Recovering from injury

As you might have seen from my previous cycling blog, I'm recovering from an injury. Not being able to ride my bicycle for a while really had an impact on me mentally.
But I'm well on the way back now, making my kilometers and really enjoy riding again. This is also because I see a lot of progress. My rides get longer and the average speed goes up. And.... I feel less and less irritation of my groin, both during as after my rides!

To show you why I like cycling that much, I'll share a ride I made last Sunday in the evening. I made a nice trip through the Dutch dunes.

The Ride

Last Sunday the weather was quite nice. There was quite a strong wind, but it was sunny, so I decided to go for a bicycle ride.
I planned a route riding against a headwind towards The Hague and back through the dunes with a nice tailwind. I almost always take the headwind first, so you won't be exhausted on the way back.
It was a really nice ride. I captured some clips with my camera during the ride. I'll tell you something about the ride according to some timestamps in the video.

@0.07 You get to see some of the advantages of being a cyclist in The Netherlands. Here you see a roundabout where cyclist have priority over cars. You van see the "yield triangles" (also known as Shark's teeth) that indicate that. The cycling lanes are mostly made of red asphalt.

There are crossings where both cars and bicycles have traffic lights, but on many places where there are busy roads, there also are cycling tunnels. Dedicated for cyclists. You can see a long one @0.55

@1.15 I'm cycling into 'The Haagse Bos'. It's a nice forest at the edge of The Hague and one of the oldest remaining forests in the Netherlands.
In this forest, you can also find one of the official residences of the Dutch royal family; Huis ten Bosch Palace. The forest is open for hikers and cyclists, but the area around the palace itself is closed off for security.
Through the forest runs a gravel cycling path. It's such a nice and green oasis so close to the big and croweded city of The Hague.

You have to look very closely, but @2.15 quite a bird of prey came flying out of the forest and crossed the cycling path just in front of me. In the video (you can see it flying in from the top left) it looks small, but it was quite a large bird. I think it was a buzzard.

@2.30 you see me riding in the outskirts of The Hague, heading towards the coast.

@3.00 I'm entering the dunes. At the edge of the dunes you see a beautiful old building in the video. This is the water tower of Scheveningen. It was built in 1874 and was used to supply drinking water. But at the moment it a national monument.

When cycling through the dunes I had a nice tailwind, so I had quite a nice speed. But at @3.35 you see me being overtaken by two cyclists who are just a little bit faster 😀

The route through the dune area between Scheveningen, Wassenaar and Katwijk is really beautiful. The cycling paths are very well-maintained and you're riding in a scenic landscape. Even during my Sunday evening ride you can still see a lot of cyclists and hikers in the dunes.
The cycling path from Scheveningen to Katwijk covers a distance of 12.5 kilometers.

@6.55 you see me leaving the dunes and riding onto the boulevard of Katwijk. @7.47 I'm at the end of the boulavard and cycle over the canal that ends up in the sea.

The numbers

Although there was quite a lot of wind, I had most of the headwind in a more urban area and in the forest and the tailwind in the dunes. This resulted in quite a nice average speed, just above 29 kilometers an hour. I haven't been riding this fast since my injury which indicates that I'm on my way back 🦾

FriendlyMoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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