Indian summer opener

Seems like summer is officially over. For a couple of days, it looked like the heavy rain would never stop. We accepted this fact and met for a short ride to the Dutch border and back. Before we went off I decided to check the rain radar. It said that the next two hours would be covered with heavy rainfall but after that the chance of seeing the sun would increase.

As soon as the rain stopped we jumped on our bikes and headed to the Dutch border. The first hour was still pretty filthy. Roads were still flooded by the heavy rain in the morning and single raindrops shivered when hitting our glasses.

But then it happened. The sun finally showed up and covered our faces with beautiful warm light. With rising temperatures, the roads started to dry, and more and more people came out of their caves to enjoy the first solid day of Indian summer. It’s this special feeling of freedom I only experience in autumn.

The crisp cold air get’s it’s special scent from the rain and warms up through the sun throughout the day. It’s this feeling of leaving your snuggish bed to enter the cold and wet outside freezing at first but warming up through your pounding legs and racing your home roads.

As soon as we entered the district of an old airfield the roads got narrower and much straighter. The longest straight in this area is called “ Teufelsanstieg”. Every time we enter this stretch of road we are so stoked about it and race it.

Racing around the airfield a couple of times and then riding straight to our favorite coffee spot seemed to be the perfect plan. Our plans got shattered when we realized the café was closed that day. We decided to do a quick loop around Venlo and head back home as fast as possible.

We kind of took it literally to head home as fast as possible. The minute we left the city traffic behind us the pace was set high. The distance digits on our Wahoo changed so fast that when you’ve looked up and back down another kilometer was in the books.

We rode up and down so many segments that we had to stop for a few seconds to take a breath and decide if we do an extra loop through the most beautiful fields in our region. So we did and it turned out to be pretty amazing due to the setting sun we haven’t seen for days.

I guess you can call this ride the official Indian summer opener.