When we started the U.S. cross-country trip, we foolishly planned to tackle around 90 miles on the first day (see the prior post for our “training regimen”). We struggled to hit 60 miles.

We don’t have the luxury of cutting our first day short on this trip.

Our Europe tour starts with the Eleven Cities Tour in Friesland, a rural province in northern Holland. The bike tour started in 1912 and follows the canals which pass through the main towns of the province. It’s 235km — that’s 146 miles! The good news is participants (of which there are 15,000) get an awesome medal if you finish before midnight. That’s pretty convincing motivation. Map below:

Caitlin’s dad’s family is from Friesland, and still has family nearby. Her Uncle Jan completed this tour (and other iterations of the tour, like speed skating and running) and we heard his stories about it while visiting last spring. He unfortunately passed away this winter, but we were fortunate to see him and get him to show off his enviable medal count:

Also, Caitlin will be arriving the morning of the event on a redeye flight, straight from a good friend’s wedding. She lands at 5:50am, will drive to the start of the tour 1.5 hours away, and will immediately begin biking 146 miles.

What could possibly go wrong?