I left Venlo riding West into a stiffish wind all day, initially I followed the railway line on an adhacent cyclepath but the gears were causing bother.
If I went above 4th there was grinding and clicking, being electronic bluetooth shifters I flashed up the App on my phone and made micro adjustments on the move - I just love this technology, I centred the gears perfectly, but the grinding continued.
I thought, I hope its just needing lubrication, possibly the last 2 days weather had washed out the oil from the chain. I checked google for bike shops near route and diverted to the nearest in Ysselsteyn which disappointingly was closed.
I next diverted through a busy Helmond and got my lube affer 30 miles of creaking.
Silence !
I got back on route just morth of Eindhoven but only after a great lunchstop in Nuenen were I had a spicy miso soup followed by chicken gyozas !
I followed the Wilhelmskanaal for over 30 miles past Eindhoven and Tilberg and the rain made another appearance.
I was also frequently gassed by mopeds using the path and if that wasnt bad enough, there were hundreds of electric bikes which looked like mini motorbikes being driven at over 30mph whilst texting and smoking a joint .... and avoiding the poor cyclist who was also on the cyclepath !
All in all I'm starting to think the roads are safer !
The path was dug up at Tilburg and I was about to just work round the diversion when a mad dutch woman convinced me against my better judgement to cross the canal and take the track on the other side .... It was a dead end - I ended up under a concrete flyover where two canals met !
Eventually I reached Osterhout, where a left turn took me the last 5 miles into Breda. I had managed to make the longest day at 72 miles a little bit longer and eventually ended up doing 80 miles !