De aankomst van de brief afkomstig uit Marseille in Kopenhagen, die geheel door menskracht wordt vervoerd luidt de opening van de Europese autovrije dag in. Het is een ludieke actie. Een doldwaze rit dwars door Europa met het doel een brief te bezorgen. Wel wordt het serieus opgepakt door de deelnemers, die er zelfs een site aan hebben gewijd.


Ben je geinteresseerd en wil je op de hoogte blijven De tweede link leidt naar de duitse site van de initatiefnemers.
*****

stage change in Basel:

The third swiss team started in Biel/Bienne. They were exactly in time in
spite of rain and a thunderstorm.

They had luck: they overlook a stone on the dark road, Florian could avoid
an accident.

To the end of the stage the rain stopped, the speed could be increased.
After 3:30 hours they gave the less wet messages to the next team around 2
o'clock in the morning.

Now the first german team is on the road. They drive through the Elsass
(d'Alsace), because of better circumstances to drive quite faster :-) than
in Baden-Württemberg.
Unfortunately they had to start with only three participants (than five),
but their expectation of 3:10 hours for 104 km they wanted to hold.

We wish Michael Krüger the best, he had an accident during a walk last
weekend.
Also we wish the best for the little 9-month-old son of Oliver Schmitz. His
son had to go in the hospital because of an heavy infect.

Björn - Christoph
*****

*****

Anheuser and Holger Münz.
But they made a good teamwork. Their change was exactly in time (5:10).

After that the stage F 9 a from Erstein to Drusenheim was made. This team
reached the target-town dry and also in time.

Meanwhile Hanno is driving and informed us about technical problems. They
will reach the next stage change point 10 to 15 minutes later.

So the team around Klaus Fischer has a little bit more time to collect
themselve.

Björn (drinking coffee) - Christoph (going to be fit in writing)
*****

The EUSTAFF is rolling in and on.
Though Hannos Team had technical problems, they reached Wörth in time at
9:05.
Peters problems weren't as big to avoid further driving.
I had to guide them around the railway-station-corner, then I could enjoy
the friendly meeting of the two teams.
I've seen a terrible story inside my brain: the EUSTAFF had to give up,
because one team followed the other around the railway-station and after two
hours all gave up ;-) .

So the EUSTAFF will override after approximately 32 hours and 35 minutes the
first 1000 km's (in Wörth EUSTAFF had 949 km).

A postscript for the stage CH 7 (Biel/Bienne to Basel):
- they needed only 2:50 hours, not 3:30 as told in an earlier mail
- Florian Wolf falled with quite high speed - nevertheless an injury he
finished the stage
- one letter got wet because of the strong rain - I pleased the team around
Fabian Jessen to organize a dry piece of cloth and a second plastic bag

Christoph "now alone again sitting and thinking"

PS: Björn has done his job well through the night. I couldn't do that, I
slept nearly at midnight. He expects to force his rhythm for his night-stage

**********

My neighbour Nils Hinrichsen is visiting me with sandwiches - because im
alone, I can't go out of house.

Nils will also drive a stage from Ahrensbök to Puttgarden.
He has a wonderful selfbuilt deep-recumbent. It's no problem for him to
drive a speed square of 30 km/h with less traing.

Well, the weatherforecast:
a look on a radar-map shows, that it is dry in the northern
Baden-Württemberg. But the wind is going to be more and more a
northwesterly - thats against the EUSTAFF ..

I fear, that during the next 12 hours the one or the other team will get
wet. But perhaps we'll have only our typical EUSTAFF-luck and it's raining
everywhere, but not where a EUSTAFF-team is on the road.

I got just a few minutes ago a message from Thomas Traber. It's alright and
they think to reach the stage change point a little bit earlier than
expected. The following team is informed.

More from here later.

cu

Christoph "eating sandwich, hmmm"

Rüdiger "Velocase" phoned just in the moment.
The actual stage on their way to Koblenz couldn't go on because of a
terrible accident - they had to drive through vienyards, thicket, worst
tracks - well, they are "mobile without car" - and have hopefully again
asphalt under their tyres.

The latency is not foreseeable, but we think perhaps 20 minutes. Perhaps
they can drive a little bit faster.

But Belgium, somebody told me, is the paradise for every cyclist. You drive
all the time downhill and you have the wind in the back ...

Apropos Belgium. I called with Olivier Sels - naturally BEFORE I heard of
the new latency - they will be ready after 23:00.

Christoph

That's unfair.
At first they frighten us with a closed road, then they reach the stage
change point 20 minutes earlier than expected.

They drove really good. Peter Fuhse stood back. The stage change was made at
19:30. The team drove a square speed of nearly 32 km/h.

The team D 13 a with Rüdiger "Velocase" Gabriel and Till Osthoevener will
approximately be in Düren around 22:00.

Björn - Christoph *****nieuwsbericht zaterdag 0.45Hello, EUSTAFF-friends,

the EUSTAFF-organization-team agrred with the belgians, that they will act
independent from us.
They will give the stafette to the dutch teams. And they will also act
independent from us.

That's important, because I'm going to be "slowlier" - menas, I have
problems to concentrate.

I've to sleep more than 5 hours at a row until the final spurt.

I'll get in touch with the belgian and dutch teams tomorrow morning, to
serve you more information.

I wish all the following teams tailwinds, warm feet, "cool head" and always
air in your tyres.

Sincerely,

Christoph

The change in Putte was 25 minutes ahead of the planned time, the Team
around Tim Biesemanns rode a average speed of 44km/h.

Mostly dry weather and daylight are good conditions now for the first dutch
team to rund this stage. They promised a average speed of 37,7 km/h , we´ll
see what they´ll reach, the next change will be at about 8:55.

Nils , der dachte, dass es viel später hell wird , Schmidt

Nils went at home to sleep a few hours - he made his job well - he told me,
that he slept only one time during the whole night :-)

I recreated a little bit - yesterday is has been quit strenious.

And now back into the tumult.

I read Nils' mails, thanks for your reports, Peter Oertel, Michael Doerbeck,
Rüdiger Gabriel and Tim Biesemanns (with fotos! I'll send a few to Bernhard
to publish them).

I also read, that the stages through Belgium went proper, also the
overgiving to the dutch teams went fine.

But the team around Marc Vervaet needed not 2:20 as calculated, but 3:50.
Marc, what happened?

But the most important is that they came healthy to the stage point and
overgave the messages to the next team of Herbert Tiemens.

Herbert, thanks for your work. The dutch organization is exemplary. The
dutch teams found a newsgroup named eustaff_nl, and they made supply-points
after every stage - thats comparable to that, what the french teams made.

I thought about the letters. I heard, that they were folded and very wet?

I just called Thomas Wiedemeier - we have to try to save, what we can save.
What shall the major of Kopenhagen do with letters, he can't read?

I'll send to following teams a new time calculation because of the latency
of the last dutch team.

The dutch teams will go to be wet. Wind from north to northeast and quite
fresh - the radar told me that.

Well, I hope, they will be clothed warm.

After the last dutch team the rain will have stopped. The following teams
will hopefully have a non-rainy night.

Indeed we suffered some technical problems, and one physical problem. One of
the team members had big problems to start up aftre the short break we had
in Putte. A short, but very luxury break, including a first class breakfast
provided by the Biesemans family & Jan van Dyck. Thank you for this!
Unfortunately we didn't have much time left to enjoy everything displayed on
the table. We arrived at 6:15am, only 15 minutes before the people from
Brussels arrived.
We left at about 6:35, trying to keep the cruising speed around 34 km/u.

After 10 km's it was obvious one of the members had problems to follow the
rest. So we decreased our speed, of course our intention was to reach
Dordrecht with the complete team. But he really had problems, so he decided
to take a shortcut home, and gave us the opportunity to increase speed.

Another 25 km's further we had our first puncture. Fixed it, and went on.
But in the next 10 km's we had another 2 punctures. In the end, about 7 km's
before the end of the stage, an elastic got entangled in the chain of Rens'
C-Alleweder.

In spite of these 'troubles' we have had a good time. Nice wetter, little
wind and a good road.

Sincerly,

Marc

Na nog een stukje naar huiz fietsen en een lekker warme douche om het
kettingvet van m'n benen te spoelen, kunnen we even terugkijken op de dag
van vandaag.

Het begon allemaal zo mooi. Marc belde op uit Putte op een tijd die ik een
half etmaal tevoren op vijf minuten na al had ingecalculeerd. Ondanks de
problemen hadden de Duitsers en Belgen zich prima aan hun schema weten te
houden. Maar als je dan net aan een vorstelijk maal zit, kan ik me
voorstellen dat het je een beetje rauw op het dak valt om al weer weg te
moeten. Marc schreef al op de problemen die daarna ontstonden en waardoor
het wisseltijdstip in Dordrecht steeds wat verschoof. Maar gelukkig hadden
we een drietal schapen om tegenaan te blaten en kwam ook een radio-reporster
van Radio Rijnmond om de wissel te verslaan. Toen bleek dat die wat later
zou plaatsvinden was het tijd voor een ligfietsles. De journaliste
concludeerde al snel dat ieder z'n vak had en ging ons toen maar vragen
stellen over ligfietsen en de autovrije dag. De eersten konden we goed
beantwoorden, de volgende vragen waren toch wel wat ingewikkelder.
Interessant moment voor de radio was ook het telefoontje van Marc dat de
derde lekke band zich in het zicht van Willemstad had voltrokken. Nadat de
journaliste vertrokken was begon dus het wachten. De lucht betrok en het
begon eerst zachtjes te regenen. Als dat de voortekenen waren... Gelukkig
werd het snel weer droog en doken om 10:30 uur Marc, Rens en Ruud op, zodat
we snel op pad konden. In het vlakke land konden we een aardige snelheid
halen, maar Arnold en Bastiaan hadden moeite om de snelheid te pakken te
krijgen. Het stipje van Bastiaans vlaggetje in de achteruitkijkspiegel werd
kleiner en kleiner. Gelukkig was het, behoudens enkele bochten, steeds
rechtdoor. Bij Schoonhoven stonden we voor de tevoren doorgesproken keuze,
de pont nemen of de dijk volgen? De dijk werd verzwaard en de
omleidingsroute voor fietsers ging over een hobbelig asfaltweggetje waar
mogelijk klei en andere smurrie lag. De pont zou alleen voordeel leveren als
deze net aan de goede zijde lag. Gelukkig was dat zo, dus namen we de pont.
Helaas hadden Bastiaan en Arnold dat niet meer in de gaten, zodat zij de
dijk bleven volgen en we hen voor de rest van deze etappe uit het oog
verloren. Wel voegde zich Erik van Ekeren bij ons. Hij had al vanuit Utrecht
gebeld en was op eigen gelegenheid gaan fietsen toen hij hoorde dat de
wissel nog wel even op zich liet wachten. Bij toeval kwam hij in Schoonhoven
op dezelfde pont terecht. Aan de noordzijde van de Lek kwamen we alsnog in
een dijkverzwaring terecht, maar gelukkig was dit maar een kort stuk. Het
autoverkeer ontbrak hierdoor bijna volledig, zodat het met wind in de rug
lekker doorfietste. Ook in Nieuwegein was het lekker rustig, een aantal
wegen was afgesloten vanwege de Autovrije Dag! Vervolgens ging het snel
richting Utrecht, waar Pier en Peter ons stonden op te wachten. Peter ging
kamperen bij het Herfsttreffen, Pier wilde gewoon lekker hard fietsen. De
snelheid ging dan ook lekker omhoog, kruissnelheid 35-37km/u. En gelukkig
hadden we ook wat lokale kennis: Op de Uithof werd het Nederlands
StudentenKampioenschap Wielrennen gehouden, waardoor de oorspronkelijke
route waardeloos werd. Gelukkig waren er nog andere weggetjes om weer op het
goede pad te komen. Helaas gingen we daarna te snel twee dames van hun
appels af te helpen, die ze aan fietsers uitdeelden ter ere van de Autovrije
Dag. Voorbij Zeist kwamen we op de provinciale wegen, waar de snelheid
gedrukt kon worden door de aanwezigheid van verkeerslichten. Hoera, twee van
de drie stonden juist op groen. Maar helaas, bij Huis ter Heide vonden
asfalteringswerkzaamheden plaats, waarbij zelfs niet even over het warme
asfalt gelopen kon worden. Een kilometer terug dus, kostbaar tijdverlies
doordat de bordjes ontbraken. Gelukkig zaten we snel weer op het goede spoor
en konden we in volle vaart verder. Peijnenburg-Soestdijk-Baarn-Eemnes, het
ging, met dank aan onze hazen, gesmeerd. Na Eemnes nog 400m, maar wel pal
tegen de wind in en een viaduct op. Puur op de wil om aan te komen kwamen we
ook aan. Dankzij het nabijgelegen Herfsttreffen was er zelfs publiek langs
het parcours. De wissel aan Mark, Joep en Frans en Jeroen op de rug aan
rugtandem ging zeer soepeltjes, foto's werden genomen en de brief in plastic
werd overhandigd. Volgens het schema hadden we 11 minuten ingelopen en dat
ondanks dijkverzwaring en asfalteringswerkzaamheden. Een prachtig resultaat,
waar vooral de aanwas in Schoonhoven en Utrecht belangrijk toe had
bijgedragen. Het nieuws werd snel doorgebeld en via camping De Woensbergen
werd de thuisreis aanvaard. Onderweg nog wat telefoon, in Elburg werd
gewisseld, Zwolle werd bereikt en in Hardenberg maakte men zich klaar. Zeer
voldaan kwam ik thuis om de laatste berichten door te bellen en te lezen en
te schrijven.

Mensen, bedankt! Dank aan Christoph, dat hij zoiets waanzinnigs bedenkt als
de Eustaff, dank aan alle anderen die het ook werkelijk mogelijk maken.

Met groet,


Herbert Tiemens

Here a short summary from the stage Zwolle - Hardenberg. We were rather
nervous as the departure times had changed a few times. When I got home,
Katinka said that I should hurry as the previous stages had been a lot
faster than anticipated. So I jumped in my squeaking Alleweder and made it
in time to meet the group from Elburg. Wim Ganseij from the local recumbent
group 'Plat Zwolsch' was also waiting and a few minutes later Hans Hop
arrived. But were was Frank van der Laan. When the team from Elburg arrived
we were off through the center of Zwolle. It went very smooth thanks to
Hans. We quickly made it to the outskirts of Zwolle and were off with a
slight tail wind. And Wim kept on going although he mentioned he would go
with us for a fiw kilometers... instead he went all the way to Hardenberg.
At parts we made 45 but due to some stupid trafic lights in Ommen (who is
going to do something about this next time ? we lost minutes but we quickly
picked up speed. As we were riding without Frank we used our mobile phones a
few times to get the directions from our Johan de Jong to get us throught
Ommen. Then before Hardenberg Johan was waiting for us and he got us to the
waiting team with the two Quests. After a few pictures they were off with
the chocolates, letter and camera. We got some great soup from Lidy and I
enjoyed a nice and warm shower.
Later we learned that Frank had a flat tire and had to take a leak. We
probably passed him just when he was in the bushes... We feel sorry for
Frank as he cycled all the way from Hardenberg to Zwolle and then return on
his own again...But still I believe it was a lot of fun for all ! next time
not only bring your bike but bring your mobiles as well... and maybe for the
organisation... there should be a way to send broadcast type sms to mobile
phones to keep all informed of changeover times. And all enjoyed reading the
live reports on the internet, especially the pictures were a lot of fun.
Next time we should try to find a sponsor with a wireless camera ;-)

Have fun and let's make a tour d'Europe and visit every major of every
city.... in 80 hours ;-0 ?

regards,

Harco.

and keep up the good work ! it was a lot of fun !

Goodmorning Dutch Teams,
Yesterday evening we rode the last part of the Dutch etappe of the Eustaff,
many thanks to the last team (Hans, Harco en Wim) who made a good time
(twenty minutes lower than shedule). This was good racing!
We (Jack en Marita) also appreciate the support of our friend in Hardenberg,
Johan and Lidy did not only make arrangements for us to ride the route as we
are not living nearby, but they also welcomed us with everything they had to
eat in their house. The ride was wet. (normally an english report on the
ride would finish here but as we are all writing a decent story i feel
obliged to write some more) We took off with the c-alleweder and quest, it
was very quiet on the roads, so we could have good speed. It was still
light. The bad roads in Germany caused many problems, in the rain we already
feared that their expected speeds were a little too high. But ... we managed
to make the switch in time, Thomas and his team were very happy to see us,
they jumped in joy. Within minutes they left. On the way back to Hardenberg
it was dark, rainy and very bad driving conditions, blinded by lights of
cars, bent in roads could almost not be seen. We felt sorry for the Eustaff
riders who were riding in this night. We were very glad to return in
Hardenberg. There the soup was already eaten by the previous team... We
still had some tart left, and managed to get a meal.
Despite some troubles we were very thankful to be able to participate.
P.S. The chocolate bars were for Christoph.
Greetings,
Marita and Jack







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