Categorie: Nieuws (Pagina 1 van 6)

Just before the summer holiday, the AXI organized the yearly Hellingproof barbeque on the field near Hoevestein. A record amount of 40 hungry Hellingprofs appeared and enjoyed the buffet prepared by the AXI members. The couscous salad was very popular, or was it nasi? On top of all the salad stuff, grill master Jip flamed the meat and Jelmer turned around the vegetarian burgers. He was a bit sad this was without spectacular flames and noises, but the result was suburb.

After the food it was time to play a very dangerous football game. Like on the European championships, every now and then there was a drinking break. Only difference: this was with semi-cold Schultenbrau, which influenced the football skills for some reason. Nobody broke a leg, so that was positive. Luckily there were some award ceremonies in the meantime. The timetrial and sprint competition winners received a nicely renovated award by the board with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. The sprint classification by the men was won by Max, while Els won the women’s competition. The time trial classification trophy for the women was won by Eline, whereas Jetze claimed the overall win for the men. Other winners where the participants of the Longest day challenge. Nadja and Sofie got real Hellingproof pasta and a Kwaremont beer for their longest ride.

When the food was finished, the prizes where divided, the darkness started to fall over us and the beer started to work, it was bonfire time. Bart showed he can burn everything if he wants, so that’s what happened. Chairs, cupboards and so on. The diehards stayed until the early hours, and luckily everyone managed to arrive home. Some did needed a small detour in the bushes to kiss the earth, or a small break on a bus station, but all in all it was a nice closure of the cycling season of this academic year.

On Saturday the 17th of April the very first omnium of the Racie took place on the Race track in Ede. The sun was shining, the music was playing, birds were singing, coffee was served and everybody was very excited. The first people started to arrive at 9 AM and started to explore the challenging track. The track was extended because of the addition of a parking lot and had a lot of sharp corners. Everybody seemed to really like the different race-components, which were a time trial, point race, reverse time trail and knock out race. The lunch also was very huge success with more then enough food for everybody. The jelly sandwich was enjoyed the most, with great surprise to some of the Racie members.

The head of the races with the men mostly included Wouter, Jetze and Alger. Is was not a surprise to see these men on the podium afterwards, with Wouter first, Jetze second and Alger third. With the women it was a really close race. In the end, Els managed to beat Nadja with only 0.1 points! Vera manage to get third place.

After the award ceremony a lot of people helped cleaning up, moving fences and putting tables back inside, which the Racie was very grateful for!

It is safe to say that this Omnium was a huge success and will surely be repeated in the future!

Thursday the 22nd of April was the first time trial of the year with the classical Rondje Defensieweg: a tricky time trial of about 10km in hilly terrain. The favourate for the men was Tjalle, who had won the time trial classification the past years and who in his humbleness still bothers to return his leaders jearsey at the end of every year. The favourite for the women was Judith, who had proven that she can ride at least as fast as her sister. Both favourites did not disappoint despite the enormous pressure that was laying on their shoulders and Tjalle and Judith both took the win with a considerable margin of 1:15 and 1:26 on the number two, respectively. Bas and Bart gained the other podium spots in the men’s time trial, while Eline and Els took a nice second and third place in the women’s time trial. Overall there were a lot of fast times during this first time trial, which is promising for the coming time trials!

Whereas normally the easter weekend would take place in Germany, this was not doable this year due corona. The AXI was looking for an EGGciting alternative for the easter weekend. Luckily, they found one, which even included a little bit of Germany. Sehr wünderbar! 

On Friday challenges were done during the Bike&borrel route in the surroundings of Wageningen. On one of the posts, all riders made their outfit easter proof with bunny ears. Especially Alger brought back the easter spirit with ears almost as long as the route itself.  

With these beautiful ears attached to their helmets, the hellingprofs went of a search for eggs in the woods of Lunteren with even some “special eggs “ hidden among them! After all the hard work the members received a delicious borrel package for the online meeting in the evening. Here, the best pictures of the day were reviewed and there was time for everybody to catch up with each other. 

The next day, it was time for not just a ride but for the one and only Stage Shultenbrau! 

This beautiful stage brought us in pairs through a variety of landscapes. We cycled through the beautiful betuwe, visited the ancient woods near Groesbeek and even make some kilometers in the province of Limburg. A few kilometers before we crossed the border with Germany a coffee stop was provided with apple pie! Energized by the delicious apple pie, the route brought us via Nijmegen back to Wageningen. 

After this great trainingsweekend, everybody was ready for a new cycling season full of beautiful rides, coffee stops with pie, tanlines, tensive cycling events on tv, cold radlers after a long and warm rides, legs full of lactic acid, “rondje brug” with the wind in the back and ofcourse many hellingproof activities! 

True winners. True Lords of the Spring. To get ready for April cycling month, the AXI prepared 3 weeks of challenges during the Lord of the Springs – The return of the cycling season. Challenges contained amongst others climbing the steep Fountain mountain, crossing the Rhine at least 6 times in one ride, introducing people to cycling, making an Eifeltower in elevation meters and making Strava art. The team of Gijs, Bart, Vera and Tristan destroyed the competition by going all-in at ALL challenges. They must have too much time. The winners deserved a basket with beers, “bandjes” and bites, kindly provided by our sponsors @loburg and @racefietsfluisteraar. Huge thanks to them! Winner Gijs also wanted to thank his parents. Without them he would not have reached this milestone. The only thing Bart could say was “Winner winner chicken diner!!”. Well done winners! Let’s keep challenging.  

February 27, 2021

Previous weekend our Hellingprofs kicked off the touring season in the Elfstedentocht! Eh, I mean Elst-Ede-tocht. In this 100K ride they passed Elst (GLD), Elst (UT) and Ede. Just like in the real Elfstedentocht, the route was variable and had tiny roads, long straight and boring strokes with headwind, sometimes you had to go straight through a village and of course there was a stop with Koek en Zopie! In groups of two (=coronaproof!) the Hellingprofs started each 15 minutes at sport centrum the Bongerd to minimalize the chance of blending with other duos and forming a peloton. Then the tour could begin! First they went to Heteren, crossing the river Rhine and entering the region Overbetuwe. The Hellingprofs had to endure some cobblestone paths in Elst (GLD) as the route was straight through the village! After that they came along the Betuwelijn, then went back towards the river Rhine and via the dykes entering Rhenen. Until then no elevation, just easily warming up. But then they entered Utrecht and its forestry and hilly environment. Luckily our Hellingprofs didn’t had to endure this very long because the koek and zopie was close-by! The estate Zuylestein in Leersum kindly let us make use of their beautiful garden where our cyclists could take a rest after their first 65K. Our balhoofd Jetze baked a very tasty apple pie and Vera showed off with a 10L pan filled with snert (typical Dutch pea soup). Since Hellingproof was allowed to make use of the kitchen everyone was provided with hot snert, coffee and a piece of apple pie. They sat there out of the wind, with the sun in their faces: they never looked happier. It felt like summer, like touring!

After the refueling, our heroes went off again, via the dykes to Wijk bij Duurstede and then conquering the hills in Amerongen. Finally they reached familiar ground again when seeing the road signs “Veenendaal” and “Ede”. When finished in Wageningen, some of them even bought an ice cream! If that isn’t a perfect way to close the day… We are all looking forward to the rest of the upcoming touring season, but nobody will take this day from us anymore. For one day we had the luxury of riding a tour with a cafe-like stop in between, everything almost felt normal again 🙂