But the athlete certainly didn’t always have it easy during the race. In Italy, for example, he got enormous rainfall over him. “Very hard rain. Other rain than in the Netherlands. I cycled 340 kilometers in the rain for one day.”
McDonald’s and Van der Valk
A phone call home was often enough to get him through the most difficult moments. His wife Liek says: “In the second last day he was really completely through it. He actually wanted to go on one piece, but that just didn’t go. Then he also starts grumbling […] Then I said: go to sleep and eat a little longer. “
Gert Jan took that tip to heart. After a visit to the McDonald’s and a short night in a Van der Valk hotel, he cycled to the finish yesterday.
With his journey, De Amstelvener raised around 5,500 euros for the ‘Vitaal Furthermae’ program of the Cancer Care Center, a disease that his wife also suffered from and recovered. She now works for the center herself. “We can do beautiful things for this,” she says proudly.
NH also spoke Gert Jan before he started the Via Race. View that report below.