#22 - Week 3/4 in Spain

Hi all! In this short series I am recapping on my experience living like a “pro” in Calpe. There are a lot of things I am learning and experiencing and this is the little place where I can put down my thoughts.

Recapping the sub-bosses

This week was about finding the balance in Spain. The adapting to this rhythm of living and cycling became much easier. There was more time for me to work which is also needed, as this trip is not paying itself.

Riding with Ed Laverack, Luke Verburg, Bram Dissel and Johan Museeuw

In the last newsletter I did not recap much about riding with the pro cyclists in the series of Not Getting Dropped by Mathieu van der Poel. So here it is. My thoughts on riding with these guys and what that was like.

First of all, they ride hard. Really hard. Okay, Johan Museeuw is not in his prime anymore but I think that if he wanted to he could also push really hard.

Ed Laverack - The climber

The first challenge I did was with Ed Laverack, Ed sent me a message on Instagram and we connected to setup the challenge. I had done a few rides here but not one that really pushed me to the limit.

When we met up, we got a coffee at Blanca Bikes. Which is like 200m from the Coll de Rates. Not ideal for a start. So before going all out we did a small loop to warm up the legs.

And then it started. The effort. Ed started to pace himself, at a pace I have never seen anyone ride before. He averaged around 6.3w/kg for the whole climb. Which made me push around 520-540w to keep in his wheel. That is an insane amount of watts.

There is no joke with these guys, they just are from a different planet and we are not able to comprehend how hard they train to reach this level. Ed is no different, he is insane. He told me that he could actually do a 13 min effort on the climb, because he was tired from his ride the day before. Big props to Ed.

Luke Verburg - The heart-killer

The next pro on my list was Luke Verburg. I knew Luke via the Dynamic Bike Care guys, which also sponsor his team. We facetimed before I went to Spain, and I asked him about the challenge. He knows Mathieu van der Poel so I wanted to get to know some things about if he actually likes the challenge or not.

So we met up, Luke was with his teammate Bram Danklof. Luke had a surprise for me in the form of a 15 minute effort with some 20 second harder efforts.

Let me say, I have never felt my heart on the bike like this before. I think I could have done the full climb on his 15 minute effort but these harder efforts actually killed me. My heart rate just climbed to an insane level and for a second I thought I were to die haha.

I finished the Rates with a 17:50, which will be standing for a long time as my fastest time. Luke is a really nice guy, and we rode back to Javea together where I held on to Bram for an effort.

Bram Dissel - The power monster

I asked people who the next pro should be, and someone commented Bram Dissel. So I reached out, and he had intervals on the Rates which we could do together.

When I arrived he had his teammate Martins Pluto with him. We instantly hit it off and we had a lot of fun.

Bram had some 2-minute intervals where I had to follow him. Bram is known for his breakaways, hence the nickname Breakaway Bram. He weighs just a bit less than me (around 80kg) which means he pulls a lot of watts.

I think he had around 6 intervals, which made me suffer a lot. The first ones I could to, but the later ones actually killed me. Until his teammate Martin decided to help me by giving me motivation on the climb and talking at me. The last interval went so much better with his help.

We actually did the Rates another time, with me doing my own intervals and Bram his own. I must say this was one of the best days I have had on the bike. The guys are so much fun, and I have had a pleasure meeting them. We actually met up a few days later to go watch the cyclocross together at my place.

Johan Museeuw - The legend

The story of how I rode with Johan Museeuw is a fun one. I had no bosses after Bram Dissel. And I had the number of Johan Museeuw (long story). So I did a kinda ballsy move and just asked him.

And he liked the idea. So we met up for a time and a place. Which was to be at 11:30 at Musette.

I arrived at Musette, to find out it was closed and he went to Velosol. The coffee bar just behind me in Xalo. When I got to Velosol he was sitting there, I met him and we did a coffee.

At that moment I saw what a legend he is. A few people asked for pictures and the Soudal-Quick Step guys came and sat with us.

I filmed some videos for him at Velosol and we went on the bike. He is a really nice guy, we talked on Instagram, being a pro and everything in between. We met Arnoud de Lie at Blanca where we had a fun conversation. Arnoud actually had seen my reels which was so cool!

So we went up the Coll de Rates. We did an easy pace, which was fine because I had a hard day afterwards. We chatted a lot and I learned much about his time as a former pro and how he views cycling now. Things changed.

When we got up the Coll de Rates he had an idea: To do the Super Rates, the extra climb which is insanely steep. So we did that with his friends.

If you were to ever tell me I would be cycling with Johan Museeuw I would have never believed you, but it happened. And it was a really nice experience.

Conclusion

All the sub-bosses were challenges on it’s own. Luke pushed me to my limits on a long interval, Ed showed me how hard a pro can actually go, Bram is just a watt-monster who killed me and Johan Museeuw is a cycling legend that I can learn a lot from.

There is no saying which challenge was the hardest, as they were all unique in their own ways. What I do know is that I would have never guessed this all could be happening. So I am grateful for all the experiences, which also made me a notable better cyclist.

Things

This is my corner with small things I find online.

• The Superbowl happened, and I am always amazed how big the halftime show is. I found out that Kendrick Lamar actually just gets paid €1000 to be the act. The revenue after the show is just so much more that they do not bother about the €1000.

• I am watching these Cities: Skylines 2 builds. And they are so good to watch

• Working on some nice collaborations with brands. The goal is to sustain my cycling life while also being able to work together on really cool stuff. This is the life I am dreaming of. And it’s all getting closer and closer. Will hopefully be sharing you some more soon.