salzburgsavage

[salzburgsavage]

castles, climbs, carfree roads - austria

[salzburgsavage]

[salzburgsavage]

The Radführer

Another foggy day, another totally PC ride in Salzburg. After my buddy John finally did the Ride up to the Kehlsteinhaus, Hitlers Eagles Nest, last week i was totally motivated to do it again before the winter, and employed John himself as my Radführer for the day.

We broke through the clouds while going up a tiny, farely unknown road up to Oberau, and were promptly greeted with a 10° rise in Temperature. After the first communal undressing, we continued to make our way up to Obersalzberg, where now (not veryunlike  some 70 yrs ago) the wealthy and famous spent some quality time in Hotel Continental. A Gate blocks access to the Kehlsteinstraße but doesnt prove much of an Obstacle, as there is a path trampled around it. It does however keep cars out wich provides much needed relief from the the horrors of austrian/german traffic.

Despite the remoteness the road is paved insanely well, it winds itself up in steep switchbacks through the woods until the first tunnel. John claims that now the actually scenic part starts and he wasnt incorrect. We get through the tunnel and are promptly rewarded with what i think is the nicest views you can get off the Berchtesgaden valley. The gradients ramping from a smooth 12-13 up to a even more fun 17-18 add to the fun and not just the high Temperatures (for november) make us sweat. Two switchbacks and tons of pictures late we make our way to the final 100 or so meters which are enriched by some black ice spots. Before we head into the icecold valley that is just above freezing we take another break to dry our clothes.

At over 1700m altitude in late November.

[salzburgsavage]

So nice to be back home!

[salzburgsavage]

Giro & Gelato

Part 2: Road to the Race

Next day was the ITT up Monte Grappa. So we started the day on the bike path that goes all the way from Levico to Bassano Di Grappa which was also the starting point of the stage. However at Breakfast (just a ton of cookies and coffee really) we discovered a random road with tons of switchbacks right before Bassano on Google maps. We figured we'd spice up the ride to the Stage with that and take the easy road on the bike path back.

So far so good we get on the bikes just to immediately stop again as we discover a random waterfall just by the side of the of bike path... After wasting some time taking pics and gramming, we continue on what compared to Austria is just a next level bike path until we get to the base of the climb to Foza. Little Gradients provide few rewards in terms of views, until we get to the very top, where the masterful roadworkers decide to just spray loose tar on the road to fix ridiculous potholes. There Mr TIME riding 25mm wheels with less then a mm clearance regrets his decision to not man up and put 23's back on and ends up busting the paint on the seattube..

The descend into Valsagna makes up for all the views the climb lacked, causing us to waste more time snapping pics and gramming. On the final stretch to Bassano we team up with some other Cyclists in Order to make sense of the tiny dead ends, closed up roads and random big roads that seem to make up Bassano di Grappa. We arrive just in time to realize that we are to late to head up Monte Grappa as all the roads up have been closed down already.. We get some Panini and decide to watch the TT from a Roundabout overlooking a tight offcamber turn, and ride up Monte Grappa afterwards.

Having watched the Pros provide cool backdrops for selfies we make our way up Monte Grappa. As soon as the Road leaves the citie it turns into a tunnel carved into Trees with glimpses of the insane view thrown in at the switchbacks. However what was a steady stream of climbers at the base turns into a drizzle of basically just us while a million of people stampede down the mountain. It turned from crazy, to sketchy to outright frightnening.. and once we reached a bit of a platue almost at the top the police gave us some more or less friendly pointers down.. We decide to die another day and get back to Bassano. We get declared crazy AGAIN when we ask for the best way to Levico because we didnt want to take the high way uphill into a headwind. In the end we give in for the second time this day and take the train back.

[salzburgsavage]

its the grey season in munich

[salzburgsavage]

Lake Sylvenstein. fed by munichs river the isar.

[salzburgsavage]

Lake Gosau

[salzburgsavage]

The End

After not riding together for months, John and I decided to rejuvanate our bromance with a quick trip to Winter sport-heaven Tyrol. However, not only werent we riding together, John also didnt ride for three weeks straight and subsequently bonked the fuck out of the warmup-ride. This delicate display derived from deprivation of food rather than shape, so he decided to bring along a pack of Gummy bears. Beeing equally prepared by rocking a whole 0.25l  bottle of energy drink for a 3k elevation ride we set off into a beautiful sea of rotten leaves and dieing lichen.

Since were warmed up well from yesterday we parked right at the base of Ötztaler Gletscherstraße and double digit gradients awaited us immediately  with their hot embrace (aka DOMS). The climb consists basically of two parts, the steep-ass part with trees and the less steep one without. It doesn't have trees because its over the treeline, which means the lack of gradients gets compensated by lack of air instead. Having reached the top John insisted on "touching the glacier", an opportunity he also used to freeze up his cleats, while i drank the whole bottle of energy. Taking in the scenery, a group of old french people walked up to us and started inspecting johns bike. He got bonus points when he found the made in France sign too.

After a ridiculously fast descend we immediately started climbing again, as the road the Glacierroad comes from leads directly to the Timmelsjoch. Our pace went from easy to straight up creeping, but unlike the Glacierroad the Timmelsjoch features much gentler gradients. After passing a few deserted  villages, we got back and over the treeline again. Having filled our bottles with some fresh and cold stream water, we passed the place where all the guys in the fancy cars turn around, aka the toll booth. However not only got the gradients gentler there but turned into a long downhill section. Unsure about whether we passed the highest point we decided to take a peak around the corner, only to realize we are back at 2000m and the highest point is at over 2500... Not only can you see cars coming down all the way but also this last part was in a shaded valley, which caused goosebumps even on the climb. Clearly disgruntled we made our way up and across the border to italy, a  last chance to warm up again before the freezing descent. Slowly getting dark we had to hurry, and just in time we probably made the first good food decision of the day and had a couple kebabs to cure our altitude sickness

[salzburgsavage]

Homecoming

So after spending summer  august in Munich, i finally got to leave monotonous moronocracy and come home to Salzburg for a week and a half in order to race my "A race", the Attersee 46km time trial, and most importantly to have fun riding again.

The weekend before i raced the Gaisberg-race, Salzburgs home hillclimb event. What started out shittily with bad weather and horrid organization (race bureau being 20k away from the start of a 8k race) got even worse on the actual climb. Turns out riding completely void of mountains and motivation for almost two months in Munich was NOT a good preparation for ~30 minutes of grueling gradients. The icing on the cake that was failing my goals miserably, was getting rainwater sprayed from the rear wheel of a 50 yr old which eventually dropped me halfway into the climb.

So my stay in Salzburg surely was a shot at salvaging the season, starting with the Grünau TT over 26k. My aim for Attersee was averaging 43 kph but with the ridiculous display last weekend i lowered it to 42 for Grünau. I put myself on a bread and topfen diet, packed a borrowed front wheel and helmet, a caffeine gel and some more red bull cans and sitting on the car on the way there with James i felt like i had a chance at redeeming myself.

That is until i got out of the car at the race realizing i forgot my bikeshoes.

Hastily we swapped pedals, i borrowed James's shoes and overshoes wich are two sizes to big and about 4 sizes to wide for my petite feet and after about 10 minutes of warmup i was standing on the starting ramp. With my team name Salzburger Nockerl (a high protein dessert) i was the first male starter in the roadbike category. I was going as hard as i could from the get go, however i felt like something was keeping me from really pushing. Seeing first women on roadbikes, then mountainbikers on the horizon didnt really prove to be much motivation either. I ended up feeling not having given 100%, even putting in an all-out sprint in the end.

Disappointed i didnt even check for my time, instead we swapped our pedals again and i joined James for his warmup. After his sendoff i did go to the timing people and ask for my time however. I was quite shocked when i learned that i was actually leading the whole event the whole race at that time with a 42.4 kph avg. However with no live-times later on it was hard to say whether my lead would last in the roadbike category, and for the first time ever i won at least a category in a race!

I gave up on my 43 avg hope at Attersee, which is 20km longer at this point and instead focused on at least holding 42. In preparation James and i rode the actual course a couple days before. With the fog just clearing it was quite freezing at 10°C but more scenic than usual. The first half was fairly flat with a few really mellow  inclines, while the way back did have a couple short and steep hills, so the tactic for Sunday was pretty much to go hard in the first bit, then hang on for dear life on the way back.

I perfected my preparation by eating a whole pineapple every day. The day before the race i went for the first ride with Coach BJ in 2 months. Afterwards preparations where topped off at Johns surprise birthday party where he had HIS OWN KEBAB STAND IN HIS OWN GARAGE! A couple drinks were had too, because at that point who cares really?

Next morning, after triple checking all my gear we made our way to the race. I was the last of us to start and after waiting all day in the car sluggishness really set in. I opted for coffees instead of a longass warmup-ride and sitting at the cafe i watched my rivals ride their trainers. Naturally i ended up being almost to late at the start, forgot my bottle at the startramp and started shouting immediately when a car pulled right in front of my seconds into my ride.

After overtaking i ran into a traffic jam 5 minutes later, because some people thought its a good idea to do their cooldown ride on the actual race course blocking even more cars. I passed the convoy on the middle lane with oncoming traffic, and afterwards was finally able to push the pedals. After passing two roadbikerivals there was still no sign of the timetrialist starting behind me. Just before the halfway point however he caught up with me. I thought i must be doing really well, until a timetrialist who started even further down zoomed past both of us.

At this point i really stopped caring, went all out, and overtook the timetrialist who has been behind the horizon for a while. A couple minutes afterwards he cought me again on a descend. I decided to not loose sight of him again, but of course i was doomed trying to keep up. The only point were i was making up ground was the hills, only to loose even more time on the descends. In the end i managed to almost catch up again however which meant there would only, a bit more than a minute gap between us.

With him finishing at 1.02.xx, which meant i finished at 1.03.xx, which meant i averaged 43.3kph.

It also meant i took a minute and a half off the roadbike course record and the second in the category. There was a ceremony with no reward(unlike the much smaller TT a week before). No mention on the website or the TV. Now i wasn't expecting anything, it just goes to show what a hollow victory it was.

I did however, meet my goal.

[salzburgsavage]

Last day in Munich Today!

[salzburgsavage]

Giro & Gelato

Part one:

Last year John and I got to enjoy Zoncolan pretty much on our own and when it was announced it would be the finish of this years Giro queen stage, we decided to come again and see it really come alive with a million tifosi on it.We actually came two days earlier in order to see stage 18 and 19 aswell. After arriving in Telve, a small town right above Borgo Valsugana, we put on some lycra and headed over to Levico.

Our hosts told us to just descend to Castelnuovo from where we should take the bikepath. Upon arrival there 30 seconds later we both forgot the word for bikepath and without any signs we already were lost. Finally after asking for directions in both a bikeshop and random people on the road we seemed to have found the bikepath, on which we ended up in tons of dead ends due to ambiguous signs. About an hour later we finally managed to ride the whole 15k to Levico, which was the base of the climb to Rifugio Panarotta. We stocked up on cookies and drinks and having lost confidence in our own navigational skills we just followed the never ending stream of cyclists.

Obviously as soon as we got on the climb the whether turned sour and a little Storm went over us. The easy gradients allowed whole families with kids to go have a good time on the climb, which isn't something you see often in Austria. At some point however there was more rain than Dogma's and we decided to sit it out under some trees. With the rain crashing down the Temperatures started to plummet aswell, so when it came down to a trickle we continued on to warm up. The freshly asphalted finishing line was both in the shade and really packed, so we decided to come down to a more scenic stretch of road in the sun (right after a gelato van). Coincidentally we also ran into Robert whom we had met a couple weeks earlier at the Rapha Gentleman's Race in Munich. Robert and John joined forces heckling the peloton once it arrived.

Soon after the bus passed us we started descending, after getting passed by a couple pros i decided to stick to a Belkin pro, which was probably one of the most exhilarating experiences so far. On our way back to Telve we found the actual bikepath, which ended up being on the other side of the valley. We tried to go up Passo Menghen, since our place was right at the base of it but it was getting to late, so we decided to visit the upper part of Telve and after enjoying the view a bit we went to get dinner. Everything was closed by now and we had to stick to a place which had foodpictures on the menu. At least the gelato after was great.

[salzburgsavage]

Slovenian Restday.

Part two: The oven

We took a gamble when we descended from Vrsic and we got lucky, because the clouds were bluffing. Instead of rain, lack of water was the problem i would have to deal with.

For some reason i still only have 1 bottle cage mounted, which proved suboptimal to say the least considering the tropical heat we were soon to encounter. We stopped at the only village before the next climb called Bovec.

On the way to Mangart we caught up with a couple. In attempt to not look like assholes and pass them with .5 kph speeddifference I decided to pull and pass them quickly. Looking back i saw they latched on so i decided to pull a bit harder. Instead of dropping the couple however i began to distance my own teammates! I slowed down we had a chat after finding out they were heading to Mangart aswell we decided to join forces.We went back to our usual easy pace and got to know each other. I found out Marco is actually a KT-rider and came to visit his friend Tina, while recovering from Injury.

Making our way up towards Mangart we passed a little well. My bottle was half empty but considering the floating algae i decided to pass on that one. Considering the pro rider didnt seem to be worried about it i maybe shouldve tried it.. However we keep making our way up, pass a bridge over massive drop, a couple topless riders and finally get into a wooded section sheltering us from the oppressive heat. There was some water unter the bridge wich made me hope to encounter a stream soon. Plus weve been climbing for a long time.. should be at the top soon right?

Nope. After a quick look Marco lets us know we still have 800m of climbing ahead, while we get out of the woods and head into a 15% section. By the time we've finished that section i also finished my bottle and still have 700m to go.  We get into another wooded section and then out of nowhere the road enters a long, long tunnel. Before we enter the same guy in full Astana Kit comes out flying. Before we can call him out Marco gives him a nod and explains that Jani Brajkovkic just passed us... We enter the tunnel and as if it was mocking me the tunnel was dripping wet. I decide to make the best of it and  take some snaps. In a pitch black tunnel with oncoming traffic.

The light at the end of the tunnel didnt bring relief of any kind but more switchbacks tunnels and dried out streams instead. Pushing the fredly pace became an issue after a while due to 39x28 gearing so i decide to make a little push in the hopes of reaching the top and therefor drinkable(?) snow sooner.

Finally however the road passes a stream with actual water. I stopped took a quick bath drank about 1.5l and went on to catch the peloton wich didnt stop. After a final top which was populated by sheep we reach the final treeless plateau and for the first time of the day we have a bit of a tailwind. Reaching the final bit of the road i proclaim the supremacy of drinking in moderation, gummi-bears and other leftover riding rations are exchanged and we make our way down.

After another stop at the stream we got to enjoy the Mangart descend which was as scenic as it was sketchy. On the way to our Starting place of Krajnska Gora we had to descend Passo Predil towards italy aswell were we even managed to get a descending KOM. The Slovenian Pelotonmembers provided to be excellent guides and so we could actually avoid getting lost on the whole ride !

[salzburgsavage]

Slovenian Restday.

Part one: The tenderizer

For the first Weekend in quite a while the forecasts were nice and so we decided to go on a spontaneous trip on Sunday. Even tho all 3 of us had about 1.5-2k of elevation on Saturday our bodies were ready to tackle the Julian Alps.

The only reason we actually went there, was because John said there was some famous climb he rode by called Vrsic-Pass. A quick look on google-maps revealed that Mangart - Slovenias highest Road - was nearby so a route was made and off we went. Considering it was supposed to be nearly 35° today i decided to just take my camera on a strap and gave drive-by shooting my first go.

As we entered Triglav national park, the clearing clouds still stuck at the mountain peaks provided an excellent atmosphere. Long sweeping turns and gentle gradients were easing us into the climb until the first ramps proved to be quite the core-exercise trying to do them one handed.

After a while we got passed we got passed by some dude in full Astana-kit. John chased him to snap a pic with his virb for the FPKW-facebookgroup. By the time we caught up with John we reached what really defined this climb - Cobbled Switchbacks. Trying to take pictures at that point changed from being a core-exercise to death-gripping the bar and swerving allover the roads, while looking through the viewfinder.

Reaching the top however we got pretty close tho the clouds, witch made the descent look pretty grim. We didn't want to end up locked in the other valley by a storm however we were all eager to go on. In the end we decided to go on and make our way towards Mangart.