With solid pedal strokes, a group of cycling enthusiasts braves the border between the Netherlands and Belgium. It is chilly as the first spring classic is a fact. A low sun casts long shadows over the vast meadows and there is still little activity on the country roads.
The Border Pole Classic seems like a hardship this early in the year, were it not for the fact that the sentinels of this border region give you a warm welcome time and again. On their cement pedestal, firm and sturdy, the sturdy guys proudly let you know that you are driving across borders. Where they stand? That's for you to discover!

Slalomming from the Netherlands to Belgium, you see the best of two countries, push your own boundaries with hefty trips of 90 to 170 kilometres at a time and dive into the controversial history known as the Death Wire. After all, where there are only border posts now, the Germans stretched a power line of at least 2,000 volts at the time of World War I to cordon off the country.
''The very idea'', shudders Bram Tankink.
With as much pleasure as he and his friend Jos van Emden hopped from country to country as often as possible in search of a cast-iron host, the people who once wanted to reach neutral Holland here were anxious. Hidden in the thicket, the daredevils crept closer to strict, heavily armed German control and perhaps even worse: a merciless stream-death stretched by the occupying army. In other words: the Death Wire.

''Tragic! But what I find perhaps even more fascinating than this piece of history,'' border-post freak Jos van Emden begins to philosophise, ''is that there are borders at all and why they run the way they do. And of course what they look like! The uniformity of this lowland boundary is unique. Imposing almost.''
We suspect that it is not the love of cycling but the sport of catching border poles that drives Jos to live on the edge of the Netherlands/Belgium. During his training rounds, he therefore tries to string together as many poles as possible. Preferably the ones he doesn't know yet.
In a notebook, Jos keeps track of which number he has faced and his Instagram is also a showcase of his collection. If he misses one, Bram sends a smiling selfie with the numbered proof that he did find it.
Bram: ,,And when I do get to the edge of the country to take a photo for Jos, I immediately enjoy the pearls the border region has to offer, unwind and feel the energy flowing in again. Immediately I feel like finding the next guard!''

Does their fanaticism seem like a joke to you? Just wait! Whoever appears at the start of the first classic at pole number 1 in the highland town of Vaals should know that the search is viral! Before you know it, you will have already beaten the hills of Limburg by mid-March, you will clad your bike with profile tyres for the classic in Brabant in April, and you will know you are hooked when you spring out of your saddle in May upon finding the Zeeland rascals. Participants who complete all the tour rides are crowned Grenspalen King Der Lage Landen. Over a length of 500 kilometres, they have passed many poles between number 1 to number 369 and that on the most beautiful trails around the border between the Netherlands and Belgium.