25.06.09
Posted in
Austria, Cycling, Germany, Italy, Travel
at
11:50 pm
by
Andy
What can I say? I love mountains, I love mountain biking, and I’m starting to get into this personal fitness thing. So, based on that, this holiday could only be a great thing.
Despite all the training I threw myself at, the trip was physically very very tough. Quite possibly toughest physical exercise I’ve ever done. Rubbed in by the fact that everyone around me was much fitter. Still, I feel pretty proud of what I achieved. We covered over 534km in total, with a cumulative elevation gain of 11,096 metres.
This was the third trip for Christian and some of the others but for me, being the first time, I was not sure what to expect. There was more tarmac than I envisaged and initially this was a disappointment, but to be honest after a while I began to dread the gravel climbs. For a start these tracks are a lot steeper than tarmac roads and secondly you waste a lot of energy on loose gravel. Likewise, although this trip was about off road, the downhill stretches on tarmac were amazing. Hurtling down at ridiculous speeds towards hairpin bends, hammering the (quite incredible hydraulic) brakes as late as possible before leaning right down and being launched out the corner the other side. Great fun! I can only imagine how good that would feel on a road bike.
It was the tarmac stretch coming down from the pass that put us into Italy that we hit our top speed. 74kph / 46mph. Pretty fast on a bike, I can tell you.
Downhill on the gravel was even more fun. Speeds were not so high, but due to the bumps and slippy surface still felt very quick. Again, as the gravel bits were often steeper, it was quite incredible how quickly you pick up speed. One has to be constantly on the brakes, but very cautious at that to avoid locking either wheel.
Something else I hadn’t anticipated was the amount of walking we had to do due to the terrain being too rough or too steep a climb. This is easily avoidable on a short trip with known trails, but when covering the distances we were, it was inevitable. Technical single track is what we all crave, but finding good stretches is very hard. That said, the long walks (usually on the last stretch up to a peak or pass) paid dividends when coming back down again.
During this trip I tackled some of the steepest declines I’ve ever done, which at times gave me the fear. It is counter intuitive, but on the really steep and slippy bits, it is better to be off the brakes (weight as far back as possible) leaving you to gather it up after the steepness or obstacles.
We also did quite a bit of ‘Belgian queueing’ (as the direct German translation works out at) while on the flat tarmac too. This is when, as you might have seen on the Tour de France, where one guys leads a pack, then drops back to let someone else lead. I’d never imagined that this would make much difference, but how wrong I was. As a group of six, the leader would cycle as fast as possible, with the rest of us being dragged along in his wake. Due to the slipstream the effort required to keep up was minimal. Granted, you had to be close (generally 1 to 2 inches from the guy in front’s rear wheel) for it to work well, but once I got over the initial fear of riding that close to someone at speed this was no problem. This was so effective that on some of the gentle downhill gradients, despite the lead guy pushing as hard as he could the rest of us would have to brake gently to avoid running into those in front.
Obviously the guy at the front pushing as hard as possible can’t keep it up for long, so drops to the back of the line to recover allowing the next one to take his place. Using this technique we were able to maintain a very high pace over some of the flatter sections for long periods.
We had great weather apart from one afternoon when the heavens opened. This was just after the climbing our second 2000 metre peak of the day, leaving us to negotiate a particularly steep track, which instead of being nice fine gravel was more like a bed of rocks. Hard work in the dry, this was particularly treacherous in the wet. A balance between arresting your speed, but not allowing either wheel to skid out of control.
Knowing only Christian (my house mate when I moved back to Bristol), it was great getting to know his friends. A great bunch. I’d love to say it was a great opportunity for me to practise my German, but in reality it was a great opportunity for them to practise their English.
It was great having the company, enjoying the riding, good beers and good food together but above that, the support and encouragement they gave me on the long climbs really helped. Being at the back, which I invariably was, is really tough psychologically, but both Rafi and Daniel helped me out with that.
As Christian said to me before the trip, anyone could manage the trans alp, but the fitter you are the more you would enjoy it. Having done it, it seems a pretty fair comment, although I wouldn’t have wanted to have attempted it without any of the training I did do. One thing that is pretty obvious, but was made clear is that to do this you need a lot of fuel. I, generally speaking, eat a lot. In fact, I really should be fat. But I’ve never eaten as much before as I ate during that week. Breakfast was generally a five - seven roll affair, stuffed with ham, cheese or jam. Lunch was lighter, but still a few sandwiches, or a stodgy soup followed by the ubiquitous Apfel Strudel. The evening meal was where we really went for it… Starter, main and desert, and often in the pizzerias we found ourselves ordering more pizza after all of that.
One evening after a few beers and rather a lot of food, Christian quite possibly amazed by my culinary intake, laid down a bet… That in ten years time he will have a slimmer waist than me. The looser buys the winner 10 crates of Weissbier. So, come June 2019, we’ll be digging out the tape measures…
Towards the end of the trip we had a day off lounging by and swimming in a lake. The following day we then went for a ‘fun’ ride - no luggage, no destination, just a mapped out route on Christian’s GPS. This was going pretty well, but I was curious about noises of some pretty potent automotive machinery being ragged, for lack of a better word, about the mountain. I initially put this down to the local boy racers, but after hearing the distinctive noise of several Porsche flat 6s I new that wasn’t the case. A little later on my eyes got to feast on what my ears had already gorged on… a classic car rally / hill climb was being held on the local roads.
This being a post about mountain biking I’ll try not to go on too much about the rally, but there was a Delta S4 there. Those that know, would appreciate why I was rather excited at seeing one for the first time. For those that don’t… Group B, Supercharged, Turbocharged and 680bhp might give some idea. Or perhaps not.
On the final day returning to Munich, first we got a train up to the Italian Austrian border. From there we had an hour and a half to get to Innsbruck some 35 kilometres away before our train to Munich left. Thankfully it was all down hill, so some more ‘Belgian queueing’ and the help of some ultra fast road bikers who came past (that we tagged onto) we made it in a hour! On one stretch we were even being held up by cars!
I haven’t talked much detail about the route or the views as hopefully the map and photos will tell the story much better (see photos added to the previous posts). All I will say is it was fantastic being in the amongst proper mountains again. The Alps really are pretty special!
View Route
View route in Google Earth
Before signing off, I would just like to say, being airborne on a bike is an absolutely wonderful feeling, both wheels sliding out of control despite not touching the brakes is not.
13.06.09
Posted in
Cycling, Germany, Travel
at
12:26 pm
by
Twitter
I’ve just found out that the 5 guys I’m with are studying physical education to a degree level. 2 of them are spinning coaches! What have I let myself in for?
12.06.09
Posted in
Cycling, Germany, Travel
at
8:34 pm
by
Twitter
Went for an ‘easy warm up’ ride. 22km with a 642 metre climb nearly killed me. Scary fast, but fun, decent followed by some flowing single track was my reward.
Posted in
Cycling, Germany, Travel
at
6:57 pm
by
Twitter
Great service & flight from British Airways. Met Christian & chums in Munich before getting the train to the stunning mountain village of Bayrischzell in the alps where we will spend the night.
19.04.09
Posted in
Austria, Cycling, Germany, Italy, Travel
at
2:21 pm
by
Andy
The crossing of Spain and Portugal will have to wait. A few weeks ago I was chatting on Skype with a German friend of mine when he invited me to join him on his trans alps cycle ride that they do every year. Honoured to be invited (last year I think Christian was of the impression that I wasn’t up to the job, but my Madrid to Valencia ride might have gone some way to convincing him otherwise) I set about finding out if it was a possibility.
I now have the time off work arranged, flights booked and I am excited. Very excited in fact, but also rather worried. This is a serious undertaking: Seven days of trail riding, crossing the Alps from Germany, through Austria, to Italy. Some 430 km and a rather daunting 13,500m cumulative elevation gain!
Having seen the training Christian put himself through last year, I’ve realised I need to get fit. So, here comes the regime of getting out on the bike as much as possible, swimming, circuit training, and spinning classes. I’ve got about six weeks to get ready. I’m hoping that’s enough time to reach the required level.
I’ve just been looking over the route they have planned on Google Earth, and I must say it looks incredible. In fact, it was flying over the route in 3D terrain mode that inspired me to write this blog entry…
Check it out for yourself: Google Earth Files.
Full report of the trip and photos will follow some time before 2010… I promise.
28.11.08
Posted in
Germany, Motoring, Travel
at
10:12 am
by
Andy
The words Nurburgring and Nordschleife will set the blood of any proper car enthusiast flowing. This place is motor sport Mecca and I had the pleasure of taking my first petrol head pilgrimage to the place with Niki and a whole load of his Lotus chums. I received an email from him in June asking if I’d be interested in joining him for a long weekend in August. I didn’t have to think twice about that one, even though I knew it would only be as a passenger.
Once I´d got the OK from both bosses I was set to join Niki and the SELOC Lotus club he’s part of for the drive down to Germany. This alone was great fun with many looks of awe as we passed people by in a convoy of 10-15 Lotuses. We even had time for a stop of in the Belgian town of Spa for a quick Leffe in the sunshine. Niki, being a man of my own heart, had planned a route taking in some of the twistiest, most picturesque roads possible for the last stretch through the Eiffel Mountains before arriving in the town of Nurburg.
Over the weekend I was treated to several laps out with Niki and one of his friends (who drove a Type R powered series 1) which was truly amazing. True grin factor, enhanced by memories of watching racing at The Ring on TV as a child and dreaming of coming here myself. The track is unreal. So long, fast and flowing better though of one great B road with no oncoming traffic. Racing games and simulators such as Gran Turismo and GTR give a good indication of what it is like, but they give no idea of how much the track changes in altitude. This is one hilly place!
Almost as amazing as being out on track was watching the assorted weaponry being thrown around. The Porsche 911 GT3 RS and BMW M3 CSLs were as common as muck and being absolutely pushed to the limit. The sights, smells and noises were incredible. There were also shed loads of motorbikes. I will never forget a true ring meister on an R1. We were spectating when he came past us, round a corner over a crest at about 200kph lifting the front wheel while cornering pretty much with his knee down scraping the tarmac! Incredible.
Due to the popularity of the place, the track gets pretty busy and hectic during the weekends. The best times to be out, and thus concentrate on the track rather than other cars, are Friday evening, first thing in the morning before breakfast Sat & Sun and on Sunday afternoon after everyone else has gone home. We were out enjoying the final Sunday afternoon laps when Niki’s brakes failed which, despite my own depth of expertise in brake failure, was a tad disconcerting. Thankfully we didn’t leave the track, but it could have been much worse.
It was a truly excellent weekend, especially with the added social element of being surrounded by like minded car nuts and enjoying many beers and several steaks (not to mention the tacky jumper competition). The weekend also served to reminded me of what I love and miss about all things cars. It re-lit the fire if you will. I spent a lot of the weekend day dreaming and planning my next car (something that I’m still doing a lot of 4 months later). Stripped out, light weight weapons and drivers with track knowledge were king at the Ring. Old VW Golfs were harassing Porches and Ferraris. And so, lightweight and stripped out my next project car will be. The current dilemma is what it will be. I’ve currently narrowed it down to Peugeot 205 GTI, Peugeot 106 Rallye or my Honda Type R powered mid engined Mini (although ideas of a modified MG Midget are beginning to creep in). All possible with varying scales of budget, but that very word there, budget, is the real show stopper. Still, with such an assorted array of beautiful cars being driven how they were designed to be, one can only dream…
15.03.06
Posted in
Germany
at
10:29 am
by
Andy
Espe and I had the pleasure of visiting Mats and Tasja in Berlin. They have a wonderful flat just North of the old GDR center. We were put up and fed for the full four days, so a huge thanks for that.
Friday night, due to our late arrival we sat down for Dinner prepared by Tasja. After a great feed, loads of catching up and a few too many glasses of wine we retired to bed.
Come Saturday, the weather was not too accommodating with minus temperatures, driving wind and constant snow. We headed down to Potsdamer Platz to check out the modern district that was no mans land in the days of the Berlin Wall. While there we visited the Film Museum, which although not a subject close to my heart, was interesting all the same. I’m set on seeing several 1920s classics as a result.
We took it pretty easy for the rest of the day in preparation for a Saturday night out. We hit a bar, of which the name escapes me, serving excellent cocktails and an equally varied mix of music. The DJ seemed to play a bit of everything without resorting to cheesy classics. Thumbs up there.
Next up was the Icon club. Host to regular Ninja Tune nights and renowned as one of Germany’s best Drum & Bass clubs who was I to resist…. And I was not disappointed. Dark, underground (literally) and with a sound system that does a pretty good job of rearranging your internal organs. It was Mats’ and Espe’s first experience of such a club, but they seemed suitably impressed. Especially when the DJ dropped a filthy remix of the Pulp Fiction theme track.
The rest of the weekend was spent looking around the city. We did far too much to go into detail, but generally wandered about taking photos and being tourists. Sights seen included the Brandenburg Gate, the Ruins of a Church bombed in WW2, statues of Carl Marx and others and Museum Island.
Highlights were going up the immense TV tower which at 200 metres gives stunning views of the whole of Berlin and the Checkpoint Charlie museum.
Covering much of the Cold War that fascinated me so much in History lessons, the museum also gave an insight into the oppression of the East German people and the multitude of ingenious attempts to cross the Wall to the freedom of the West.
A fantastic long weekend. Surprisingly cheap as well due to Easyjet and the hospitality of Mats and Tasja. With still a lot to see, we fully intend to return in the summer.
Even the return flight was great with stunning views of the Alps and the Pyrenees.
Back home and back to work, its not all bad, fully refreshed and welcomed by 24 degree sunshine. I think I’ll take lunch in the park today…
Photos added 11/04/06
