First real ride

Saturday I went for a ride in the forest, and this was the first good ride this year. The road was dry and it was a lot of fun to ride fast in the forest. I missed this feeling a lot, the winter was too long :)

I saw a huge rabbit but when I got my camera it hopped away. This was the second time I saw a bunny in the forest. I tried to follow it but rabbits are very fast, maybe next time I will catch it with my lens.

After riding in the forest to Acatari I explored the hills around the city, I wanted to do that for a long time. It was a very nice 2 hour ride and I was very happy when I got home.

Car vs Bike

I live in Romania, a country where the bike is considered by a few drivers a thing that doesn't belong on the road. I was surprised when I was in the Netherlands and I was in a car and we were driving after a bike until the road got very wide and it was very safe to pass the bike.

The following story happened yesterday (in Romania) on my training route Targu Mures - Acatari - Targu Mures. In Corunca (it is almost like a suburb) they are laying some pipes on the side of the road so there are some signs on the side of the road. Everybody is in a hurry these days and some drivers don't like the bikers so they sound their horn and the biker should get out of their way. It happened this to me twice, I cursed both drivers but the second car stopped. I wasn't looking for trouble so I just passed the car. But he wasn't giving up so easy so when he passed me he was yelling. I was yelling back and right when he almost accelerated I called him a mutt (a stupid person) and that made him very angry so he stopped again. He got out of the car shouting and came to me and he hit me. I'm not used to fighting (I haven't had a fight for a long-long time) and I always wandered what would I do (too many action movies) and now I found out. I had a pretty good reflex, I raised my arm and he barely touched me because I blocked the blow.

After he left I felt bad that I didn't take at least one picture of the guy or the car. I was hoping that he will stop somewhere and I can take a picture. As I begun the descent to Acatari I saw a police car in the first parking place and after that I saw the car. So I stopped and and took a picture:

When I climbed the hill the cars were still there, I wanted to climb the hill twice but I stopped because I was afraid that on the second descent the guy will hit or scare me. I started talking with the police man and I told him what happened. He talked with the driver but the guy didn't want to admit anything. I found out (from the police) that he got a big ticket (about 100 €) because he didn't pay the road tax :)

Everybody gets from his life what he deserves. :)

First ride

Saturday the weather was nice for a few hours so I decided go for a ride with my road bike, the first ride with this bike this year. I went on my usual training route (to Acatari) but I wasn't feeling good on the bike, I didn't like the position of the pedals (I tweaked it yesterday), the seat was in the wrong position and the handlebars were in the wrong place. Although I didn't feel good on the bike and the wind got stronger (the storm was coming) I managed to get my average speed up to 26 km/h and my top speed to 56 km/h. But it was worth it to climb the hill to Acatari, the spring is definitely here, everything is green and there are flowers everywhere.

Stats:
    - time: 50:45
    - distance: 22,04 km 
    - average speed: 26 km/h
    - max speed 56 km/h

More pics here.

When I got home I noticed something interesting, I have traveled 3000 km with my road bike :D :

I've missed the road

It's been a long time since I had the chance to go for a ride. It was raining and snowing for a way to long time. I've missed the road a lot but today the weather was pretty ok, there were about 5 degrees Celsius so I went for a ride to Acatari. At the beginning it was warm enough but when I got out of the city it was a little colder and the wind got stronger, my hands were frozen on the way back home :(

There is still some snow left on the hills and in the woods but the road was dry. Here are some pics from today:

Stats:
    - time: 56:43
    - distance: 23,06 km
    - avg speed: 24,4 km/h
    - max speed: 51,4 km/h (at this speed the wind was very strong and the air got very cold so it was a little hard to breathe)

After the ride I enjoyed some delicious home made spaghetti. More pics from the ride and with the spaghetti here.