The 420 Tour

During a ride with Tim, a ‘good times’ cycling mate and seasoned rider, I put out the idea for a 420km ride to mark my 42 trips around the Sun. With 420 in mind naturally Amsterdam had to be on the cards. So Tim came up with a route and, in good old Tim fashion, a challenge. Hook of Holland to Amsterdam to Bruge and back in 3 days. We would also be joined by Jack, another ‘good times’ cycling buddy and strong rider, who like Tim would be riding fixed and myself single speed. Armed with no gears and little or no ideas wether we would achieve it, or even make it. We knew we would have good times regardless.

9hrs of ferry and 80kms later our Amsterdam hosts gave us the warmest of Dutch welcomes with a feast fit for Kings Day and three hungry cyclists. New friends were made and tales of ‘Trails & Ales’ past and present were shared with time and smokes passing slowly and richly between us all.

Before leaving Amsterdam we made a quick stop at the Jopen brewery for some true Dutch courage and then headed towards Rotterdam. The pace for the following days were going to be in stark contrast to the previous nights dinner. So much so Jack didn’t have time to get his girlfriend an Amsterdam fridge magnet. Sorry Claire.

Tim, well known to the Netherlands, taught us the trick of drafting unsuspecting and sometimes willing scooter riders. This lead to myself and Jack chasing after him as he hunted down every scooter that came within striking distance. On our first night out of the darkness a scooter rider waved at us to catch up with him. And so continued the Dutch hospitality we would come to love as the three of us tucked in behind him heading for Rotterdam.

Leaving Rotterdam we headed along the coast on the N57. The Weather Goddess blessed us with blue skies but she traded it off with a headwind. The fast spinning wind turbines we passed a visual reminder of the invisible force our legs were pushing us through as we took turns up front to share the effort. We unfortunately didn’t make Bruge realising we were overstretching ourselves to make it back to our Airbnb before nightfall and the ferry home the following day.

The weather stayed blue and we ended up back at Hook’ after 18 hours in the saddle having totalled 416km. Though tempted, I wasn’t going to ride 4km of laps of the ferry terminal car park to make it 420. We will hopefully visit this route again, perhaps 440km this time, with a slower pace and Claire will get her promised fridge magnet.