Route du vin

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about wine, or try to describe all the wonderfully preserved medieval towns and villages on the Alsace route du vin, but just need to say that this is a really great way to spend a day.

Monday was Pfingfest, a great name for Pentecost, so after some hefty rides in the BlackForest at the weekend I was ready to have a relaxing ride through the vineyards on part of the route which in its entirety is more than 170km from Than in the south (near Mulhouse) to Marlenheim and beyond in the north (near Strasbourg) Today we took the train to Selestat with the intention of cycling up to Haut Königsberg which is not part of the wine route but a fine reconstructed tourist attraction, 757m up a hill in the Vosges mountains. Worth a visit if you're in the area for sure.

Then its a case of freewheeling down through the vineyards to join the route du vin, stopping here and there for a flammekuche, a coffee and gateau or glass of wine whilst enjoying the wonderful and curious architecture. We didn't even have time to visit all the towns on the short journey, so much to see! Also, I had intended to buy some wine at the final town of Turkheim, as I didn't want to cycle far with heavy bottles, but we didn't reach the town till after closing time. Definitely will be back soon, especially for the Colmar wine festival in August.

A word of warning - don't go into a wine cave and say "I'm just looking" - you will only get an angry Frenchman shouting at you about time wasters etc.

Rheinfelden tri-berg-athlon

This blog was supposed to be mostly rad-sport, but over the past year its been almost totally rad-sport, so here's a glimpse of some triathletes doing that bit you have to do before getting on the bike in the Rheinfelden middle distance and Olympic distance triathlon. Until yesterday, it was unknown if the swim in the Rhine would go ahead as the water has been too cold. It has to be over 14 degrees. Plan-B was a swim in the pool, or duathlon. But due to the last 3 warm days, the water temperature had risen to a legal 14.4 degrees, just enough for the full swim to take place.
After a quick breakfast I had little time so had to pedal fast the short distance up the Rhine to Rheinfelden for the 8:15am start of the race.
I have to say this brought back memories of the plunge into Loch Tay for my Aberfeldy mid distance event, which was 13 degrees, and painfully cold. It didn't inspire me to plan for next years race. If it happened to be a month or two later, the water will be up to 23 degrees, so why not wait? I guess they have the slot booked in the triathlon calendar now.
However, the start was as impressive as any open water triathlon when all the competitors splash into the water and power away from the shore. Most likely many will take part in next months Swiss 70.3 in the lake of Zurich, at least that should be a few degrees warmer. Now I could be tempted by that next year...

After all the swimmers were little yellow dots in the flow of the Rhine I crossed the river and cycled north to Maulberg, Neuenweg up then down to Munstertal. The aim of this ride was to climb up to Schauinsland for the first time, its a long way out and a big climb so it needed good weather to be worth attempting. Did I say roads in the Black Forest were gentle? Not this one, its a real monster - there is a distinct warning sign at the start of the climb, which is immediately from the junction which would take you up to Wiedenereck. 18% and 5km, of course the steepest parts were on the bends but in general I was locked in bottom gear for the whole of this section and wishing I had more gears. A real test, its incredibly steep for the first 3km up to a small collection of buildings around a sharp hairpin bend. After that it levels off to a steeper than normal climb for the final 2km of this section. To get to the top its several km more either taking a direct route up or as I had decided to go with my original plan to follow the road downhill a short amount to the main road up from Freiburg and ascend to the top at a less painful gradient. On this road I passed below the cablecar that whisks visitors up to the top of Schauinsland.
At the top, there is a small ridge for 2 or 3km at altitude with good open views, but then one massive descent down to Todtnau and beyond. That was really good fun. After Todtnau, the familiar climb up from Präg, down to Todtmoos and down the fantastic gorge south towards Wehr.

I managed to get back to Rheinfelden in time to see some of the triathletes finishing their event, I wonder who spent the most calories in the past 6 hours?

Ascension day

Nice to have a day devoted to climbing hills:)
Yesterday saw some huge storm over Croatia, it dragged lots of cold air and huge thunderstorms across the continent with hailstones and lightning in Basel all afternoon. By 8pm it was a chilly 10 degrees, and dropped down to 2 degrees overnight, but today the storm had passed so blue sunny skies and the temperature was to climb back up to 17. However, the warm air rushing back in meant that it was going to be windy, so riding along the valleys was harder than usual today.
This was the first time I have climbed the full Passwang from the river in Zwingen, I normally join the climb just before the main part of the climb. Its a very nice long, steady 2-3% up the valley, it makes the climb seem much more like a big mountain pass with the full runup rather than a short steep climb. I caught up with a group of 6 Swiss riders on the runup, was happy to join and said Gruezi but they seemed to be moving so slowly that I had to push on ahead once the climb kicked in. Soon left them, but one of the pack was not having and Englishman humiliate their group, so 2/3 the way up he passed me and stayed a safe distance till the top.
My mission today was to go beyond Balstal, along the valley towards Moutier, and climb the final southern ridge of the Jura. I haven't made it up this ridge before, when I've climbed Brunnersberg I see the high Alps in the distance appearing once I've climbed high enough to see over this final ridge.
Schmiedermatt - this was a steep climb - down to the bottom cog which I've hardly been using in the Black Forest, these Jura climbs tend to be steeper. Lots of forest covering me with enough gaps in the trees to see the valley disappearing far below. Out of the forest, and theres a false plateau area with fine views north, and a very busy restaurant and possible hotel high up above the pastures. Thats where the road is steepest, it turns back into a final forest then up and up some more before a passing between a large rock gateway leads to the magnificent view southwards over the flatter area of Switzerland that lead up to the high Alps. Quite breathtaking, it is a serious traffic hazard when descending the narrow roads with the alps on the horizon and trying to watch the road at the same time.

Training Camp II

With May 1st being a holiday and 30th April a half day this past weekend was another opportunity to attempt a 4 day tour - without leaving home that is.
The good news is there won't be any more snowy bike photos on this blog till next winter, unless I'm up a high pass quite soon that is. Saturday was 28 degrees and sunny, so I made the most with a massive ride in the Black Forest, over to Munstertal then up Wiederner Eck, Badenwieler and to to the top of Hoch Blauen - but still the hotel is closed at the top, until mid May, so no coffee and cake on this day.

Hanami side trip to Kirschenland

Sundays ride was the classic Scheltenhaus, Endenberg, Zell, Riedichen loop, yesterday was a ride in the Jura and today a recovery ride along the international road to Lucelle.
In doing so the 461km, 11790(Strava)m of ascent took me up the Strava Classic Challenge, just making the top 100 in 94th place. Don't know how much to read into that, I have climbed more with the daily commutes, but in all the challenge has been added motivation over the past 4 days.