Muckers in the Netherlands by S.Ludford

Two months have passed since the Muckers Flandrien meet up, so it must be time for another one … of course, so here we are in The Netherlands. This is actually the 2nd ‘Official’ annual Muckers event, Andy now hopes to offer the additional ‘bonus’ Flandrien experience every year for Muckers looking for those hills and cobblestones.

Our hosts this year are Ard and Linda, situated about 20 miles south of Amsterdam, as you can imagine, we are going to experience flat, windy and fast paced rides this weekend. Muckers in attendance (Rouvy names in brackets), Ard (Svard), Linda, Andy (AndyUP) from Belgium, Daniel (Denny44) from Germany, Silvia (SillySilNL) from Netherlands and Steven (S.Ludford) from UK.

Friday evening was spent in Ard and Linda’s garden “burning meat” (Ard’s words, not mine) which seemed a very English way of describing a barbeque and drinking Dutch local beer, a traditional Muckers pre race diet it seems. Weather forecast for Saturday wasn’t looking great so it was decided to meet at 9.30am and decide what to do from there.

Nine riders were ready to roll at 9.30am as we were joined by Silvia’s Husband Arjan (JustAdG), Ard’s clubmate Arno and Chris (Chrisjans) who was invited along after joining a few Muckers races and we saw he lived close by (nice to see has now become a fully fledged Mucker). Lots of talk about ‘Force 5’ winds, now I’m having to convert Kilometers and Beaufort Scales into MPH, it was about 24mph, or as we say at home, ‘blowing a hooley’ and it never seemed to be on our backs. 115km (72miles) covered while we tried to hear our conversations over the wind, watched Andy claim ‘King of the Mountains’ by sprinting over every bridge and had Coffee and Apple Pie courtesy of Ard, thanks Ard. Daniel and Ard flexed their muscles on the last section as the others searched for any protection and drafting possible. Today was Silvia’s first group ride experience ‘outside’ and she took to it like a duck to water, you would have assumed it was completely normal by the confidence shown.

Saturday evening we walked to the local restaurant at Dutch pace, which meant almost running for Daniel, Andy and Steve, as we tried to stay in Ard’s draft. Very enjoyable evening with friendly staff and great food, before the ‘run’ back.

Day 2 and Sundays ride took us to Muiden where we met Silvia and Arjan at the coffee shop bedecked floor to ceiling in orange flags, maybe there is a football tournament happening. Once again, Coffee and Apple Pie, this time courtesy of Silvia, thanks Silvia. 71km (44miles) on this day, we just avoided the wet weather, in fact, on both days we had very little rain and discovered it had rained non stop back at the start point, the sun (almost) always shines on The Muckers. Steve tried to flex his muscles on the way back with a late break which Daniel hauled back in, then tried again near the finish line but it wasn’t possible to surprise Ard on his own ground. He did earn the ‘gold medal’ for headwind champion but later discovered it was chocolate when he tried to weigh it in at the jewellers.

Another great weekend, another friendly bunch of riders, another reminder that however much you interact with The Muckers, front & centre, occasional kudos, race report comment or simply wearing the ‘blue’ jersey, we are a great team.

Ard & Linda, thank you so much.

Next Year? Talk of Bavaria… and Flanders of course.