn de Vries, which has been recommended to me by at least 3 people this week.
As well as buying the bike this week, I bought some gloves and cycling glasses at the Decathlon store and researched into what size clip-in shoes I needed. I also scored a new helmet via Marktplaats and ordered some sexy cushion-padded shorts to protect my butt and a cycling shirt with pockets at the back.
For my first route I decided to take it easy, cycling only 11km around the Kralingse Bos park in Rotterdam. Within 10 minutes I felt so hungry and realised the unhealthy lunch probably wasn’t the best idea before some fitness. As a gym junkie that I am (minimum 3 days a week at the gym + home workouts sessions) I should of known better! However overall happy that my average speed was faster than my city bike as well as being able to pratice the gear changing and the overall feel of the bike. P.S I didn’t have my ordered cushion-padded shorts in time for this route either so it was a bumpy experience!
I’ve started using the app Strava, perfect for tracking your route with GPS. Gives you information about your speed, elevation, estimated calories and more importantly the time and distance. What I also love is once you do the same route more than once, you can challenge yourself to beat your old time and make some personal bests!
For my second route this week it was right after fuelling up with some pasta, also prepared with my cushion-padded shorts and the correct gear. The plan was to do another small route for practicing, but with a beautiful sun setting it was too good to end it too quickly. I cycled with my partner exactly 32km, and even at the end I felt like I could have gone further but it was dark and we had no lights!
For my third and last route this week, we decided to travel to the De Biesbosch National Park. Based on the western wind, we cycled all the way there with the wind. The plan was to do a few laps around the national park but I was rather tired once we reached 60km, and knew I still had to cycle at least 10km back towards to the boat to take me back to Rotterdam. We stopped at the De Brabantse Biesbosch for a delicious pancake and a cola, as my partner needed some energy as he cycled all the way back!
But WOW, so proud that within a week I managed to do a long trip of 67km in one go! A lot faster than I ever imagined too within only 3 hours!
The total this week I cycled is 116km (including a short 10km I forgot to record). I couldn’t of done it without those padded shorts thats for sure!
I still need lots of practice until I can call myself a real road bike fanatic, but I’m making a good start!
My wish list of things to get (and need) to feel like a complete road bike user:
New matching water bottles and holdersA bellClip-in SPD Shoes- Spare inside tyres
- A multitool kit
A bike computer/sensor to measure and see my speed, distance and time- (and whatever else I need that I don’t know about yet!)
Any tips & tricks, related books or apps, or even decent shops or websites to buy gear would all be appreciated!!
Pin for later:
Read more of our Rotterdam posts!
Discover the prettiest neighborhood Kralingen
Rotterdam Centraal Station Rooftop Tour
‘De Rotterdam’ Tour – Highest Skyscraper In The Netherlands!
2 Comments
TheRidgelineReport
31st May 2018 at 3:08 amHoly heck!! Looks like you’ve been CRUSHING it on the bikes! I’d love to get into road biking, and I know the only people I’ve met from the Netherlands are so into biking it might be frightening. I certainly can’t afford a road bike at this point in time, but perhaps one day. I did, however, bike the length of Vietnam on a mountain bike I bought when I arrived haha so biking is certainly a passion of mine too 🙂
Togetherintransit
12th June 2018 at 11:00 amWow cycling through Vietnam must have been amazing! This post is a little old now, but I’m still cycling strong and enjoying it just as much, especially in the recently warm waether. My bike was second hand but I’ve been lucky not needing to replace anything yet – not even had a flat tyre!