Den Haag to Ghent
First field test, reported. The load did not fit, and the weather did not test us.
Everything didn't fit. Jersey pockets and one slim half-frame bag couldn't take the full list, so something had to come out, and the rain gear went first. A bet, and not one I'm proud of.
We're rolling out of Den Haag at 07:00 on a lovely late-summer morning in August. It's brisk to start, but along the South Holland coast it warms up quickly. Sun, and a fresh breeze off the sea.
From there the route crisscrosses the islands one by one. A small ferry, a bridge, another island, then one of the bigger ferries, hopping our way south past Middelburg towards Belgium.
The warm layers stay in the bag almost all day. I really didn't need them, but you never know. We reach Belgium warm, and five degrees colder would have been a different ride: without that extra clothing, we'd have suffered.
166 km and about nine hours after leaving, we're in Ghent. Two days, no rain. The bet on the rain gear paid off this time. Lucky, not clever. It doesn't tell us the carry works, only that the weather never tested the one thing we were least ready for. Next time the rain gear stays on the list, whatever it costs in space.