Stage 0 - Team spirit all the way to Amsterdam

Hard data of the day

Day: Saturday 9 May 2026
From: Leuven / Antwerp / Raamsdonksveer
To: Amsterdam

#Leuven-Amsterdam - 250k
#Antwerp-Amsterdam -  190k
#Raamsdonksveer (departure place of Christian C.) - Amsterdam - 90k
#Participants - 20
#Crashes - 1
#Female riders - 2  Male riders - 17,5

Hero of the day

David R.

Trivia of the day

A coffee issue that triggered plenty of discussion was solved faster by Sofie and Caroline than by all the men, AI included.

Story of the day

A trip by Belgian partners from Antwerp to Amsterdam by bike is a real challenge. But the Leuven partners can be considered as the real die hards. They added 60 km’s to the original plan. Joris B, Donald N, Tom VB, Fred DB and myself kicked off at 6 o clock in the morning. Fred DB invited us in his highly ventilated new home under the bridge next to the canal Leuven-Mechelen to start our trip from Leuven tot Antwerp. We were pleasantly surprised that he let us drink the remains of his bottles of absinthe of the previous night. It is clear Fred’s a real victim of project Simplify. No Water under the bridge. 

The sun had not yet risen when we set off for our ride to Antwerp. We started in a very good mood but an unexpected mood swing occurred. Being a very prudent guy Tom VB yelled “Acorns on the track”, our experience with customer feedback made all four of us feel addressed. Sorry Tom for the misunderstanding. 

By the way, Tom was my hero of that day. Why? Because of his genius and creativity. Well, let me explain by 3 examples of his genius.

1. On the bike Tom invented a self-accelerating light beam. Riding behind Joris B, the beam of the light of Tom created a nice shadow of Joris in front of Joris. Not being fully awake Joris tried to catch up with the cyclist in front of him. After a half an hour of acceleration Joris finally realized only Lucky Luke is faster than his shadow.
2. Tom invented the heated backpack. Just by putting a pc switched on in his backpack, he ended with a roasted back;
3. We crossed a very small car on the bike track, Tom was convinced the driver was already dead behind the steering wheel of the little car. Tom came up with the idea that the undertakers must invest in self-driving cars so that the deceased could drive themselves to their own funeral.

Congrats Tom with the nomination of the prep day

It was already known in general that crisis situations are best handled by women. That day it was proved to be true.After a huge discussion about where to put our bikes in the castle where we were supposed to have our coffee stop we were glad to sit on a terrace hoping to enjoy a well deserved coffee. By an unknown reason we were denied service at the tables where we sat. All men started to argue, some wanted to leave, our male consultants consulted AI and chatGPT how to solve the problem, but Sofie and Caroline went inside, ordered 20 coffees and brought them outside. Thanks ladies!! 

To close the report I want to mention our nasty crash, causing 5 partners to kiss soil and challenge gravity. Only one partner, involved in the crash kept his head cool. Thank you Christophe D. to play the mattress that gently let the others land. 

This morning I felt some sad feelings coming up across the group. I never saw a group of partners in such a depressed modus. I thought it was the combination of the early rise and the possible bad weather conditions in the weather forecast. But this wasn’t the case, it was clearly the absence of our CEO as a member of this bunch of cycling partners. 

In a lot of companies one might expect a Tom and Jerry experience, meaning when the cat is not there the mouses are dancing. But this was not the case, all partners remained very disciplined during the early morning hours. Heading to the noon I noticed some changes in the behavior of a few fellow partners.  In the absence of Rolf some leadership roles were claimed. I give one example. The organization of the cross-over from Paris Nord to Paris Montparnasse was a real leadership challenge, extremely well led by Sofie VB. So after all, when the cat’s out of the house, an opportunistic mouse claims the cheese.

The Leuven partners decided to share a taxi to Brussels Midi. Fred DB, familiar with the local underground scene, ordered a dedicated taxidriver who’s spectacular stories even surpassed these of our fellow partner Philippe D. All information about so called interesting drop off places used by peps (public exposed people) are structurally captured by Joris B and can be obtained after the settlement of limited fee. 

Under the umbrella of following Deloitte’s instructions of not talking about confidential topics in public places, like the High Speed train, Tom VB started a private discussion with a lonely woman sitting next to him. It touched my heart seeing the lady completely over the moon after Tom offered her a coffee. No coffee was offered by Tom to his fellow partners sitting close to him. So Tom, no hero of the day for you today.

I must say that I am a bit sad Koen VD is no longer part of this cycling event. In the past Koen was always our reporter on the bike, giving his obtained information to the writer of the blog. So, I must say that I plead not guilty if certain trivialities did not make it to the blog. So please feel free to give relevant information to the blogger. 

It is clear that this partner cycling event boosts the friendship amongst the partners. People start to talk about their private life and medical issues due to age like incontinence problems on the bus. One of the problems cyclist are confronted with are cramps. Wes B. revealed he was never confronted with cramps during a bike ride, but he admitted after the activity sometimes cramps occur in bed during the night. 

Talking about age, not only the riders are confronted with aging. Also the presence of the Deloitte branded bikes become an oddity in this bunch. Only one fellow partner took on the challenge to join this ride on the vintage Deloitte branded bike. And it is clear that David’s bike was used during numerous battles. Despite all efforts of the Kortweg bike repair team only one item was the talking point of the day, the extremely worn handlebar tape of David’s bike, originally green but so worn that it became a white one. Another victim of project simplify.Congrats David R., you are the hero of the day. 

Today, after a long travel journey, we had a light warm up ride, along the canal, 28 k with an average speed of 26. 

Looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge.