I normally go to the gym 2-3 times a week, but when spring starts I love to cycle outdoors. Playing poker at night enables me to cycle more often during the day, which was one of the big pro’s when I decided in December 2008 to go semi-pro. Last year I’ve trained from January till April to cycle a 160km(99miles) tour, called the “Ronde van Noord-Holland”. After that I didn’t cycle as much as would have liked, mostly because I had no goals left. I had the intention to cycle the ING Tour in September, but because of the financial crisis it was canceled and I was to busy with other things to find a new goal.

Cyling is in the first place fun and healthy but also helps in all sort of ways to my poker career. On my bike I have loads of time to think about my future plans, release stress and become fit, which helps in staying concentrated while playing long sessions. Since just as in poker, setting goals is the best way for me to stay motivated, I’ve also set cycling goals for 2010. These goals were things which were on my “To Do” list for a long time and 2010 will be the year to make them happen.

1) The first goal is to cycle the Amstel Gold Race. I will not cycle the full 250km(155miles). Since I will be cycling with a group of people from my hometown it depends on what distance they want to cycle, I hope to do the 125km(78miles) or 150km(93miles). This is less then the 160km(99miles) of last year, but this route goes a lot more up & down. I won’t say I have to climb mountains, as we don’t really have them in the Netherlands, but this route is a lot tougher then the 160km flat I did last year. Although no heights are mentioned, you can see a profile of the 150km route below:

Saturday the 17th of April I will have to be ready. That means I will start my training the 1st of January and hopefully it doesn’t rain to much, so I will be able to work-out as much as possible. Whenever it rains outside I will try to cycle in the gym but it’s something I don’t enjoy at all, and find hard to keep doing for 3-4 hours.

2) Next to cycling myself, I also love to watch cycling on television. I started following the Tour the France from when I was a kid and almost always take a day off from work when the toughest mountain stages are being broadcast on television. There are a couple of beautiful mountains in the Alps and Pyrenees, but there is only one mountain which everybody in the Netherlands knows about, Alpe d’Huez! This mountain might not be the toughest out there, but I think for me it will already be a very tough mountain to climb.

The climb is 13,8km(8.5miles) long with an average gradient of 7,9%, consists of 21 hairpins finishing at a height of 1.860 meters (6.100ft).

The fastest (Marco Pantini) did the climb in 37 minutes and 35 seconds. If you add an hour extra to that time and I’m on top within that time, I would be extremely happy!

To achieve these goals I will have to put in a lot of training hours. Next to reaching Supernova Elite, this will be my main activity at least for the first 5-6 months of this year. The idea is to plan a week somewhere in June and go to Alpe d’Huez, together with a good friend of mine. I will climb the mountain by bike and he will supervise me from within the car After that will we drive to southern France to have a couple of days of vacation, something I probably need after staying focused on my goals for so long.

In order to help myself in achieving these goals, I already stopped drinking alcohol since Mid-October(discounting one weekend away in November and New Year’s Eve). I will also adjust my eating habits to loose some extra weight, which hopefully makes the climb a little easier, although being 2.00m (6.6 Ft) I will never be a lightweight.

Next to blogging about my poker goals, I will also keep everybody updated about my cycling whereabouts. Hopefully I can send a twitpic from the top of the Alpe D’Huez somewhere in June!

Last but not least, my bike, a Trek 1.9 2008: