Pedaling a thousand kilometers away by bike to raise money for the Ronald McDonald Fund. The 22-year-old Maartje Scholtmeijer from Haren is going to try it and this summer he will cycle past all the villages in our province. To keep her condition up, she already cycles part of the route, with the station in Beilen as the starting point.
It is ten past six in the morning, the sun has not yet shown itself and it is quite cold. Scholtmeijer steps out of the train onto the platform with her bicycle. Today she will practice again for her big mission next summer.
“I will first go to Brunsting, a village further on, then I will go to Leggelo and Eemster. Finally I will pass Vledderveen and Nijesleek and I will return to the east via a loop. In total it will be about 150 to 200 kilometers I think. That’s why I start so early, otherwise it just won’t work,” she laughs.
After checking the luggage on the back of the bike and the handlebars at the front, the tour begins. “So first to Brunsting”, she points to the navigation app on her phone. After a lot of swinging in Beilen, she continues her route on a narrow road somewhere just outside Beilen.
It is a long stretch and there is a lot of fog, but something can be seen in the distance, namely the Brunsting sign. She takes the exit in the village to cycle to Lheebroek, but slips away over some stones at the intersection. “That’s going just fine, but it’s still very dark, so pay extra attention.”
The route she cycles in the summer past all the villages is about a thousand kilometers long. She cycles it in seven days, about 140 kilometers per stage.