ok, just to round this thing off, I decided to HTFU (especially after reading the L2P story) and do the whole land based part of the journey by bike.
In summary everything went smoothly.
Day 1: London->Harwich. 142km, 8h22m door-to-door. Average speed not including breaks 20.2km/h. Top speed 51km/h. Nicest part of the journey was weaving through the country lanes around Maldon, Wivenhoe and up to Harwich. I wonder about researching national cycle route #51 a little more - I picked it up just out of Colchester and it certainly seemed like a nice choice of roads.
Day 2: Hook-of-Holand->Amsterdam. 93km, 5h30m door-to-door. Average speed not including breaks 21.8km/h. Top speed 39km/h. Highlights? riding off the ferry and having a car give way to me at an intersection! Separate cycleways for almost the entire journey. But most of them were paving tiles - making me happy I was on fat (but smooth) tires - to iron out the constant chatter.
On the road, hydration was 6L of Nuun enhanced water. Nutrition was a trail mix of brazil nuts, sultanas, dried figs, bananas and chocolate duct taped in an easy access bag to my handlebars - allowing constant nibblation. I also drunk around 300mL of honey from a squeezy bottle. Sunscreen - Riemann P20.
No cramping or dehydration. Was loosing power toward the end of each day, but certainly could have handled a good few more km (especially if I remembered to keep the spin rate up). Some arse soreness, but I guess that's to be expected since I've never spent that long in the saddle before. Actually this was quite bad about 1/2 way through the first day but I nudged the saddle nose a degree or two down and it was significantly better. And I wonder if the cockpit might be a centimeter or two too long though.
ok, just to round this thing off, I decided to HTFU (especially after reading the L2P story) and do the whole land based part of the journey by bike.
In summary everything went smoothly.
Day 1: London->Harwich. 142km, 8h22m door-to-door. Average speed not including breaks 20.2km/h. Top speed 51km/h. Nicest part of the journey was weaving through the country lanes around Maldon, Wivenhoe and up to Harwich. I wonder about researching national cycle route #51 a little more - I picked it up just out of Colchester and it certainly seemed like a nice choice of roads.
Day 2: Hook-of-Holand->Amsterdam. 93km, 5h30m door-to-door. Average speed not including breaks 21.8km/h. Top speed 39km/h. Highlights? riding off the ferry and having a car give way to me at an intersection! Separate cycleways for almost the entire journey. But most of them were paving tiles - making me happy I was on fat (but smooth) tires - to iron out the constant chatter.
On the road, hydration was 6L of Nuun enhanced water. Nutrition was a trail mix of brazil nuts, sultanas, dried figs, bananas and chocolate duct taped in an easy access bag to my handlebars - allowing constant nibblation. I also drunk around 300mL of honey from a squeezy bottle. Sunscreen - Riemann P20.
No cramping or dehydration. Was loosing power toward the end of each day, but certainly could have handled a good few more km (especially if I remembered to keep the spin rate up). Some arse soreness, but I guess that's to be expected since I've never spent that long in the saddle before. Actually this was quite bad about 1/2 way through the first day but I nudged the saddle nose a degree or two down and it was significantly better. And I wonder if the cockpit might be a centimeter or two too long though.
Next trip? I'm thinking about Salisbury.