Lipple Loipen

Null points for style

With temperatures dropping, snow laying around, freezing rain coating the roads and pavements in layers of thick ice, sometimes the logical thing to do is leave the bike at home and get some exercise on more appropriate winter transport.
Only ~35km away on top of Lipple (one of my favourite climbs in the Black Forest) is the start of several "loipen" - cross country trails.  It was a crazy journey up today on very icy roads. Not black ice, but thick, heavy obvious ice at every corner and every stretch. Basically thick snowy icy ice everywhere. Up above Marzell, where the gradient really kicks in, I could feel the car losing traction but we made it up to the junction at the top - where we met a worried group of drivers. One had abandoned her car on the road up from Badenweiler to Blauen, no surprises here as this is a very steep climb, and much colder than other parts of these hills. The other drivers wanted to know if the road we had climbed was safe, not in any way, but winter tires get you a long way.

Today I was with Falk Schneeman so with a name like that you can guess I was trailing a long way behind the snowman all day. Today was much faster than my previous ski trips this winter, could be the icy conditions but mostly due to the snowmans incessant pace and lack of rest stops. We started with the 8.5km loop south called Gleichen loipe. Ideal as a warm up loop, relatively flat but of course any descent has me in trouble and wishing for some form of braking device. I fail to see how cross country skis on icy bashed surfaces have any control whatsoever once out of the prepared tracks. I asked Falk, who is an experienced cross country skier, but he said, "Yes, you just head down, if theres an obstacle in the way I dont know what you'd do." Great!
The trails at Lipple are ample for me, no need to travel any further if the snow is here. Nice to know theres a connection over to the loop starting at Kreuzweg, another great road climb in the Black Forest.
Really nice little Ski hütte near the car park, serving hot food and drinks.  Potato and schübling (type of sausage) soup and roll was very tasty. Well worth a visit at the end of a tiring Langlauf session.

http://www.lipple.de/index.html

Umleitung Part II

Since the arrival of the Boardman CX bike, the umleitung has been modified to include the wonderful firetracks up towards St Chrischona. Perfect for this type of track, the gradient is easy, great scenery and instantly off the roads. The surface is just rough enough to prevent road tyres, so the new bike opens up new possibilities for the early morning umleitung before work.

Note: Average temperature for the ride on Friday was -4, the plateau was -7!

Winter training mode engaged

1st December, first snow ride and first ride up the Gempen with the Boardman CX Pro. Coped well, the paths are smooth up there, and firetrack is ideal for cyclocross riding - even if it was covered in snow today.

Beware the Vosgiflette

Not much has been written in this blog since the Haute Route, it really did leave me speechless in a blog style way and still my write up of the event is far from comprehensive, most likely it never will be.
Even now, I feel like I am beginning to prepare for next years event, this time it will be the Pyrenees from Med to Atlantic.The idea is just to keep up long weekend rides through the winter, for as long as my fingers stay warm.
Today had no such problems, I was returning to the Vosges with a start/finish in Colmar like we rode a few weeks ago with KC, Arthur and Falk in t shirt and shorts weather.
Climbing up to Trois Epis was magnificent as the cloud level was low, and once out in the open sunshine it felt warm over the tops and on to Col du Linge, which saw  a fair amount of fighting in the first world war. There's a short section of preserved trenches from this period when the French/German border was up in the hills and not down along the Rhine. Just one week late for remembrance day, but this site is open throughout the year as a memorial to all those who lost their lives in these battlefields/battlehills.



I had a flat from a small piece of glass at the base of Route du lac du Corbeaux, so replaced quickly with CO2 and continued on. Then on the first hairpin bend when I stood up to accelerate the tyre blew again, this time around the valve and one for the bin. Did I over inflate? I guess the freezing cold CO2 must expand some more once you start riding, so that could have done it. Or do inner tubes suffer damage from freezing gas?
Because of this I limped down to la Bresse to find a bike shop for more spares as I was still a long way from Colmar. Of course the shops are closed from 12-2pm, so I had to rest in a boulangerie for half an hour. I was cold at this stage, so it was good timing in the end. But here I was tempted by the "Vosgiflette" - a bit like a heavy duty tarte flambee, and a slice of quiche lorraine as well. Both tasty snacks, but both together with still 2 big climbs and a lot of riding to do was not so wise. I was very close to seeing the whole Vosgiflettes several times on the long, long climb from Lac du Wildenstein up to le Markstein.
Once on the route des cretes, with the hikers, bikers, parachuters, and road-skiers the massive 2700m of climbing for the day was just about over. Didn't even feel cold on the way down to Munster, but was disappointed to find my favourite fromagerie is now closed for good.
Its always a great ride in the Vosges, such a nice finish from Munster via Gunsbach to Turkheim through the small towns and vineyards back to Colmar.

So many cols - even minor bumps have signs:
Trois Epis - Col du Linge - Col du Wettstein - Col du Calvaire - Col du Louschbuch - Col du Bonhomme - le Collet Schlucht -  Col des Faignes sous Valogne - Col du Bramant - le Markstein - le Breitfirst- Col du Platzerwaesel

Thun - Gurnigel - Jaunpass - Spiez

Rapha Ride of the Falling Leaves

Starting from Obst & Gemuse cycle shop, Basel.

Halfway point, refreshments await in Rapha food bags

First time for a mid-ride whisky. Not sure this was a good idea

Definitely autumn now, no more end of summer

Basel Kuriers kept the speed up in high 40s for the ride home

Double Scheidegg

Grindelwald - Grosse Scheidegg - Kleine Scheidegg - Wengen -  Stechelberg - Interlaken - Thun

Eiger north face

Lauterbrunnen valley