Tiesj Benoot and Quinten Hermans rode out from the Belgians’ base in Canada for a little spin towards the United States. They were stopped at the border. A few hours of paperwork, according to what Alec Segaert said on the podcast “Vals plat”, then back to Canada without riding another metre.
I opened the ride on Strava. The title: “Mexico was already in sight”. And the trace runs straight into the border. A line that moves forward, then stops dead. I know that shape. It is my Sunday ride when the light in Oudenaarde is red and the group pulls away without me.
I have no segment on that border post. Not many people do, I imagine: according to Alec Segaert, very few cars came through in two to three hours. But I have my own segment of standing still. The red light in Oudenaarde, two minutes, with the backpack. The queue at the café on the Kwaremont (the cobbled climb), eleven minutes, coffee included. The tractor at Huldenberg, which I politely called sir, four minutes. Total: seventeen minutes stopped on one ride.
Them, a few hours. I am not saying I do better. I am saying that in the stops column they hold the club record, and they are not in the club.
And then there is the title. My rides are called “Sunday ride” or “Headwind both ways”. I have never announced a country. Benoot announced Mexico from Canada, the trace hits the border, and the title stands. That is Sunday-rider ambition.
Take away the paperwork, take away the cartel check the customs officers had to carry out and which turned up nothing: what is left is a line that stops at a border, with a very long pause at the end. We can talk about the average.
At the café we argued till noon about what you put as a title when the ride ends at a border.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
