RatN – Day 3 – Hellendoorn to Anderen

Things are starting to happen to us. We are (well, I am!) making more mistakes. Blowing past turns and doing a few hundred extra meters. As a result, Liz has started to pay attention to the map, which has been very helpful. FWIW, I’d like to point out just how many turns I don’t miss!Forgetting to drink, forgetting to eat, miscalculating mileage (mental math). This race is a mental and logistical challenge, in addition to the obvious physical components.

I’m also finding it harder to navigate as we head further north, however the issues may be twofold. There’s a noticeable decrease in quality and consistency of bike/ped/car interchanges as the trip has progressed. I’d be curious how this plays out politically — does it come down to allocation of resources? Fewer people overall, so fewer resources? Or is there a cultural difference where the car lobby has retained more power in those areas? Perhaps a mix of all of the above, and other things as well.

This morning we descended down from on high, not too much earlier than yesterday despite our best intentions. Breakfast was very nice and our stomachs were growling so we took extra time.

The weather was set to be a banger for us. Light south winds and we would be heading north. Not much to say about that, except that it was great, but even when conditions are very favorable, you still find plenty to complain about!

We sort of looped around randomly, criss crossing a highway and climbing the one hill of the day (30m total, a few minutes).

Today more than any day so far felt long, with no obvious large chunks to knock out. It all felt similar, pleasant for sure, but after 100km of dairy cows and small recreational forest areas, it starts to drag on.

Somewhere along the way, I think in Ter Apel, we finally ran into another racer: cap #124 Herold Hissink. It was fun to swap stories and commiserate. Like us, he no longer expects to finish but is having, maybe, less fun with that than us. His plan was to stop for the day in Bourtange, a walled town/living historic amusement park but we would continue on another 40km crosswind this time. Maybe we’ll see him tomorrow!

We booked a hotel in Anderen, which appeared to be in the middle of another National Park (it is). The main problem with this location is that there’s no grocery store around and the hotel restaurant is closed on Mondays. The plan was to stop in Stadskanaal to get food (Jumbo are my favorite of the big grocery chains, by far) for the evening and early part of tomorrow, but also eat dinner on a bench because we don’t have much extra room to carry real food.

After dinner, we made the last 25km and arrived shortly after 7pm with 188km total miles. That’s the longest ride Liz has ever done! Her previous longest was…. checks notes…. yesterday! What a trooper!

The hotel is nice and charming. I wish we could stay longer because there’s nice hiking around and we could probably use a rest day. Oh well, wishful thinking! Tomorrow we head to the sea!