Ruud and Olaf out in the weather, just around the corner
@Ruud deserves a lot of credit for his stubborn Dutchness. Nothing was going to stop his mid-winter Cogal. I am not seeing the traditional drinking post-script for the Cogal report but I’ll assume everyone involved got properly rehydrated. Chapeau @Ruud.
VLVV, Gianni
On or around Winter Solstice, Café Ome Ko, just outside of Amsterdam in the town of Muiden, is the traditional meeting place for the Dutch Velominati Mid-Winter Cogal. Not that many people notice. Last year, not a soul showed his or her face, and the year before, at the inaugural, just one person made an appearance, never to be heard from since. So I was pretty pleased seeing an actual road bike leaning against the bench near the front door, even though I also noticed it was my brother’s. The idea that after last year, he had just taken pity on me soon turned out to be misguided. My brother, let’s call him Olaf, had really come to ride. This time of year he only gets out once a week, on a mountain bike, also making a coffee stop, but there was no question he fully intended to ride all day. So how fortunate was I? I certainly had to ignore that ugly EPMS he continues to leave hanging from his seat. Having only fairly recently been presented with a Dutch translation of The Rules, he probably has not gotten to the relevant chapter yet. (It’s called zadeltas, and it defaces your otherwise very fine-looking bike! Rule #29!) We set out, as announced on the site, for Lage Vuursche. Two years ago, two Utrecht riders had joined us there. But that was then, this was now, and now meant nobody. People: how much better can one expect conditions to be on December-focking-20th? Well above 10 degrees Celcius, dry, and a more than manageable southwesterly breeze. For long streteches we actually saw our own shadows. Are there no Velominati here? Do you like the work, or what? It only bothered us momentarily, because soon we diligently continued to discharge the orginal plan, Amerongse Berg included. We got home with an hour-and-a-half of daylight left to spare, a blemish we could live with. 146 kilometers for the convener, 148 for the brother. To underline: Olaf got 148 kilometers even though he barely gets to 4000 kilometers for the year and after October only manages a two-hour mountainbike ride once a week, punctuated by a coffee stop. And he enjoyed it, because long before getting De Regels he grasped the true meaning of Rule #5. As we put away the kilometers, one after the other, we wondered if my cycling mentor and our former neighbor, the legendary Thijs Hendriks (he who in the 1960s raced against, and beat, many a future Tour de France rider; he who well after his racing days could ride around the entire IJsselmeer solo in about eight hours; he who has spoken many words to live by, for example: “come May, you just want to be able to do a 100 kilometers inside three hours again”) had ever made it over the Amerongse Berg in late December. So I called him after the ride, and he hadn’t. That’s the kind of day we had. Vive la vie Velominatus!
Ruud.
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@wilburrox
I assume the lads made it back ok? How hard was it to hide your pride and pretend to be upset with them, as their mothers clearly were? I hope you didn't get caught giving them the thumbs up and mouthing "Rule V, boys, Rule V!"
@Martijn Hendriks -Son of..
Its about time your dad made it into the Velominati archive!
@wiscot
All is well that ends well indeed they made it back okay. And he and I went in to town, he skipped breakfast and had a cheeseburger. We have a river that runs thru town and is at flood stage so we checked out some cool spots and in one place a damn is under water. Anyways, when your 16 year old son on school break gets outa bed by 8:00 (yes, am) to ride his bike before the rain comes... and gets hung up in the worst of it just the same? Well, yea, he knows I was impressed. He and his buddy have been intro'd to the rules via #9. It's not a bad start. Cheers
@JohnB
Not been around these parts long, has there ever been a Mid-Winter Cogal in Wales? Saying that if there's gonna be one in Scotland next year I'd do my best to show if Cloggies are going to turn up...
@David
but what about Rule #4, David?
@BlackRoad
I can't recall one in Wales, perhaps in the South of England although I may be getting mixed up with an autumn Cogal run off in crappy weather! I was more keen to head to the Netherlands in 2016 than stay up here.
@JohnB
Let's alternate: Northwestern European Velominati Mid-Winter Cogal. Who wants to host first?
Jammer de bammer. This is the first time I read about it. I have to keep this in mind fo this year. Want to join. I live in Utrech and Muiden is close.
Hope to meet you at the end of the year.
@BlackRoad
Where in Wales? There are a couple of other sporadic Welsh-based posters and myself on here. And Mr Teocalli travelled over for the inaugural Cardiff Roubaix ride last September, which was a semi Cogal.
Based on temperature only, we haven't really had a winter yet...