Well, today dawned dry, bright and very very warm. Because Tracey can't walk - her ankle was huge and black - I decided to ride to Achensee. It's a good ride, down the Zillertal and then one climb of about 500m at an average grade of about 5% (thats a guess). The climb isn't hard, even for a fatty like me, but the promise of the descent is appealing.
I hit the Zillertal and immediately noticed that I was cruising at 24 or 25 mph on the falt for no effort....Gott Verdamned Wind.....(the German coming out in me). It was a strong tail wind coming straight up the Zillertal behind me and throwing me along the road.....I've got to ride back into this!
I reached Strass and then left the Zillertal and started the climb. It was a very warm day, 30c on the Garmin and the wind was crossing me as I zig-zagged up the climb. It wasn't hard today but then again I was just spinning easy rather than really trying. The traffic on this road is quite heavy, Achensee is a huge lake and a huge pull for non-cycling tourists and today was no exception. I was careful because of the traffic, but thankfully no near death experiences today.
The top was reached and rather than descending to the lake and eating (I do loads of that, eating.....) I decided to head straight back to meet Trace and watch the TransAlp come in to Mayrhofen. A couple of club mates were riding it. The descent was everything it promised on the climb and I reached 48mph max speed, I could ahve got faster but for the wind.
Then onto the Zillertal at Strass and a nightmare of a road ride back. 20 plus miles in 33c heat and what I estimate was a 20mph head wind. I died, grovelled, prayed to the wind gods and got no answer. I suffered every bloody mile back and the average speed of the ride dropped rapidly, my virtual partner on my Garmin overtook me laughing while giving me the two fingers and he rode off without letting me get his wheel, the swine! Two gels later and I got a bit quicker but then ran out of fluid and died again for the last two miles from Hippach to Mayrhofen.
The TransAlp had taken over the centre of Mayrhofen and the place was full of very skinny, fit looking cyclists and I felt rather tubby.....so I consoled myself with some Goulash Soup and three bottles of mineral water......then when I got back here, to the appartment I had two beers.......all calories burnt now added back plus some and my belly is no smaller. The Over Weight Cyclist is still overweight, but chilled out.
This week has been the best of this year for hours in the saddle and miles covered in a single week. I'm happy with that as there's some good climbing in there too.
See you next week.
Here is the Endomondo workout for today.
User's Blogs
Masterbowman
Looking forward to the Greater Mancheste Bike Ride June 4th - hope they are better at organizing than sending out replies to emails - I failed to order a shirt on entering, I followed that with 4 emails to date asking how and if I could order and guess what "No reply to date" -
Treorchy to Haverfordwest Charity Ride
110 miles (170km approx.) of undulating ride in a day. Starting at 8am and hope to be there by tea time.
Wrynose or Bust Cycle Challenge
Wrynose or Bust Cycle Sportive is being run for the third year on April 29th 2012 – are you ready for this. Last year Andrew Wilkinson took on the 112 mile challenge and came home in a fantastic time of 5:39:11 and it's hard to see if that time could be bettered next year.
Better late than never CYCLOSPORT.ORG PARTY PHOTOS
The end of season Cyclosportive Party was sometime ago but I thought I would put some photos up of the day. It was a great day for being out on the bike. Lovely weather and equally lovely company as cyclist form the Cyclosportive industry got together for this ride. I was there to enjoy myself so the photos won't win any pulitzer prize for photo-journalism just snaps of my day.
http://palefishbikes.blogspot.com/2011/09/british-heart-foundation-manchester-to.html
http://palefishbikes.blogspot.com/2011/09/british-heart-foundation-manchester-to.html
Achensee - A Lake
Route ridden 17th July 2011
Ok, how many got the play on words in the title - 10 calories if you didn't. For those that didn't then it's Achensee (achen-zay) and then a lake (Ah Can Zay A Lake)......OK, it's rubbish. I know but I'm not sorry!
Gerlos Or Bust
We had two rather inclement days and I over indulged myself with food and wine - well, I am on holiday!
Barenbad
Today I hit the road, feeling tired from yesterday's ride to Hochfugen. I decided to head to Barenbad, a really nice little alpine hut in a valley called the Zillergrund, possibly one of the most beautiful in the Zillertal.The road climbs striaght from the digs in Mayrhofen. I've ridden it a few times now and know what to expect. The first big gradient is 500m from the digs - 15% for about 200m then in levels out. The road climbs at gradients between 1% and 15% for about 10 miles all the way to Barenbad. As you climb there are several cafes and guest houses to stop at and the views of the surrounding mountains are amazing. The road is fairly straight, just a few twists and turns and you just know it's going to be a blast on the way down.This year I wasn't going to beat my best time for the climb, I was riding up the climb into a headwind, quite strong too. I could see that the weather was closing in, the grey cloud was starting to cloak the visible summits around me. The air was cooler today too - just 27 on the climb and with the wind it was really making it a pleasure to ride.Saying that, the end of the climb is steep, a couple of hairpins followed by straight sections straight into the wind. I was on the drops low over the bike climbing a 15% gradient into a 15mph wind......it was a killer. I reached the top and was another sweating, heaving wreck. It was chilly here so I put on my helmet, zipped up my jersey and headed down......what a scream. 45mph max on the descent, overtaking cars and zipping through the curves as fast as I dared. I got up the climb in 1 hour 13 minss - down in 20mins......The total was only 22 miles so I headed down to Zell am Ziller to bring the mileage up and then back to Mayrhofen - where I went, yep you guessed - to Mo's cafe. I sat outside for an hour people watching and tying to cool down.Another great day and now I need a day off - but the weather forecast for tomorrow is bad anyway - so no hassles there.Here is the Endomondo workout
Melting In Mayrhofen
Melting In Mayrhofen - or M.I.M. as it's now known. If you hadn't guessed I'm no on holiday in Mayrhofen, a wonderful small town in the Zillertal Alps, Austria.Now, as you should have guessed I'm a Brit - and us Brits simply aren't used to warm weather, never mind HOT. We got here from the UK and the temp there was around 18 degrees, here in Mayrhofen it was 28 when we arrived - and that was 6pm!I've managed a few rides, I did a nice little warm up ride down the Zillertal, not a bad ride at all. Well, it was supposed to be just a leg stretch but I hooked up with some other guy and we were hitting 27mph on the flat roads. And it was hot, 32C. I got back to Mayrhofen and wilted at Mo's Cafe in the town.Here is the Endomondo workouutOn Tuesday I decided to head to a place I've not visited before - Hochfugen. During the winter it's a ski centre and is up in the mountians. A climb.......I hit the road at about 10am as the weather forecast was for hot weather again - I didn't realise just how hot it was about to get. The road to Fugen follows part of the route I did on Monday down the Zillertal then it heads into Fugen town and begins to climb.Now, like I said I've never been here and didn't know what to expect. What I found was an inital slope at 9%, I thought that this would be as steep as it got but I was wrong. This overweight English cyclist began to chug up the mountian and I watched as the Gradient on the Garmin began to rise, up to 16%. Then it dropped to 12% and stayed there! And I mean it stayed there for 3 miles..........big fat old me was dying, I saw my speed drop to 3 or 4 mph at some points. Oh and did I forget to mention the heat? It was 34.5c on the Garmin. I had to stop twice in the shade near to a water source to soak my Bandana, that gave some Dutch tourists a laugh anyway. I thought I was going to die!I was using High5 and was clagging my mouth with the sweet sticky stuff, I got a gel down my throat too and felt a bit better. The last 3 or 4 miles of the ride vary in gradient from about 2% to 11% but was much easier. A slight breeze was pushing me on and the altitude meant that it was cooler. I reached Hochfugen, out of fluid and a heaving sweating wreck. I bought 2ltr of mineral water and made my way back down the hill......it was a blast but I don't have my descending confidence yet and by the time I got back to Fugen my wheels were nearly melting and my hands were aching from all the breaking.I arrived back in Mayrhofen and went straight to MO's cafe (there's a bit of a theme emerging here) for mineral water and some food. My Garmin registered 36c on the valley floor and I think I got a touch of heat exhaustion.It was a great ride 48miles - here is the Endomondo workout.
