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The annual cycling trip to Europe has begun! This time there are 17 of us and and we are attacking the mountains of Austria. We flew into Zurich on Saturday morning to meet up with the group who had mostly flown in from all over the US including Texas, California, Washington State, New York as well as the regulars from The Netherlands and UK. We had a bus collecting us to drive to Bludens in Austria where we would be starting the trip the following day.
There were a few worried faces as we were driving through really heavy rain from Zurich and a lot of blackberry action trying to figure out what the weather was going to be like for the start of the ride in the morning. The rain was relentless all afternoon as the bikes were put together varying between steady and torrential. Not a good start! I have my with me which is light and handles like a dream so really keen to see how I handle some of the tricky descents.
Thankfully we awoke to some fog but mostly clear skies which prompted me to head off ahead of the group with Cathy who lives at Lake Tahoe. I really hate getting wet on the bike plus I am much slower climbing than most people in the group so needed the jump not to get left behind! Today’s stage was 112km and 2400m so it wasn’t going to easy.
The first climb of the day was taking in in the Silvretta tourist road which was awesome! So many twists and turns to get to the top of Bielerhöhe pass as well as some pretty steep stretches. Due to the rain there had been some snow on some of the peaks which made it look gorgeous. I love that someone had put a sticker on the signs warning of kangaroos in the area.
Down the other side of the pass to Ishgal where I spent a week skiing in March this year. Really cool to see it in summer with all the flowers out! After lunch we jumped on the Oscar express to head down the valley doing 60km average and hanging on for dear life! Oscar is our Dutch giant who doesn’t feel anything under 5% gradient and a massive head wind is a refreshing breeze to him.
After making our way down the valley we did a small climb and a small descent and then the steepest of steep climbs which was a 7km with an average of 12%. It had these nasty pitches and a small amount of recovery and it was a killer. Unfortunately I had to pull the pin on the climb after 1.5km after my hip flexors which I have been having issues with for 6 months started to scream. My gears are not small enough so a smaller cassette will be going on tonight! (Of course it had nothing to do with my legs or fitness!!!)
Tomorrow is another tough day with it being quite long at 136km and 2000km. We go over the Kühtai pass, then heading through Innsbruck and onto Fügen. 136km and another 2000m.
Lets hope the legs hold up!
Happy training.
Cx
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Just come across your blog looks brilliant.I am so envious. No way I could do that sort of cycling anymore so I’m off to the Alps on sat 4th sept on my motorbike for a weeks tour taking in two or three stages from the Tour. B2W