I'm writing this from Austria. I am on holiday with my wife and our girls. Mountains, autumn colors, beautiful weather, what's not to like about it. Indeed, it's all great! Except that this is the first week that I found that keeping up the
After weeks of building the hype online and announcing the 9th of October as the launch date for the route, last Thursday at 21:00, finally the live stream was there. And I must honestly say, both Jeroen and I were excited about it. So 20:58 sharp we tuned
There was a time, not even too long ago, I had a social life. You know, the life where you occasionally meet other people and talk about things not MTB related. Yes, there are people out there doing that. And then there was the life where you had friends with
A quick check-in on the weight loss plan I posted here exactly one month ago: I stepped off the scale this morning at 80.7kg. That's 0.9kg down from my starting point of 81.6kg last month, which is pretty close to ''my target'
On Saturday, finally the time had come for my very first MTB race ever, and that right here in my hometown. After (only 2) months of training, mostly easy endurance on cycling roads instead of trails, I was excited to be wearing a race number and standing among dozens of
Sunday’s ride through the Utrechtse Heuvelrug was one of those sessions that reminded me why I love mountain biking. Not just because of the amazing trails that weave through one of the Netherlands' most beautiful nature areas, but also because a lot of things came together, and I
As I am only a novice race rider, I have very little experience with race nutrition (gels, bars, liquid food and so on). I rode the Stoneman Arduenna a couple of years ago and that I think was the only time I ate bars and used gels. The one memory
The Wahoo Kickr has been living under on our roofed terrace for a week now, and I've managed two proper sessions so far. Jeroen's warning about indoor trainers being psychologically different is starting to make sense, though I haven't hit the wall yet whatsoever.
A couple of weeks into training with those Cyclinglab results, something's been bugging me. The 230W anaerobic threshold from the lab test felt accurate, but during training it feels different i.e. the training with associated power zones and corresponding heart rates don't really match us.
After years of no really training, but just doing my rounds on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug MTB trails, things have changed, now that Jeroen and me are training for Cape Epic. In this structured approach, using JOIN, everything is about relative (power) output. I started by following my heart rate monitor,
This morning I stepped on the scale: 81.6kg. BMI 24.1. Technically healthy, but those SEG Cyclinglab results show that every kilogram matters when you're trying to cylcle up mountains. Jeroen's at 18.1% body fat, I'm at 21.1%, so there'
Last week, Jeroen and I went to Cyclinglab in Amsterdam for our baseline fitness tests. With Cape Epic 2026 still short of 7 months away and our goal of finishing top 20 in the Masters category, we figured it was time to face the music and know where to focus