The Final Miles to Our Friends in Mol.

Day 56: Oude-Heverlee → Mol (49 miles / 750 ft. of climbing)

There can be something distracting about knowing it is the last full riding day of a tour. Part of your mind starts looking backward (or forward) before the day is even finished. This day still deserved our full attention.

After today, we have another day in Mol and then a half day before taking the train to Diegem near the airport, but this was our final long ride from one destination to another. We woke with mixed feelings, grateful for everything behind us and excited about the friends waiting ahead.

We enjoyed a nice breakfast with Lieven. Hanne had already left for work in Brussels on her new e-bike. Before we departed, Lieven helped reorganize the first half of our route. My original plan would have kept us close to a busy highway, and his local knowledge gave us a much more enjoyable way into Leuven.

As we approached the city, the paths filled with cyclists and walkers. Leuven’s large university population gives it a youthful energy, and bicycles seemed to flow in every direction. We were not going to rush through our final riding day, so we stopped to admire the architecture, take pictures, and enjoy the busy city atmosphere.

Once again, we were lucky to have a tailwind. We passed changing leaves, canals, farms, and quiet stretches of countryside as we made our way north toward Mol.

Throughout the ride, we kept joking about all the possible “lasts.”

“That might be the last donkey we see.”

“Maybe this is the last tractor picture for Nathan.”

“Could this be our last gravel section?”

You never really know which one will be the last until it is already behind you.

It is hard to think back to the beginning of this journey in Portugal, when the days were hot and the landscape looked completely different. Pintxos in Spain, the Camino, and of course the big climbs in the Pyrenees. Those early miles now seem like part of another trip. We are glad we kept this record on FindPenguins. We will enjoy looking back through the stories, sorting through the photographs, and choosing our favorite moments from the journey.

As we approached Mol, everything became more and more familiar. We rode through town, passed Jos’s shoe shop, and continued along roads we remembered toward Sluis Mol. With every mile, it felt less like we were arriving at another destination and more like we were returning home. “I wonder if Peter road this” became even more funny as we got closer.

Naturally, we stopped at one of our favorite places, Café ’t Voske, which roughly translates as “The Little Fox.” We discovered this cozy café during our first visit to Mol, and it is exactly our kind of place. We ordered a couple of Belgian beers and a platter of cheese, salami, pickled onions, pickles, and mustard.

Then we received a wonderful surprise. Kristein walked into the café. She and her husband, Peter, own the B&B Momento, where we will be staying tomorrow night. We have known them for nearly ten years, and they have become dear friends.

Kristein and Lisa always joke before our visits about how much we are looking forward to the reunion hugs from them. When she appeared, we finally got that long-awaited hug and enjoyed catching up for a while. Some friendships begin with a simple reservation or chance meeting and gradually become something much closer to family.

Eventually, it was time to continue to Jos’s house.

Our friendship with Jos began during our 2017 visit to Mol, when we came here for me to race the Cyclocross Masters World Championships. We noticed some cycling decorations in the window of his shoe shop and decided to walk inside.

Jos thought he recognized Lisa from a photograph he had taken at the Tour of California. The woman in the picture was not Lisa after all, but the mistaken identity started a conversation. Before long, we were drinking espresso and talking about cycling. A short time later, Jos was standing in the pit with Lisa during my cyclocross race.

That serendipitous visit to a shoe shop began a friendship that has lasted nearly ten years.

Jos has attended more than 50 road cycling world championships and is well known throughout the cycling world. He knows professional riders, race officials, and many of the people working behind the scenes. His friendships with Greg LeMond and the late Minnesota motocross champion Donny Schmit were especially meaningful to him. This year, he even spent some of the final laps of the World Championships in the lead car.

None of that is something Jos boasts about. He is simply kind, humble, generous, and always willing to help. It is fun to spot him in the background of a cycling photograph or catch a quick glimpse of him on television, quietly standing near the center of the action.

After we received a warm welcome at Jos’s house, we cleaned up and enjoyed what may have been the best fish soup I have ever tasted. Later, we went out for a pasta dinner before returning to the house for more stories and conversation.

With the time change and darkness arriving so early, we were all tired. By about 10:00, we headed to bed.

Our final full riding day did not feel entirely like an ending. The changing leaves, bustling streets of Leuven, bicycle traffic, canals, and countryside slowly gave way to familiar roads. Those roads led us to big hugs and friends who have become more like family.

Mol was not simply the end of today’s route. It felt like coming home.Read more