Riding with Grinta! That is exactly what I have been doing often this year. Riding with Grinta! and grinta. Huh? Let me explain.
Pretty much 3/4 of this year’s training was set up for one goal and one goal only: finishing the Öetztaler Radmarathon in September 2019.
For you who haven’t heard of this murderride: it is a 227km (they advertise 238km, but hey who is counting after 220 km?) ride in the Austrian mountains with a whooping 5500hm. Yep, 5,5km up in the air.
For this I needed to train. As much as I love training alone, teamwork makes the dream work. Therefore I went in search of fun social rides, which could improve my stamina, preferably in beautiful surroundings and with a great bunch of people. I did not need to search for long. Where better to start then in a nation with bad cycling roads, but big cycling hearts? In a village known to many of the greatest cyclists? A town that basically breathes cycling and hosts one of the biggest spring classic rides? Oudenaerde.
Grinta! Ouverture ride
Hence my season started early with Grinta’s! Ouverture ride. A bit chilly, a couple of cobblestones and a whole lot of sun, pretty much sums up my opening ride. Overall a great first ride with Grinta! and a little bit of grinta. After that, I ended up riding with the Grinta! guys a couple times more.
After that, I ended up riding with the Grinta! guys a couple times more.
Grinta! Testfest
I tested my, then future, bike (a beautiful Canyon Aerod) at a cold, windy and rainy circuit of Zolder at Grinta! Testfest. I felt I needed to show a little bit more grinta at this Grinta! event.
Grinta! Paris-Roubaix ride
A bit later in the season, I had the unique opportunity of riding some really hard cobble stone stripes of the (in)famous Paris-Roubaix ride and even ended my ride in the Vélodrome and the world’s famous showers. The cobblestones were a lot rougher then the ones I had ridden up until then. They had written grinta all over them.
Grinta! Rondom Zeeland
Meanwhile, Grinta! introduced me to my traveling partner for the Ötztaler radmarathon (yes, they found another mad person to say yes to this crazy adventure). We drove the 12 hours drive together, cycled a weekend like a mad man and woman and drove 12 hours back together. He mentioned Grinta’s! Yerseke mussels ride end of september. I am not really a fan of riding in the wind. I am not really a fan of riding in the rain. Riding in september in Zeeland had a very large probability of both.
I am not really a fan of riding in the wind. I am not really a fan of riding in the rain. Riding in september in Zeeland had a very large probability of both.
I hesitated long, but I went, saw and conquered. And not only me. It turned out to be an epic ride and all Grinta! riders rode with grinta in every fibre in their wet bodies.
So, what is grinta? Besides a beautiful inspiring Belgium cycling magazine? It is what a lot of you show in many of your rides. It is needed for all the training needed to reach the goals you set for yourself.
Grinta is Italian for guts, daring, perseverance and character.
Grinta is Italian for guts, daring, perseverance and character. I am going to ride 2020 with a lot of Grinta!/grinta again. It is the way I love most! How about you?
KimQ76 