Ljubljana to Munich over 5 days
Discussion
Good evening all,
After my first bike trip 2 years ago LINKY my friend and i have hatched another plan for week long ride.
In the last 24 hours things have changed slightly. My mate has spent the last 3 weeks cycling around Slovenia and Croatia and was aiming to meet me in Ljubljana tomorrow evening when i get off my train. However on his train though Croatia to meet me he had his bike stolen by some scumbag t
ts. So, i am now on my own for the week ride from from Ljubljana to Munich starting tomorrow.
Being awesomely unfit and overweight from last time i have made it slightly easier by booking hotels/hostels rather than carrying camping gear. My route looks like this.
My elevation plot of the route is below, day 3 is going to kill me!
Tomorrow night i will be in Ljubljana and then i have roughly 80-100km every day through Slovenia, Austria and Germany until i hopefully get home a little slimmer and lighter
So, the kit. Because of the cheating with hotels i no longer need to front panniers that i test fitted a few weeks back so i am aiming for uber lightweight and rear bags only.
Cycling and evening clothing.
Tools - all the usual kit plus two tubes and two spokes and spares
Right rear pannier - Cycling clothing and tools
Left rear pannier - Evening clothing and spare tubes
Handlebar bag - Everything else and valuables
So, here she is fully loaded about an hour ago on the final shake down outing. Those of you who are wondering about my choice of steed. Its my 2009 Kona Smoke that i rebuilt earlier this year for my daily commute. Its steel framed and running the cheapest stmano running gear available but its comfy and reliable.
In the morning i jump on the train to Slovenia and begin the pain early Tuesday morning. Ill try and update this as i go with details of the horrors and the sights of the day.
After my first bike trip 2 years ago LINKY my friend and i have hatched another plan for week long ride.
In the last 24 hours things have changed slightly. My mate has spent the last 3 weeks cycling around Slovenia and Croatia and was aiming to meet me in Ljubljana tomorrow evening when i get off my train. However on his train though Croatia to meet me he had his bike stolen by some scumbag t
ts. So, i am now on my own for the week ride from from Ljubljana to Munich starting tomorrow.Being awesomely unfit and overweight from last time i have made it slightly easier by booking hotels/hostels rather than carrying camping gear. My route looks like this.
My elevation plot of the route is below, day 3 is going to kill me!
Tomorrow night i will be in Ljubljana and then i have roughly 80-100km every day through Slovenia, Austria and Germany until i hopefully get home a little slimmer and lighter
So, the kit. Because of the cheating with hotels i no longer need to front panniers that i test fitted a few weeks back so i am aiming for uber lightweight and rear bags only.
Cycling and evening clothing.
Tools - all the usual kit plus two tubes and two spokes and spares
Right rear pannier - Cycling clothing and tools
Left rear pannier - Evening clothing and spare tubes
Handlebar bag - Everything else and valuables
So, here she is fully loaded about an hour ago on the final shake down outing. Those of you who are wondering about my choice of steed. Its my 2009 Kona Smoke that i rebuilt earlier this year for my daily commute. Its steel framed and running the cheapest s
tmano running gear available but its comfy and reliable.In the morning i jump on the train to Slovenia and begin the pain early Tuesday morning. Ill try and update this as i go with details of the horrors and the sights of the day.
Edited by Lord on Sunday 26th August 19:02
on Sunday 26th August 19:02nammynake said:
Cool, nice looking steed. No bar ends though???
Good choice of pannier bags. Mine were superb during a recent VERY wet ride from Blackpool to Paris.
What is the front wheel hub? It looks massive!
No room for bar ends until i upgrade to rapid fire, grip shift takes up far too much room (with standard length grips fitted)Good choice of pannier bags. Mine were superb during a recent VERY wet ride from Blackpool to Paris.
What is the front wheel hub? It looks massive!
Front hub is a Shimano 3N20 dynamo hub. Standard equipment out here as its the law for bikes to have a dynamo for lights rather than batteries.
Damn you Swerni, no one would have ever known! 
Weather here is a nice and cool, however i drove through Slovenia on Friday and it was mid 30's. Im not sure what its going to be like up high on the passes if the weather turns. I am betting on there being outdoor shops every 50m should i need anything extra
Weather here is a nice and cool, however i drove through Slovenia on Friday and it was mid 30's. Im not sure what its going to be like up high on the passes if the weather turns. I am betting on there being outdoor shops every 50m should i need anything extra
Time for the write up boys and gals. This is going to be rather picture heavy
You may remember that I mentioned my riding partner had to bow out 2 days before I left for Ljubljana because some thieving bds stole his ride? Well things changed a bit once I arrived in Lj. My friend Nick had stayed on in Lj until the Monday night I was due to arrive when he would then set off back to Munich after seeing me off in the morning.
That was the plan, right up until the 4th or 5th beer that evening sitting in the city centre overlooking the stunning illuminated river cafes and bars. Sitting, soaking up the atmosphere we starting feeling that's Nicks adventure wasn't quite over and it would be a shame for it to end so abruptly. A far more rock n roll way for the story to continue (far better for telling grand-children about) would that we overcame adversity and completed the ride back to Munich as we intended.
Nick had cycled about 1500km since leaving Munich 3 weeks before firstly heading north out of München towards the Danube and then turning towards Prague before finally dropping down into Slovakia and Croatia. It was on a connecting train from Croatia to Lj (to meet me) where his bike was stolen.
We came up with a plan to see if we could acquire by the end of the night a functioning bicycle for less than 50€ as this was the cost of the train ticket back to Munich and Nick was a little sore about spending more money after his 600€ tourer was swiped. We set out on foot, making a few offers to students while ambling down to the main train station where I was sure there would be a host of abandoned bikes that are doing nothing but rusting and bringing the place down. We had no success trying to buy bikes off drunk students so we wandered up the the bicycle rack......
..... and there it was, the perfect specimen.. sitting unlocked and looking rather sorry for itself was a supermarket special with no rear mech, flat perished tyres and a general air of abuse and neglect. Its previous owner appeared to have given up what care he did have for the bike a long time ago so our conscious was clear that we weren't harming anyone and actually helping by doing a bit of recycling on something that would have eventually ended up in a landfill.
By now it was getting late so we pushed / dragged it back to our hotel with a clear plan to assess our prize in the morning and decide with a clear head whether we really could fix it up well enough and cheaply enough to ride over the Alps back to München.
Day 1 - Ljubljana to Podkoren - approx 80km and 300m accent
The first real look at what we came home with
So, day 1 or Tuesday as it was called to most people started off with an assessment. It was a real piece of st. I think its former owner was trying to start a new genre of cycles by creating the 29-26er combo. I cant work out what benefit this would give to the biking community but he and gone ahead with it anyway. Running a 700c wheel on a 26" front fork is fine but it does mean for the rather poor front brake to function the pads have to be angled at 45degrees with creates a rather unnerving vibration and lacklustre performance. The rear mech was only hanging on to the bike via the chain. The parts needed at first glance were a rear mech, a rear rack and possibly tyres and tubes. The tubes were patched up and we set off for a bike shop. Nick perfected the look of a small child on a balance bike scooting his way though the early morning traffic trying to locate the cheapest sounding bike shop Google maps could find
We managed to get a fittingly poverty spec Shimano tourney rear mech for the princely sum of 13€. In keeping with the budget Nick then saved even more cash by buying rear rack in kit form. It looked like a bag of oversized mechano! We sat down on the pavement outside the shop and began the work. All tools out of the panniers and the clock was ticking. It was about 8.30am and we knew we had to ride at least 80km uphill to our destination and as it was my first day cycling I was keen to start early and take it easy.
Almost done
Nick adjusting the rear rack for the umpteenth time
A long long time later we were done. Working with travel sized tools made the simple tasks fiddling and annoying. But it was done and with no thanks to probably the grumpiest bike shop owner we have ever encountered. You would have thought we were ruining his day by trying to purchase bicycle parts in his shop. He even tried to charge us 20cents for air to pump up the tyres after we had spend 35€ in his shop. But, what not wishing to put a bad spin on Ljubljana as its a beautiful city we did meet a very happy chap from West Niger who kept us company while we sat on the pavement working with tales of his fascinating life so far and how he ended up in LJ. He even disappeared into a bar and brought us two cups of coffee and invited us to breakfast. Sadly, by the time we had finished he was no where to be found to thank him. So we headed out feeling bad for not thanking him again but positive on the first piece of human kindness we had experienced on our trip.
2 hours later, we are ready for the off!
By now it was 10,30 and we were still in LJ. We managed all of about 5km cycling out on the main road before we stopped again. We swung into a proper bike shop and made the [b]friendly{/b] shops owners day by not only buying a pair of spds but showing him on what unlikely bike they were going to be fitted to. Budget was blown but at least Nick now had a chance of pulling up the hills with a knobbly 26" rear tyre impeding his progress.
We were finally on our way with the adventure
One happy Nick with a almost functioning bike and new spds
There be pain afoot in them thar hills
We saw these everywhere. If anyone knows what they are. Answers on a postcard please
Here it is, the worlds first 29-26er at our day 1 lunch stop (a bus shelter)
Where's Wally...?
A rare picture of me making progress. This trip into the woods was meant to be a short cut.. it wasn't.
When in doubt, follow the railway line
Getting back to the (now reappeared) footpath again was a challenge with a 40kg bike
We stopped for a late lunch of schnitzel and banana split after achieving not a lot. It was about 40-50km done and we weren't really climbing so there was a fair bit of pain ahead. 300m of climb doesn't sound that bad until its spread out over 20km with a headwind and a overloaded bike. Also, being unfit doesn't help at all. Nicks 3 weeks of previous riding and his more svelte frame meant he had a much easier time than me..... also, the banana split didn't help.
A not very healthy lunch stop
Picturesque place to stop for food
The challenge ahead
There are very few pictures of me ahead, unless someone is avoiding the killer headwind
River Sara just outside the town of Kranj
About 20km to go from here, stopped for a quick energy boost the a psych up for the last push
Well, we made it. Google maps lied its arse off. Instead of the 85km we had expected and the magic number my soul was aiming at on the bike comp, the day ended up at 99,6km. Unfortunatly the battery on my gps tracker also died so it stopped counting after 88km. We stayed in a small village called Podkoren, I had booked into a youth hostel and were rather pleasantly surprised to find that we had the whole place to ourselves.
The stats for day 1 were:
GPS Plot
Start Time Aug 28, 2012 10:22 AM
Distance 88.46 km - more like 100
Duration 7h:53m:13s - more like 8h 40
Avg Speed 11.2 km/h
Max Speed 52.6 km/h
Calories 3601 kcal
Altitude 346 m / 790 m
Day 2 -Podkoren to Katschberg - approx 85km and 2 x 600m accent
Stiff and sore (well me anyway) we dragged ourselves to a hotel opposite that was kind enough so sell us breakfast without the need for us to stay there.
Our hostel in the morning sun
The new addition to our pack required yet more fettling to get it running better. We knew we had some bigger climbs today and nick really wanted to be able to use the whole range of his 6 speed cassette which in the rush fitting job of yesterday was only working well over 3-4 gears. This led to another late 10am start.
Mech tuning
Slight modification to the seat as well
First challenge of the day.. Get over that
Its steeper than it looks, climbing it required zig zaging across the fortunately empty road
This photo does not represent the suffering
A common sight. Nick waiting for me
First proper climb done, and our first border ahead
Boom, Slovenia done
This is going to be fun
Suddenly, a wild tank appeared
Back down in a valley we focused on using all the free energy we had gained from the decent
Thankfully we had a few hours of following the river up the valley to recover.
Another Lunch / Engineering stop
I really think they so go back and redesign her mouth to less resemble a blow up doll
If you look closely, you can just about make out the farmers wife standing on the plow
Biblical rays of light
We then left the valley and started following another river that crept from 560m all the way upto 1188 where we would be spending the night
About halfway... im dieing.
Thanks to the new eyesore of a motorway, we had this road to ourselves
Nick.....ahead......again
how i looked at the top
how the smug fit bd i was riding with looked.
Das Hotel!
mmm, stodgy
Almost asleep in the bar before 8,30pm
Again, Google maps lied to us. We ended the day at 96km. This time however my battery lasted all day mainly because I became a mains we and plugged it in when ever I got the chance.
Stats from day 2
GPS Plot
Start Time Aug 29, 2012 9:36 AM
Distance 96.87 km
Duration 9h:56m:04s
Avg Speed 9.8 km/h
Max Speed 54.0 km/h
Calories 4048 kcal
Altitude 535 m / 1200 m
Elevation 1188 m ? / 930 m ?
Weather- Partly sunny
Day 3 -Katschberg to Grisssl- approx 80km and 2 hard accents
Goood Morning campers! Hopefully the climbing of yesterday pays off this morning. We have a smallish climb to get out of this valley and then its a decent before the biggest climb of the trip to the top of Ober Tauen where i have spent many a day snowboarding but have never seen it in the hight of summer.
Same as every morning, small tweaks that make us late
Safety First today
Did I say easy.. I was mistaken. It hurt
Strange people, the Austrians
I am that small spec in the distance again
......many minutes later
Almost there just a quick rest stop
Success. Slightly marred by the fact that I knew we had to descend and climb back up to 1700m later
In our trip 2 years ago to Venice, Nick held the speed record. I was determined to take the record from him.
After the decent we were flying through to valley, keen to get up OberTauren and to our hotel before dark
Die Valley
my attempt at slipstreaming
The town of Mauterndorf ahead and the big bd hill behind it that we have to climb
No comment
All the basic food groups were present at lunch, fat, sugar and carbs
The phone/gps logger needed filling up as well. Very usefull place for a power supply
Now after lunch we had to get upto OberTauren 600m above us.
The start of the climb
One of the last photos of me behind Nick, shortly after this he buggered off for the top
Summer road to the left, Winter road though the man made tunnel to the right
The side most people dont see of a ski resort...in summer
The top is only a km or 2 ahead of me in the distance. i text Nick to order a Coke from what ever bar he is inevitably in. Want to guess how long it tool me to get that drink?
25 minutes later aparantly i come crawling up the road
A least i can cross the top in style.
in 4 months time, this place is going to look completly different
Photo op before the decent to Radstat 25km and 1000m below
Now Nick being a little girl and not trusting his new bike at high speeds would spend the next 25km scrubbing his brakes while i was in top gear spinning out trying to beat his speed record. He said he didnt trust his bike, but i think deep down he knew he couldnt keep up with my mass with the help of gravity
Gentle calm before the storm
I was getting so far ahead, that i could keep stopping and waiting to take photos on a few good bends
I did it. Nicks 2010 record smashed!
Ooops
We just descended from the top in around 10 minutes. It had taken a couple of hours or more to climb
From here on the gps was saying we had a downhill run all the way to our hotel. I didn't believe it, I assumed that for having such an easy run we would be punished by some hill that wasn't on the map
View from my "tucked" position
Very strange being here without a snowboard
A wrong turn meant we were stuck on a hairy a road. A short cut though a field was in order
One man and his bicycle
The Tri-Bar satnav programming technique
We had been trying to stay ahead of a weather front, We failed, but it did produce some interesting light rays
The miles of freewheeling were leading to insanity
Knee down with matching motorbike noises
....Trying to take off...
....and now air guitar
We have sighted the hotel! Time for a beer
A few minutes after arrival, the heavens opened. We had just made it
The usual evening activity... Fat, Beer and Carbs with a GPS companion
We had not been punished for all the down hill. Since OberTauren it really had been downhill all the way. 1792m down to 588m over 45km with no effort needed at all. Happy Days.
Stats from day 3
GPS Plot
Start Time Aug 30, 2012 9:03 AM
Distance 87.81 km
Duration 9h:05m:24s
Avg Speed 9.7 km/h
Max Speed 82.6 km/h
Calories 3672 kcal
Altitude 581 m / 1799 m
Elevation 1522 m ? / 2104 m ?
Day 4 -Grisssl-to Traunrent- approx 85km and hopefully no climbs..
We had been praying for good weather all week, but we knew that we would hit a weather front at some point that was coming in. The heavy rain from the previous night had not gone away. So, we prepared for a full day riding in the rain. Only slightly more positive note we were now only 160km from home so if we pushed on with minimal drizzle sightseeing we could possible get home that evening, albeit very late.
Pictures are a tad limited due to the faff with the clothing and not wanting a damp camera.
Damp start but prepared for anything!
This is my serious face.
A rest bite from the weather in a now unused tunnel
Two very damp riders. i think this was about 11am. We still had a long way to go but hot chocolate with cream had to be done.
Bugger. First puncture of the ride. It was very good for moral that it was 25m from a underpass that we could shelter in
Our hands aged by decades. We even stopped to get diesel gloves from a petrol station, but by that time our gloves were soaked
Another day done, another victory beer! Tonight we are staying on a farm near Traunrent
Thug Life
Our roommates in our RastHaus
I am really beginning to dislike Google maps by now, another day underestimated! However, despite it pissing with rain and making it a very boring ipod-isolated day we had done it. Now only "85km" from home we had a new fire in our bellies to get back to Munich by lunchtime the following day.
Stats from day 4
[url]GPS Plot|http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/sOX0rWmCCgA[url]
Start Time Aug 31, 2012 8:45 AM
Distance 97.57 km
Duration 8h:09m:06s
Avg Speed 12.0 km/h
Max Speed 62.6 km/h
Calories 4027 kcal
Altitude 444 m / 630 m
Elevation 827 m ? / 841 m ?
Day 5 - Traunrent to MUNICH!!! approx 80km fuelled by VICTORY!
Day 5 starts with not wanting a repeat of the previous day. Waterproofing EVERYTHING!
Sorry, false start. We cant actually start a day without slight tweaks to the adopted ride
My steed after 4 hard days.. Perfect as usual
Start as we mean to go on.. in high spirits. Not as much rain today so that's a bonus
I wish Nick would actually make an effort to look like it was hard for him
Head down view
A day off from being on the bins....
Travellers Top Tip : Dont try and sneak a piss in high viz gear
Badly executed action shot.. we were rolling so slowly towards the timer we were starting to wobble
its quite pretty round here... if the sun was out
ill let you in on a secret. We only took this because it would make a good final photo for the ride...
Being excellent chaps at planning ahead...we both had run out of cash in the arse end of nowhere.. And we were hungry as it was nearing lunch. Luckily for us we walked into a bakery shutting up for the day and with out pooled €7,46 we got a lot of half price food to see us into Munich
Refuelled meant back to the antics
I, however, wasn't as energetic
50km to GO!!!!! 30 miles for you English speakers
So close now, back onto the cobbled streets of Haidhausen
im not sure if this gentleman was admiring my attire or wondering why i was photographing such a boring shot
Looking smug on Maximillian Str, Munich.....1.5k to go!
500m to Odeonsplatz!. History lesson - Mr H also marched up this street 80 years ago in his attempt to take control of Munich
Made it - Entrance to the HoffGarten - Our wenches awaiting us. Bit miffed they had not bothered with a banner or a brass band though..
Same shot as above, but the other way around
Still smiling after 500k. Official finish at Odeonsplatz, Munich
We had made it. We really pushed the final day and rolled into Munich about 2pm. It was an awesome trip and looking back writing this up i have already started to think about our next one!
Stats from day 5
GPS Plot
Start Time Sep 1, 2012 8:30 AM
Distance 88.98 km
Duration 6h:24m:05s
Avg Speed 13.9 km/h
Max Speed 44.6 km/h
Calories 3644 kcal
Altitude 501 m / 661 m
Elevation 396 m ? / 392 m ?
Stats of the Stats...
Total Distance 471.23km
Duration 42.2hours
Avg Speed 11,32 km/h
Max Speed 85,0 km/h
Calories 18992 kcal
Total Climbed - Not sure in my gps stats what the difference between altitude and elevation is?
Total Descended - same as above.. ill edit later
The Aftermath....
Not that I can complain about my bike, it did very well with no faults apart from a puncture. Below are some shots of the wear and tear that the ride took to my beloved Kona
Brakes were adjusted most days on the fly, but by the end the pads were shot and the lever pulled to the bar
A closer inspection showed swarf everywhere where the pads had worn out
Thanks for reading....
ps. ignore the vast amount of spelling mistakes.. this had taken about a week to type up and my spell checker doesnt agree with some of the coding.
Lord of Bavaria 
You may remember that I mentioned my riding partner had to bow out 2 days before I left for Ljubljana because some thieving b
ds stole his ride? Well things changed a bit once I arrived in Lj. My friend Nick had stayed on in Lj until the Monday night I was due to arrive when he would then set off back to Munich after seeing me off in the morning. That was the plan, right up until the 4th or 5th beer that evening sitting in the city centre overlooking the stunning illuminated river cafes and bars. Sitting, soaking up the atmosphere we starting feeling that's Nicks adventure wasn't quite over and it would be a shame for it to end so abruptly. A far more rock n roll way for the story to continue (far better for telling grand-children about) would that we overcame adversity and completed the ride back to Munich as we intended.
Nick had cycled about 1500km since leaving Munich 3 weeks before firstly heading north out of München towards the Danube and then turning towards Prague before finally dropping down into Slovakia and Croatia. It was on a connecting train from Croatia to Lj (to meet me) where his bike was stolen.
We came up with a plan to see if we could acquire by the end of the night a functioning bicycle for less than 50€ as this was the cost of the train ticket back to Munich and Nick was a little sore about spending more money after his 600€ tourer was swiped. We set out on foot, making a few offers to students while ambling down to the main train station where I was sure there would be a host of abandoned bikes that are doing nothing but rusting and bringing the place down. We had no success trying to buy bikes off drunk students so we wandered up the the bicycle rack......
..... and there it was, the perfect specimen.. sitting unlocked and looking rather sorry for itself was a supermarket special with no rear mech, flat perished tyres and a general air of abuse and neglect. Its previous owner appeared to have given up what care he did have for the bike a long time ago so our conscious was clear that we weren't harming anyone and actually helping by doing a bit of recycling on something that would have eventually ended up in a landfill.
By now it was getting late so we pushed / dragged it back to our hotel with a clear plan to assess our prize in the morning and decide with a clear head whether we really could fix it up well enough and cheaply enough to ride over the Alps back to München.
Day 1 - Ljubljana to Podkoren - approx 80km and 300m accent
The first real look at what we came home with
So, day 1 or Tuesday as it was called to most people started off with an assessment. It was a real piece of s
t. I think its former owner was trying to start a new genre of cycles by creating the 29-26er combo. I cant work out what benefit this would give to the biking community but he and gone ahead with it anyway. Running a 700c wheel on a 26" front fork is fine but it does mean for the rather poor front brake to function the pads have to be angled at 45degrees with creates a rather unnerving vibration and lacklustre performance. The rear mech was only hanging on to the bike via the chain. The parts needed at first glance were a rear mech, a rear rack and possibly tyres and tubes. The tubes were patched up and we set off for a bike shop. Nick perfected the look of a small child on a balance bike scooting his way though the early morning traffic trying to locate the cheapest sounding bike shop Google maps could findWe managed to get a fittingly poverty spec Shimano tourney rear mech for the princely sum of 13€. In keeping with the budget Nick then saved even more cash by buying rear rack in kit form. It looked like a bag of oversized mechano! We sat down on the pavement outside the shop and began the work. All tools out of the panniers and the clock was ticking. It was about 8.30am and we knew we had to ride at least 80km uphill to our destination and as it was my first day cycling I was keen to start early and take it easy.
Almost done
Nick adjusting the rear rack for the umpteenth time
A long long time later we were done. Working with travel sized tools made the simple tasks fiddling and annoying. But it was done and with no thanks to probably the grumpiest bike shop owner we have ever encountered. You would have thought we were ruining his day by trying to purchase bicycle parts in his shop. He even tried to charge us 20cents for air to pump up the tyres after we had spend 35€ in his shop. But, what not wishing to put a bad spin on Ljubljana as its a beautiful city we did meet a very happy chap from West Niger who kept us company while we sat on the pavement working with tales of his fascinating life so far and how he ended up in LJ. He even disappeared into a bar and brought us two cups of coffee and invited us to breakfast. Sadly, by the time we had finished he was no where to be found to thank him. So we headed out feeling bad for not thanking him again but positive on the first piece of human kindness we had experienced on our trip.
2 hours later, we are ready for the off!
By now it was 10,30 and we were still in LJ. We managed all of about 5km cycling out on the main road before we stopped again. We swung into a proper bike shop and made the [b]friendly{/b] shops owners day by not only buying a pair of spds but showing him on what unlikely bike they were going to be fitted to. Budget was blown but at least Nick now had a chance of pulling up the hills with a knobbly 26" rear tyre impeding his progress.
We were finally on our way with the adventure
One happy Nick with a almost functioning bike and new spds
There be pain afoot in them thar hills
We saw these everywhere. If anyone knows what they are. Answers on a postcard please
Here it is, the worlds first 29-26er at our day 1 lunch stop (a bus shelter)
Where's Wally...?
A rare picture of me making progress. This trip into the woods was meant to be a short cut.. it wasn't.
When in doubt, follow the railway line
Getting back to the (now reappeared) footpath again was a challenge with a 40kg bike
We stopped for a late lunch of schnitzel and banana split after achieving not a lot. It was about 40-50km done and we weren't really climbing so there was a fair bit of pain ahead. 300m of climb doesn't sound that bad until its spread out over 20km with a headwind and a overloaded bike. Also, being unfit doesn't help at all. Nicks 3 weeks of previous riding and his more svelte frame meant he had a much easier time than me..... also, the banana split didn't help.
A not very healthy lunch stop
Picturesque place to stop for food
The challenge ahead
There are very few pictures of me ahead, unless someone is avoiding the killer headwind
River Sara just outside the town of Kranj
About 20km to go from here, stopped for a quick energy boost the a psych up for the last push
Well, we made it. Google maps lied its arse off. Instead of the 85km we had expected and the magic number my soul was aiming at on the bike comp, the day ended up at 99,6km. Unfortunatly the battery on my gps tracker also died so it stopped counting after 88km. We stayed in a small village called Podkoren, I had booked into a youth hostel and were rather pleasantly surprised to find that we had the whole place to ourselves.
The stats for day 1 were:
GPS Plot
Start Time Aug 28, 2012 10:22 AM
Distance 88.46 km - more like 100
Duration 7h:53m:13s - more like 8h 40
Avg Speed 11.2 km/h
Max Speed 52.6 km/h
Calories 3601 kcal
Altitude 346 m / 790 m
Day 2 -Podkoren to Katschberg - approx 85km and 2 x 600m accent
Stiff and sore (well me anyway) we dragged ourselves to a hotel opposite that was kind enough so sell us breakfast without the need for us to stay there.
Our hostel in the morning sun
The new addition to our pack required yet more fettling to get it running better. We knew we had some bigger climbs today and nick really wanted to be able to use the whole range of his 6 speed cassette which in the rush fitting job of yesterday was only working well over 3-4 gears. This led to another late 10am start.
Mech tuning
Slight modification to the seat as well
First challenge of the day.. Get over that
Its steeper than it looks, climbing it required zig zaging across the fortunately empty road
This photo does not represent the suffering
A common sight. Nick waiting for me
First proper climb done, and our first border ahead
Boom, Slovenia done
This is going to be fun
Suddenly, a wild tank appeared
Back down in a valley we focused on using all the free energy we had gained from the decent
Thankfully we had a few hours of following the river up the valley to recover.
Another Lunch / Engineering stop
I really think they so go back and redesign her mouth to less resemble a blow up doll
If you look closely, you can just about make out the farmers wife standing on the plow
Biblical rays of light
We then left the valley and started following another river that crept from 560m all the way upto 1188 where we would be spending the night
About halfway... im dieing.
Thanks to the new eyesore of a motorway, we had this road to ourselves
Nick.....ahead......again
how i looked at the top
how the smug fit b
d i was riding with looked. Das Hotel!
mmm, stodgy
Almost asleep in the bar before 8,30pm
Again, Google maps lied to us. We ended the day at 96km. This time however my battery lasted all day mainly because I became a mains w
e and plugged it in when ever I got the chance. Stats from day 2
GPS Plot
Start Time Aug 29, 2012 9:36 AM
Distance 96.87 km
Duration 9h:56m:04s
Avg Speed 9.8 km/h
Max Speed 54.0 km/h
Calories 4048 kcal
Altitude 535 m / 1200 m
Elevation 1188 m ? / 930 m ?
Weather- Partly sunny
Day 3 -Katschberg to Grisssl- approx 80km and 2 hard accents
Goood Morning campers! Hopefully the climbing of yesterday pays off this morning. We have a smallish climb to get out of this valley and then its a decent before the biggest climb of the trip to the top of Ober Tauen where i have spent many a day snowboarding but have never seen it in the hight of summer.
Same as every morning, small tweaks that make us late
Safety First today
Did I say easy.. I was mistaken. It hurt
Strange people, the Austrians
I am that small spec in the distance again
......many minutes later
Almost there just a quick rest stop
Success. Slightly marred by the fact that I knew we had to descend and climb back up to 1700m later
In our trip 2 years ago to Venice, Nick held the speed record. I was determined to take the record from him.
After the decent we were flying through to valley, keen to get up OberTauren and to our hotel before dark
Die Valley
my attempt at slipstreaming
The town of Mauterndorf ahead and the big b
d hill behind it that we have to climb No comment
All the basic food groups were present at lunch, fat, sugar and carbs
The phone/gps logger needed filling up as well. Very usefull place for a power supply
Now after lunch we had to get upto OberTauren 600m above us.
The start of the climb
One of the last photos of me behind Nick, shortly after this he buggered off for the top
Summer road to the left, Winter road though the man made tunnel to the right
The side most people dont see of a ski resort...in summer
The top is only a km or 2 ahead of me in the distance. i text Nick to order a Coke from what ever bar he is inevitably in. Want to guess how long it tool me to get that drink?
25 minutes later aparantly i come crawling up the road
A least i can cross the top in style.
in 4 months time, this place is going to look completly different
Photo op before the decent to Radstat 25km and 1000m below
Now Nick being a little girl and not trusting his new bike at high speeds would spend the next 25km scrubbing his brakes while i was in top gear spinning out trying to beat his speed record. He said he didnt trust his bike, but i think deep down he knew he couldnt keep up with my mass with the help of gravity
Gentle calm before the storm
I was getting so far ahead, that i could keep stopping and waiting to take photos on a few good bends
I did it. Nicks 2010 record smashed!
Ooops
We just descended from the top in around 10 minutes. It had taken a couple of hours or more to climb
From here on the gps was saying we had a downhill run all the way to our hotel. I didn't believe it, I assumed that for having such an easy run we would be punished by some hill that wasn't on the map
View from my "tucked" position
Very strange being here without a snowboard
A wrong turn meant we were stuck on a hairy a road. A short cut though a field was in order
One man and his bicycle
The Tri-Bar satnav programming technique
We had been trying to stay ahead of a weather front, We failed, but it did produce some interesting light rays
The miles of freewheeling were leading to insanity
Knee down with matching motorbike noises
....Trying to take off...
....and now air guitar
We have sighted the hotel! Time for a beer
A few minutes after arrival, the heavens opened. We had just made it
The usual evening activity... Fat, Beer and Carbs with a GPS companion
We had not been punished for all the down hill. Since OberTauren it really had been downhill all the way. 1792m down to 588m over 45km with no effort needed at all. Happy Days.
Stats from day 3
GPS Plot
Start Time Aug 30, 2012 9:03 AM
Distance 87.81 km
Duration 9h:05m:24s
Avg Speed 9.7 km/h
Max Speed 82.6 km/h
Calories 3672 kcal
Altitude 581 m / 1799 m
Elevation 1522 m ? / 2104 m ?
Day 4 -Grisssl-to Traunrent- approx 85km and hopefully no climbs..
We had been praying for good weather all week, but we knew that we would hit a weather front at some point that was coming in. The heavy rain from the previous night had not gone away. So, we prepared for a full day riding in the rain. Only slightly more positive note we were now only 160km from home so if we pushed on with minimal drizzle sightseeing we could possible get home that evening, albeit very late.
Pictures are a tad limited due to the faff with the clothing and not wanting a damp camera.
Damp start but prepared for anything!
This is my serious face.
A rest bite from the weather in a now unused tunnel
Two very damp riders. i think this was about 11am. We still had a long way to go but hot chocolate with cream had to be done.
Bugger. First puncture of the ride. It was very good for moral that it was 25m from a underpass that we could shelter in
Our hands aged by decades. We even stopped to get diesel gloves from a petrol station, but by that time our gloves were soaked
Another day done, another victory beer! Tonight we are staying on a farm near Traunrent
Thug Life
Our roommates in our RastHaus
I am really beginning to dislike Google maps by now, another day underestimated! However, despite it pissing with rain and making it a very boring ipod-isolated day we had done it. Now only "85km" from home we had a new fire in our bellies to get back to Munich by lunchtime the following day.
Stats from day 4
[url]GPS Plot|http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/sOX0rWmCCgA[url]
Start Time Aug 31, 2012 8:45 AM
Distance 97.57 km
Duration 8h:09m:06s
Avg Speed 12.0 km/h
Max Speed 62.6 km/h
Calories 4027 kcal
Altitude 444 m / 630 m
Elevation 827 m ? / 841 m ?
Day 5 - Traunrent to MUNICH!!! approx 80km fuelled by VICTORY!
Day 5 starts with not wanting a repeat of the previous day. Waterproofing EVERYTHING!
Sorry, false start. We cant actually start a day without slight tweaks to the adopted ride
My steed after 4 hard days.. Perfect as usual
Start as we mean to go on.. in high spirits. Not as much rain today so that's a bonus
I wish Nick would actually make an effort to look like it was hard for him
Head down view
A day off from being on the bins....
Travellers Top Tip : Dont try and sneak a piss in high viz gear
Badly executed action shot.. we were rolling so slowly towards the timer we were starting to wobble
its quite pretty round here... if the sun was out
ill let you in on a secret. We only took this because it would make a good final photo for the ride...
Being excellent chaps at planning ahead...we both had run out of cash in the arse end of nowhere.. And we were hungry as it was nearing lunch. Luckily for us we walked into a bakery shutting up for the day and with out pooled €7,46 we got a lot of half price food to see us into Munich
Refuelled meant back to the antics
I, however, wasn't as energetic
50km to GO!!!!! 30 miles for you English speakers
So close now, back onto the cobbled streets of Haidhausen
im not sure if this gentleman was admiring my attire or wondering why i was photographing such a boring shot
Looking smug on Maximillian Str, Munich.....1.5k to go!
500m to Odeonsplatz!. History lesson - Mr H also marched up this street 80 years ago in his attempt to take control of Munich
Made it - Entrance to the HoffGarten - Our wenches awaiting us. Bit miffed they had not bothered with a banner or a brass band though..
Same shot as above, but the other way around
Still smiling after 500k. Official finish at Odeonsplatz, Munich
We had made it. We really pushed the final day and rolled into Munich about 2pm. It was an awesome trip and looking back writing this up i have already started to think about our next one!
Stats from day 5
GPS Plot
Start Time Sep 1, 2012 8:30 AM
Distance 88.98 km
Duration 6h:24m:05s
Avg Speed 13.9 km/h
Max Speed 44.6 km/h
Calories 3644 kcal
Altitude 501 m / 661 m
Elevation 396 m ? / 392 m ?
Stats of the Stats...
Total Distance 471.23km
Duration 42.2hours
Avg Speed 11,32 km/h
Max Speed 85,0 km/h
Calories 18992 kcal
Total Climbed - Not sure in my gps stats what the difference between altitude and elevation is?
Total Descended - same as above.. ill edit later
The Aftermath....
Not that I can complain about my bike, it did very well with no faults apart from a puncture. Below are some shots of the wear and tear that the ride took to my beloved Kona
Brakes were adjusted most days on the fly, but by the end the pads were shot and the lever pulled to the bar
A closer inspection showed swarf everywhere where the pads had worn out
Thanks for reading....
ps. ignore the vast amount of spelling mistakes.. this had taken about a week to type up and my spell checker doesnt agree with some of the coding.
Lord
of Bavaria neilski said:
It looks like a nice ride but you could do with losing some weight though. 40kg sounds a lot for summer touring without camping kit. Was there much you took but didn't use?
Do you & Nick fancy joining me in SE Asia next year?
I think thats a typo. My bags were about 4kg each and the bike is 18 in touring spec so i think it was about 30kg. I should have weighed it the morning i left. We used all the kit, especially the tools what with repairing that old bike Nick aquired.Do you & Nick fancy joining me in SE Asia next year?
I think they may be a big jump for me, you must be ultra fit by now. Ill let Nick see this post and see what he says.
Good Luck in China!
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