Race around The Netherlands

Sleep deprivation hitting hard. That last 300km is gonna be slow progress.

Doing utterly fabulously though.. Blowy out there

hippy's back in Amersrongenfoort. Well done, hippy.

Now the MisterTomToms are still in the race. MisterTomTom #94 is south of Roermond and has about 150km left. MisterTomasitoTomasito #22 is south of Valkenswaard, about to go on that short excursion into Belgium, with about 350km left.

So, so good. I wonder if any beer left in Amersrongenfoort.

Well done @hippy

^^ There's a convoy of drays going into the town that's visible from space.

That was such a hard day. But it payed off: 10th and sub 5 days. Never expected this. So chuffed :)

Crushed it!!!

Very, very impressive

Fantastic, Tom. Now crash out, you've earned it. :)

(Says he while Tom is probably already fast asleep.)

Well done!

Well done mate! I can vouch for that being fucking hard work!

Impressive!!

Hello, congratulations to those who participated this year. Could anyone of you post a link to your strava ride for the race. I'm planning to do this race next year and I'd like to recce the route using an existing GPX file, sometime this year.

It's on the site https://www.adventurebikeracing.com/ratn/
Not much to recce though. Just endless cyclepaths and wind.

I wonder what it would be like on a 'bent. I have never ridden one. I have never even fancied riding one but since coming to the Netherlands I have learnt to really hate the wind. And road surfaces.

Finished. I belive I came 17th.

I did a final push of 672km in one go, starting 5am Sunday and finishing 5pm Monday.

When I started this race, I really wanted to push myself and see what I found; on Saturday night I had the feeling that if I kept chipping away with 300km days then I'd always wonder what if...

So I went big. Lots of it was fun but I had the coldest, lowest moment I have ever had on a bike in the southern hills at 4am. I had sweated through my base layer and was left fixing a mechanical at the top of a hill in the freezing wind. I spent the sunrise hour crying, not sure how I would finish.

At a McDs I put on ever item of clothing I had, fresh base layer, and all the coffee. It was enough to help me blast through the final 200km, although I was a bit stop-start over the final 20km just trying to nurse it home.

Incredible experience. Netherlands has some beautiful roads and paths, but also some the the bleakest, hardest sections I have ever ridden. But for a first tast of long distance racing it was fantastic. Would do again.

Hat off to you!

That’s some finishing effort. Well done on completing and for such a good result too.

Bravo. Ups, downs and misery at mcd’s is what it’s all about :) enjoy the recovery

Brilliant stuff hippy and the two Toms. I am in awe. No one can have anticipated how foul the weather would be. Other than ice, probably among the worst possible conditions. Really well done

Wow! just wow. Super impressive performance

Chapeau; that is some finishing effort!

Chapeau indeed, to all of you.

Wow, 670 in one go. That is just mental! I also had a cry in the hills but that was during the daytime, in the hot sun. I can only imagine what it would have been during the night in that freezing cold.

Btw, you're the one I met at the hotel the night before the start, right?