The Weekender Lowlands Edition ‘26: Accept, adapt and have fun

Organising a Weekender requires months of preparation. We actually start the process in the autumn of the previous year: planning and scouting routes, finding campsites, communicating with partners, designing merch, preparing the loan equipment and camping gear, launching registration, and much more. You can have everything arranged to perfection, but there is one thing you have absolutely no control over: the weather.

We have braved many different weather conditions over the past few years, but wondering whether it might be too hot was a first for us!

So, after much deliberation, we decided to go ahead, but in an adapted format. And that became the theme of the weekend: accept, adapt and have fun.

The 38 degree heat meant we had to skip our Friday morning gathering in Nijmegen and meet at the first campsite in the evening instead. But a few die hards were not going to let a little thing like extreme heat get in the way. They rode to the campsite anyway, some following the original route and others finding their own way there.

By the time everyone arrived, we had already overcome the first challenge. We settled in, caught up with familiar faces, met new ones and enjoyed a cosy evening together. Then it was time to prepare for a very hot night.

Or so we thought.

During that first night, our next challenge appeared on the weather radar: a “supercell” was heading our way. And not just in our general direction. The deep red storm core was heading straight for the exact spot where we were supposed to camp the following night.

Could we gamble on the radar being wrong? We decided not to take that risk with a big group of us at a campsite. Finding an alternative shelter with enough space seemed almost impossible. Until someone came up with a brilliant idea: “camping” in the Canyon Service Center in Eindhoven.

Of course, changing the campsite meant changing the route too. Our planned Saturday ride from Venray to Weert was no longer an option, so our “routemaster” Judith Visser went back to work and completely reworked the route to take us to Eindhoven instead.

It was not quite the plan we had started with, but it turned into a beautiful ride, including a very welcome swim along the way.

And the Canyon Service Center? Honestly, it worked surprisingly well. It wasn’t quite the camping experience we had imagined, but there was something pretty special about bivouacking all together among the workbenches and tools. For some, it may even have been an upgrade.

By Sunday, the temperature had thankfully returned to something a little more manageable. Judith had once again created a beautiful route, this time taking us south of Eindhoven, through forests, heathlands and even a little piece of Belgium.

And then, just like that, we were back in Eindhoven and raising a glass to a very special weekend.

It certainly didn’t go exactly to plan. But perhaps that is also what makes The Weekender what it is. You can plan every detail months in advance, but once you get on your bike, you have to be ready for whatever comes your way.

And this group did exactly that. We adapted, helped each other out, embraced the unexpected and, above all, had a fantastic time. There were plenty of laughs, refreshing swims, new friendships, beautiful roads and a rather memorable night of indoor “camping”.

In other words: “Accept, Adapt and Move on Have Fun” (a quote by Annemiek van Vleuten, and a little bit by IRIS 😉).

Want to ride the The Weekender route yourself? Check out the full route on komoot:

Huge thanks to everyone who rode, supported and showed up—and to our brilliant partners Sea to Summit, Shimano, Tailfin, Canyon, Bivo and komoot. Plus a special shout-out to the amazing Anouk Flesch for capturing it all on camera.