Hey! Wow... this has been a long time I have made any content on Hive, actually let me see - it's been over two months since my last post!
Sometimes we go through changes in what we like to do and I have the habit of going all-in when I really like something, last year cycling became a part of my life and as you all know a year later and I own both a mountain bike and a road bike... 馃槄
From time to time I do still check out the cycling community and I was inspired by 
So... let's get some coffee first and I'll show you what I did lately on the bike!
In the summer I went to France, in a region I had never been to before between Amboise and Blois and I decided to bring my mountain bike and not the road bike, I let Garmin make my routes and it did really well, bringing me to small trails I would have never found myself.
It's so very different than I my own country because out there you can just ride in between the fields and meadows on the tracks the farmers use with their tractors, it's a little rough though... 馃槄
My first ride was nothing but sunflower fields and vineyards which was cool for the first 30 minutes but it got kinda boring after that, I did record the ride but it was too boring to make a video about it so it will probably never see the light of day, so... the second ride I decided to tell Garmin to go into a different direction, North East because I could see a forest on Google Maps and it was a different ride for sure, a really cool and exhausting one.
I was glad I took it easy with the distance, planning the route which was a total of 46km because 90% of it was off-road and my average speed on the first half was only 18 km/h... 馃槄
With rough terrain I had to put a lot more power on the pedals and once I returned to our rental house, I needed a little rest! 馃榿
I'm still in the process of editing the content to create a good video out of it so it will be released on my channel in the next weeks, but making a post on here takes a lot less time. 馃槂
After I cleared this field, I got on a tarmac road which was nice for a chance to give my legs some rest, I was going down into a valley and in front of my was a hill with a lot of trees on it and I was asking myself if my route went over the hill into the forest - 10 seconds later Garmin got with an alert START OF THE CLIMB.... and boy it was a climb!
The total elevation was only 60 meters but the maximum incline was a whopping 25% according to Garmin Connect 馃槅 off-road climbing is something completely different than a road climb, I did a less steep one on tarmac after it, once I was on the top I had to stop and catch my breath for a minute before I was able to continue, and of course, what goes up - must come down! A short but steep 20% decent on tarmac which was a little scary because I was going fast as soon as I let go of my brakes... 馃構
It's what I like about cycling, and especially gravel / MTB, not knowing what the ride will bring you - the adventure of the ride 馃槂, it is a little intimidating, realizing I was all alone in the forest in the middle on nowhere. In my country, every direction I take there's always a house, farm or village within a couple of kilometers but if something would happen to me out here, I would be on my own...
Nothing too crazy happened thankfully, only a puncture and a very close call with some briar thorns... 馃槵
I was riding on a trail where apparently when it was really wet in the forest, a tractor made really deep tracks and I was riding in the middle of it, it doesn't display very well on the camera but you'll get the idea...
So, I picked up some speed and I noticed a overhanging branch on the trail, I figured my best option was to just ride against it and push it do the side, because I couldn't evade it with the deep tracks on the trail, but then on the very last moment I saw this branch had THORNS 馃槪 HARD BRAKING and I managed to stop, already touching the branch but without the thorns puncturing me, that was a very close call!
If I didn't see this in time, it would have definitely ripped my torso and arms (and my nice shirt!) open 馃槄 well.. it's adventure! haha...
Something I learned from my last crash on the mountain bike trail, I now always carry a disinfectant spray in my backpack for when something happens the next time, because there will definitely be a next time I get hurt 馃槄
I think the video about my ride in France will be a cool one, it will just take some more time to edit it 馃檪
4000km Goal met!
At the start of the year I set myself a goal to ride a total of 4000km, with more hours of cycling every week because we got the indoor trainer and I was doing a third ride every week, doing interval training and later I got my road bike on which it's a lot easier to do bigger distances, somewhere in August I've already passed the 4000 kilometers and I will probably end up somewhere between 5 and 6k in total this year, pretty crazy!
Of course it helps my country is really flat and the biggest elevation we have are dykes and bridges not more than 10 meters in elevation but still they can add up in a ride.
Well, that's it for now! No telling how long it will take for my next post at this point 馃槄