Last week, I told you that the average Dutch person cycled a total distance of 883 km (549 mi) in 2005. (The number for 2006 is not available yet, but it’s no doubt close.) I thought it would be interesting to see how far I pedal in a year, so I did some calculating…

• Home to work: 3.7 km (2.3 mi) one way, five days a week, 44 weeks a year (allowing for holidays, meetings, conferences and the like) for a total of 1628 km (1012 mi).
• Shopping: on average 1.0 km (0.6 mi) one way (depending on where I go), twice a week, 48 weeks a year for a total of 192 km (119 mi).
• Baseball practices, games and umpiring: 1.9 km (1.2 mi) one way, three times a week, 30 weeks a year for a total of 342 km (213 mi).
• Visiting family and friends (i.e. cycle to the railway station and take the train from there): 1.6 km (1.0 mi) one way, roughly once a week, 48 weeks a year for a total of 154 km (96 mi).

Putting everything together, I cycle some 2316 km (1439 mi) per year, plus or minus a few dozen depending on the accuracy of my estimates. That’s more than 2.5 times the national average: not bad! If only the weather wouldn’t be as horrendous as it has been the last couple of days (lots of rain and wind), I’d be even happier :-)

The 16.3 million inhabitants of the Netherlands travelled a combined 194 billion kilometres (121 billion miles) in 2005, as was published today by Statistics Netherlands. This averages out to 11.9 thousand km (7.4 thousand mi) per person for the entire year or 32.6 km (20.3 mi) per day.

About three quarters of the total distance of 194 billion km was travelled by car, either as the driver (95 billion) or as a passenger (54 billion). We spent a collective 4.2 billion km (2.2%) on foot, 14.1 billion km (7.3%) in trains, and 6.5 billion km (3.4%) in buses, trams and subways. Honouring our image as a cyclists’ country, we cycled a little bit more than we travelled by train: 14.4 billion km (7.4%). That’s an average of 883 km (549 mi) per person for the entire year, or 2.4 km (1.5 mi) per person per day. Clark or Theresa, any idea how much the average US citizen cycles per year?

I’ll see if I can give you an estimate of my travelling distances later this week. First I need to get the distance between my home and the university.

Floyd Landis, winner of this year’s Tour de France, tested positive for high leves of testosterone after his comeback stage in the Alps. From what I read at SI.com and the TdF blog, I doubt very much Landis was deliberately cheating, or that the high testosterone levels on that one day were much help. Testosterone only has an effect when used over a period of several weeks, and tests from ealier in the Tour showed nothing out of the ordinary. I do believe his testosterone levels were too high, and I’m afraid the B sample will show the same results. I just hope they won’t condemn him for something that wasn’t real cheating.

Meanwhile, people all over the world are setting up in three different camps. Camp A believes that Landis is innocent, no matter what evidence is brought forward that he cheated. Camp B believes that Landis cheated, no matter what evidence is brought forward that he is innocent. Camp C hasn’t decided yet and would rather wait on the results from the B sample. The website BelieveFloyd.com, registered yesterday, is definitely one for Camp A. Or is it? As I write this, it only says “BelieveFloyd.com coming soon,” or words to that effect, followed by a series of text ads. Here’s why I’m not entirely convinced that this is Camp A:

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The Tour de France 2006 is three days underway and Norwegian rider Thor Hushovd, jersey number 118, managed to get into the spotlights on each of them. He won Saturday’s prologue, which is quite a feat considering this guy usually is better at sprints than at individual time trials.

Sunday’s stage ended, predictably, in a mass sprint. Hushovd was trying to come forward down the right side of the road. With some 300 metres (330 yards) to go and cycling at some 70 kph (43 mph), he hit a cardboard sign held up by a spectator. This not only cut his chances for the day’s victory, it also cut a deep gash just above his right elbow. He was brought to hospital to have the injury mended.

Today Hushovd started with a bandage around his arm, but that really was the only reminder of yesterday’s events. He participated in each of the three intermediate sprints to gather bonus seconds for the overall standings. He was also on track to win the sprint at the end of the stage, but due to some bad luck (or mechanical failure in his left toe clip) he had to settle for third place. Still, that was enough to put him back in the overall lead. Few people would have believed that possible when he got out of bed this morning!

It was lovely weather today and I had nothing pressing to do, so that made for a perfect opportunity to finally check out some of the land surrounding Leiden. It’s almost a year now since I moved here and I’ve hardly ventured out of the city limits. Not anymore. I did a bike tour through the fields, towns and villages north of Leiden. From start to finish was almost exactly 50 kilometres, so there you have the Number of the Day. (Those not used to normal units may pick 31 as their NotD, which was the distance in miles.)

I found this tour, called the Bollenstreekroute (Flower Bulb Route), on the website www.recreatief-fietsen.nl. I’m not really allowed to reproduce it here, but I’m going to do it anyway to give you an idea of where I went.

I live just about where the word ‘Leiden’ is printed, so I first had to go from there to the tour’s official start point in the town of Warmond. (Actually, I also had to detour past the university at the west edge of Leiden to get the route details printed, since I don’t have a printer at home. This extended the ride to eactly 50 km.)

This route really is meant for the spring, when all the flower fields in this part of the country are in full bloom. Now only barren land remained, but it was still a very nice ride through some very typical Dutch landscapes and towns.

A pasture southwest of the town of Lisse, as flat as everything around here.

The 78-years-old Veenenburg-Brug (Veenenburg Bridge) northwest of Lisse, passing over one of the wider ditches created when peat was dug from these areas many years ago.

The Roman-Catholic Martinuskerk (Martinus Church) in the town of Hillegom, which is just off the top right corner of the map. I had an excellent dinner in a restaurant next to this church.

The regional trein from Leiden to Zandvoort passing by the Leidse Trekvaart, a mid-17th-century canal between the cities of Haarlem and Leiden. This railroad was originally built in the 1840s and is one of the oldest of the Netherlands.

For some more pictures, check out the Flower Bulb Route album in my photo galleries.

It’s been a long time since I last biked this much and I don’t think I’ve ever done fifty kilometres in just over four hours. I biked quite a bit in my 2000, 2001 and 2002 vacations with two high school friends, but we always took a lot more breaks. I had only one big break today (dinner just after the halfway point), plus a couple of shorter ones to take some pictures. I averaged around 20 kph (12.5 mph) over the entire ride, excluding breaks, with several stretches were I maintained speeds up to 27 kph (17 mph) for a reasonable amount of time. I touched 43.5 kph (27.2 mph) on a full sprint (flat road, minor tail wind), but only for a second or two before I had to slow down again. Still, not bad on a normal (i.e., rather heavy) city bike.

Actually, I was surprised by how easily things went. My condition is decent and I’m used to biking, but only short distances, so I wasn’t sure how this would work out. Well, it worked out just fine. I never really felt tired or in pain, except going up a pair of viaducts close to the end.

Most importantly, I really enjoyed doing this. I normally spend way too much time behind my computer and this was a great change of scenery. I got another couple of tours off the website I mentioned earlier and with the summer ahead, I’ll definitely try some of them. I also want to repeat today’s route next year in May. With the flowers in bloom, it should be even better.

The winter weather is really picking up, creating just about the worst conditions I’ve ever had to bike through. I had a pretty strong headwind this morning and I caught a pretty hefty snow shower, which together is like biking into a blizzard. There were two centimeters of snow stuck on my coat and trousers when I arrived at the university, and another centimeter stuck in my hair. I actually had to clear the snow off my glasses halfway through, because I couldn’t see anymore. Great fun, though. Pure, great fun!

In the Netherlands, any vehicle approaching an intersection has to yield the right of way to traffic coming from the right, unless otherwise indicated by signs or traffic lights. This also applies to bicycles (and to Smurfs, but that’s a different story), which many people don’t seem to realize. When I was biking to work just yet, I slowed down to yield to another cyclist coming from the right. As she passed me turning left, she muttered, “You had right of way,” and sounded almost angry about it. Err… no, ma’am, you had. I guess she was just upset about having to bike through the rain.

Achterbandje plat vanochtend. Gisteravond heen en weer naar training was er niks aan de hand, vanochtend was-ie dood. Opgepompt en toch maar geprobeerd, maar na een paar honderd meter begon ik de structuur van het wegdek toch wel erg goed te voelen. Fiets bij het kantoor van de Belastingdienst geparkeerd en de rest (ruim de helft) gelopen. Aan het eind van de dag eerst met bus 57 van de universiteit naar het station; daar over op bus 17 naar huis om de kortingsbon van de Gamma op te halen die ik natuurlijk niet bij me had; vervolgens met bus 45 naar de Gamma om een bandenplaksetje te kopen, wat ik natuurlijk nog niet in huis had; en tot slot met bus 45 weer terug naar het station om daarvandaan naar de Belastingdienst te lopen en mijn fiets weer op te halen. (Gemiddeld 3,5 haltes per bus en alles met slechts twee strippen!) Thuis bandje geplakt en nou maar hopen dat hij morgen nog net zo mooi is als zojuist.

1. Het is hier ‘s ochtends te warm om met winterjas rond te lopen en te koud om zonder jas buiten te zijn. Een zomerjas zou de oplossing zijn, maar die ligt natuurlijk thuis.

2. Ik had voor vandaag alleen nog brood van een paar dagen oud en dan is het uitgedroogd en lang niet meer zo lekker.

3. Zeuren via een weblog is lang niet zo lekker als zeuren in persoon.

4. Kennelijk was het niet leuk genoeg om één keer het zadel van m’n fiets te stelen, want dat is vannacht weer gebeurd. Het is zo volslagen idioot dat ik niet weet of ik nou kwaad moet zijn of er hard om moet lachen, dus voorlopig ben ik maar gewoon verbaasd. Waarom? Wat is het nut of de lol van het stelen van zadels? In elk geval kan ik me troosten met het gegeven dat gedeelde smart nog slechts halve smart is, want mijn fiets was niet het enige slachtoffer. Ik denk er nu heel hard over om m’n fiets maar gewoon in te leveren en de resterende dagen te lopen. Fietsen is weliswaar sneller, maar ik heb geen zin om m’n zadel nog eens te laten stelen. (Ik zal in elk geval nooit meer denken dat iets zo vast zit dat het niet verwijderd kan worden…)

5. Verder gaat alles goed hoor :-)

Maandagochtend, even na half negen: tijd om de fiets te pakken en naar de universiteit te gaan. Tot zover was gisteren alles normaal. Maar eh… waar was het zadel van mijn fiets? Niet waar het hoorde te zijn, dat was duidelijk. De fiets zelf stond er nog gewoon, maar zadel (en zadelpen) waren heel erg afwezig. (En raar dat dat er uitziet, een fiets zonder zadel.)

Dan maar lopen dus, met de ontzadelde fiets aan de hand want het leek me dat dit probleem toch via de universiteit moest worden opgelost. Vervolgens was ik ‘s ochtends druk met andere dingen, dus om 15.15u (dan zullen zelfs Spanjaarden toch wel klaar zijn met de lunch?) naar Carme (de secretaresse) en het geval uitgelegd. Zij heeft toen de receptie gebeld, waar niemand Engels spreekt maar waar wel de persoon zit die over de fietsen gaat. Wat blijkt? Die was net weg voor lunch. Om kwart over drie? Ja dus. Maar ze zouden over een uurtje wel terugbellen.

Okee, om zes uur nog niets gehoord, dus maar weer richting Carme. Die was er niet, maar Miquel (een van mijn twee begeleiders hier) wel en hij had inmiddels contact gehad met de fietsenman. We moesten maar even een nieuw zadel gaan kopen. Miquel: “Nu meteen maar doen dan?” Ik, pogend mijn verbazing te verbergen: “Eh… ja, als u tijd heeft, dan wel graag.” Ter verduidelijking: Miquel is niet zomaar mijn begeleider, hij is hoogleraar en leidt het Institut de Química Computacional. Ik zie Prof. Baerends niet even aan een student aanbieden om mee te gaan om een zadel te kopen. (Niets ten nadele van hem, overigens.)

Na een autoritje van tien minuten (met de fiets achterin) stonden we bij de plaatselijke Decathlon (je weet wel, die megasportzaak die ook een filiaal heeft bij de Amsterdam ArenA, vlakbij mega-electronicazaak Mediamarkt, die ook hier in Girona vlakbij de Decathlon zit, als je me nog kunt volgen). Daar een nieuwe zadelpen en zadel gekocht, die met veel moeite op de fiets gemonteerd werden. (De pen ging er zo lastig in, dat de kans dat hij nog een keer verwijderd wordt in ieder geval miniem is.) Fiets terug in de auto, terug naar de uni, en de dag eindigde zoals het hoort: met de fiets terug naar het appartement.

Overigens gebeurt het wel vaker dat er hier zadels worden gestolen. Miquel ging nog niet zo ver om te zeggen dat het gebruikelijk is, maar een zeldzaamheid is het zeker niet. En waarom? Dat weet hij net zo min als ik.

Tot slot: ik kan een hoop zeggen over Spanjaarden (en dat heb ik ook al gedaan), maar ze zijn absoluut behulpzaam. Ik denk niet dat als een Spaanse student een dergelijk probleem in Nederland heeft, hij net zo vlot geholpen wordt als ik nu.