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The DCR Cave Summer Open House & BBQ: July 13th, 2019

DCRAmsterdam

Yup folks, that’s right, you’ve asked – and I’ve listened. We’re going to expand the annual winter open house to a summer event! This time you’ll be able to enjoy not just Amsterdam in the summer, but also an afternoon hanging out at the DCR Cave. Or, if cycling is your thing – a morning group ride as well. Oh, and did I mention that both GPLAMA and DesFit will be flying in for the festivities? Yup, for realz.

You may remember back to the 5th Annual DCR Cave Open House in December with about 200 people showing up, and this event will roughly follow in those footsteps. Except that it’ll be warm and sunny. As opposed to cold, windy, and raining sideways. Actually…to be fair, it could still be all those things in July. Welcome to the Netherlands.

Rather than holding an evening event, we’re going to aim for a morning through afternoon type event. To start off we’ll head out for a ride for those that want to join (versus the run that we do at the winter open house). Then once folks are back around lunch time we’ll have food for ya, likely BBQ of some sort, and then of course the DCR Cave will be all opened up for any browsing you’d like to do.

And by opened up, I mean literally: We’ve got a gigantic rolling door that we’ll open up to the sprawling outdoor area (it’s even covered, in case Netherland weather happens). And plenty has changed inside since last December, especially now that we’ve had the place more than a single day.

In any case, here’s the rough agenda for the day:

9AM: Group ride out into the beautiful canal, windmill, and cow filled countryside (~50-60KM), with myself and GPLAMA leading groups.

11AM: Groups are back/trickle in

11:30AM-1:30PM: BBQ & Beer time, and full open house for you to browse!

1:30PM: Live recording of the .FIT File Podcast with GPLAMA and DesFit

2:30PM: Wrap-up and enjoy the rest of the day!

Note: Per Dutch law, all group rides must stop at at least one windmill for photographic reasons. Obviously, we’ll comply with this regulation.

Fear not – you don’t need to go on the group ride. If you’d like to simply enjoy the open house bits, then you can show up from about 11AM, of course, use the sign-up form below and you’ll be good to go!

Details and Sign-up:

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For those looking to make the trek to Amsterdam, the weather mid-July is usually quite nice, with sunset not occurring until about 10PM that time of year. Plus that weekend is Amsterdam’s big food truck festival nearby as well. Here’s your consolidated DCR Open House info:

Date: Saturday, July 13th, 2019– Starting at 9AM with the ride, and around 11AM sans-ride
Location: Exact location sent via e-mail a few days ahead, but near the VU Medisch Centrum (VU University Medical Center/Hospital) in Amsterdam Zuid
Closest Tram Stop: VU Medisch Centrum – Tram Line #24 (2-minute walk)
Bike Parking: Plenty, more than you’d know what to do with
Car Parking: There is limited parking in the general vicinity
Food: We’ll have lunch and drinks available
Showers: We don’t have the shower facilities for this large a group, though, the beautiful lake is directly across the street for a quick rinse. Or we have a hose.
Price: Free of course!

For the open house simply use the form below to sign-up (just so I can figure out how much BBQ, beer, and cupcakes to make!). If signing up a second person (friend/partner/etc), pretty please use their names (same e-mail is fine), so I know it’s not a form duplicate.

Oh – and last year it filled up far sooner than I expected (seriously, I never expected to have to close the sign-up due to building capacity issues in a 300 square meter space…but, I did). Just don’t wait!

!!!CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!!!

I’ll use the e-mail provided to send the final details (and a reminder) as we get closer to the date.  We’re looking forward to seeing everyone there!

See ya then!

Note: Folks from various sports tech companies are of course more than welcome! Just be sure to bring enough devices for everyone. Kidding! Or not.

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52 Comments

  1. Klaus

    Hope Garmin-Tacx will bring enough bug free bottles.

  2. Sam

    OMG this is going to be a blast!!! Going to look forward to visit amsterdam,

  3. PaulyG

    On a similar topic, the ITU Multisport Festival is heading to Almere Sept 4-13 2020. It is a bit of a ways off but it would be great for those of us overseas to have an opportunity to finally meet you. link to almere.triathlon.org

    • Oh, nice! I hadn’t caught that. Yeah, that’s definitely a good one to keep in mind for next year to figure out some event tied to that time-wise. Nice one!

  4. Wannes van der Linden

    How safe is it to store the bike after the ride? Do we need locks and stuff?

    • The area/building is increda-safe, but if you’ve got a 10,000 race bike…I’m not sure I’d trust that anywhere to be honest. There’s actually a moat in between the building and the outside world, but, the outside world a across the moat is a super popular cycling path (especially on weekends) and I’d hate for someone to get curious. We’ll likely close at least one of the major ‘castle gates’ onto the property, but we’ll have to leave the other open for folks to get in/out.

      There will be a lot of bikes for sure, so I’ll have some form of tri/bike racks for folks to connect them to. But a lock wouldn’t hurt.

    • Remco Verdoold

      So you got a room at the Bijlmer Bajes?

    • Once the gates come down, it’s kinda a bit like that…

    • Remco Verdoold

      Hope you are giving ‘ get out of jail free’ cards too?!?

  5. Bikeman

    Total knee replacement the week prior. I’ll look forward to the podcast. Bikes, BBQ & beer. These are some of my favorite things.

  6. David Lusty

    Doh! I was in Lanzarote last time and will be in Vegas this time :( Hope it’s a great event! I’m in Lanzarote first two weeks of December again so will likely miss the next one too ?

  7. JP

    “Per Dutch law, all group rides must stop at least one windmill for photographic reasons”

    Does said ‘law’ also explain how to stop a windmill? ;-)

  8. Remco Verdoold

    For those really wanting to go to Amsterdam with a car I can only suggest to park underneath the olympic stadium using the P+R rules.
    Sorry Ray not coming.

    • Jorick

      P+R regulations only allow parking there if you take public transport atleast x stops towards the centre and this ain’t complying with that.

    • Erik de Jongh

      I would suggest parking at the Amsterdam Forrest (Bosbaan 4, 1182 AG Amstelveen / link to goo.gl). There are almost 700 parking spots and the first 3 hours are free, and €2,50 for each hour after that (daily max is €15). Plus it’s only a 3-minute ride to the VUMC.

    • JB

      If you park at Amsterdam Forrest, is there a train then or bus/”tram” to the VUMC?

    • Erik de Jongh

      It’s like an 800m walk, not really worth buying a bus ticket.

    • JB

      Thanks a lot! Walking 800 meters should be fine :-). Anybody else thinking of parking there and then walk? I’ll look to be there around 11AM, we could agree on meeting there and going over to Ray’s place.

    • Nuno

      I will take care, busy day forces me to cancel the bike ride. Planning to be there around 1100

  9. Matthew Alboum

    So jealous! Would love to see a group ride meet-up near NYC one day!

  10. NUNO PINTO

    I am coming from The Hague and taking my bike. Is it recommend to travel by car ? If so where can I park ??? I need to carry a bagpack for sweaty clothes, and spare shoes, do not want to walk around all day on SIDI.

    • The trains come super close by (and are non-stop from Den Hague to Amsterdam Zuid), so I personally would avoid a car if at all possible.

      That said, there are some parking spots within a few blocks on the streets surrounding. I’ll send all that info out in an e-mail the week prior.

    • NUNO PINTO

      Thanks Ray, I will take into consideration your advise.

  11. Thomas Bogaard

    Quick question, do you get a confirmation email? Otherwise I need to sign up. Looking forward to it!

    • No immediate confirmation email, but you’ll get a little confirmation text after entering in your details.

      I can see you successfully on the list though, so you’re good to go!!!

      In early July I’ll send out a bit of a more detailed email with all the goods you’ll need to know.

    • Thomas Bogaard

      Thanks for checking! Will check the SPAM folder :)

    • Oh, no SPAM folder checkage yet (I mean, you can, but there won’t be anything from me there yet). I might do a quick confirmation e-mail to folks next week, just for fun. But otherwise next contact will be the first week of July.

    • David Chao

      Hello Ray – I registered but didn’t get any kind of acknowledgment – do you already have me and my wife Jennie down? So cool that our trip out that way happens to coincide with your event!

  12. NUNO PINTO

    Ray, please check my name on your list, I may have registered twice. Sorry for that

  13. Charlie

    I’d love to make the trek out to Amsterdam one of these days… for something like this, an added benefit would be listing bike rentals in the area if you know of any. I know it’s Amsterdam, so that’s pretty much every corner, but still…. :)

    • I presume you’re talking for just around town type bikes?

      We’ve used Black Bikes in the past (including for the giant dutch clog bike we rented once). They have a bunch of locations throughout the city. Seem good to me, but I haven’t done a done of research.

      link to black-bikes.com

  14. SwimNBike

    BBQ is Awesome, if the weather co-operates.

    But ehmm scrolling through the comments section I have not seen any comments on Pizza Oven..

    Where are we with that?

    or did I miss anything?

  15. Thinking of flying in to Amsterdam Shiphol. Is it easy to take a train to your event location from the airport?
    Could you recommend a B&B or such nearby? Would like to leave by Sunday morning. Thank you!

    • Super easy from Schiphol by train or Uber. Uber is your best bet here over a taxi. It’ll cost about 17-19EUR and take about 10-12 minutes to either studio. Super close. A taxi will somehow cost you 40-50EUR and take the same amount of time.

      To take the train to the studio, it’s a whopping 7 minutes non-stop to ‘Amsterdam Zuid’ (leaves every 6 minutes). It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from the station to Studio. The train costs 2.80EUR per person. Note that technically “Amstelveenseweg” is closer, but you’ll have to make a connection, so it ends up being a wash.

      For hotels/places, I did some quick digging. If you want to search more deeply, simply put in this as your location: “Amsterdam UMC VumC”. That said, the hotel that’s most sport-focused is the new ‘Olympic Hotel’, which opened up a couple months ago. Your room has either a view of the track & river, or has a view of Olympic stadium. While I haven’t stayed in it, the rooms from looking in look pretty nice. It’s perhaps an 8-10 minute walk to the Studio. There’s also a few house boats in the area too, though they look all sold out for that night.

      Hope you can make it!

  16. Thijs

    I wonder how many Dutchies would take on this ride with a normal, day-to-day bike wearing normal clothes :P I know I’m considering it…

  17. Klaus

    Hi, did you send any information with mail for people who registered to your “DCR Cave Summer Open House & BBQ”. I registered early but no information until now.

  18. Michael Adrian

    Out of curiosity and to finalize plans for the upcoming weekend: Has anyone gotten the info mail so far?

    I’m just trying to figure out if there was a problem with my registration or if Ray is just busy with other stuff (I understood folks are eagerly waiting for the MARQ review).