Going Dutch – the Moles visit the Netherlands

Just over a week ago, a small group of Moles visited Belgium and the Netherlands, curious to see just what good bike infrastructure looks like.

Well that was our excuse.

In truth, excuses can be thin on the ground round here. Simply put, an opportunity arose and we decided to go for it thanks to a unique skillset found in some of us Moles.

No, not retired! That’s not a skill, nor is remembering what day it is. Besides, some of us on the more youthful arm of the Moles collective still have to work, albeit reluctantly.

The skills I’m referring to consist of that near intangible mix of ideation, enthusiasm and execution. My philosophy is to always play to your strengths, or at least the strengths of others in the team. This resulted in an off-the-cuff conversation with Gordon last autumn about the idea of a road trip around the Netherlands which quickly lead to a simple question.

What was I doing at the end of April 2026?

The Tipping Point

That ticks the ideation and enthusiasm aspects mentioned – or in the language of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, the charismatic salesman/influencer (hah!) had sufficient impact on the maven that a tentative plan was formed. All that remained was a connector or two to bring the whole thing together.

Before long we had MarkJ, Gordon and myself onboard, quickly adding JohnR and DaveS to make a quorum of riders. If those last two aren’t connectors with the social life they have, no-one is! It turns out that if you know sufficient people with bikes the tipping point for an excuse to ride is easily reached!

I soon fulfilled my role, which of course was simply to suggest the idea and let it unfold from there. Not only am I notoriously suggestible, it turns out I’ve been known to come up with suggestions of my own from time to time.

In truth, the bulk of the credit for organising really needs to sit with Gordon who not only came back to me with some dates but also an itinerary that took us from Dunkirk, to Ghent, Middelburg, Rotterdam and Rome Amsterdam before getting a train back toward Dunkirk on the last day.

My dodgy neck

The only fly in the ointment from my perspective was what has troubled me for some time, my dodgy neck. Over the past six months it’s been pretty flaky but it goes back much longer – in fact, it was a problem on our WW1 Battlefields tour a couple of years ago.

Preparation for the Dutch trip was thus quite limited. Up until the trip I’d only ridden 500 miles this year and not many more since last October. I’ve been quite careful to do the exercises my physio has given me, but the problem has largely remained.

All this meant that while I wasn’t particularly worried about pace – a trip like this is not about the paceline – I was worried about saddle time and keeping the neck under control.

Over the next few days you can find out how we all got on. I will be writing up each leg of the trip as shortish ride reports. I hope you enjoy the story…