Day 9: Feldkirch to Warth am Arlberg

Photos now added!

We awoke this morning to clear blue skies and beautiful views across to the mountains. 

We're not in Kansas any more Toto!

A hot air balloon appeared just over our heads, announced by an audible burst on it's burners. Breakfast was had, including pumpkin-seeded bread and croissants from the camp shop, a well as the excellent muesli that we had bought the previous evening from a petrol station shop (the only open shop available to us).

We packed quickly and set off, stopping at another petrol station shop (again, all that was open, as it's Sunday) to supplement supplies before the first climb. John H had decided to accompany us initially before heading off on his own to catch his flight out on Monday. We cycled first to Rankweil, an attractive small town with a fine castle-like church built on a small rock pinnacle

View over to Rankweil. Play spot John H!

The climb itself, the Furkajoch pass, starts just after the town and rapidly climbs up to give arresting views across towards Saturday's mountains, and also of Rankweil, and the deep gorge of the river that the road was following. A couple of tunnels followed. We cycled through the first one and it proved a very strange experience - it felt rather like being in a dragon's nostril, with roaring noises that seemed to signal the end of the world preceding cars and, particularly, motorbikes. We gathered after the first tunnel, discussing John H's options. As we were doing this a lady cyclist appeared from a small track to one side of the tunnel mouth, took her bike up to the next tunnel and disappeared up a similar track there. We decided to follow. At this point the three of us finally managed to shake off John H - it had taken three days, but finally he could no longer keep up with us :-). 

We followed the track round the side of the tunnel as the lady had done only to find that in order to rejoin the road we had to lift our bikes over a fence! This John C managed without unloading his bike. I (JR) needed to remove most of my luggage to get my bike over. We continued the climb, which was reasonable at first, although a bit varied so we could set a nice steady pace. There came a point, however, where the slope suddenly steepened and stayed steep for the rest of the climb (about 6 km) bar a short flatter piece just before the final climb. 

John C contemplates the final climb and wonders if it's too late to hire a car.

John C's trip computer showed a continuous 13-14% slope and this was on the absolute limit of our abilities bearing in mind we are carrying full touring and camping loads. The climb was tough; hot, airless and uncompromising. As I climbed at maximum effort the strength gradually drained out of my legs. I stopped a couple of times to breath a bit more, drink (you can't drink while climbing as this stops you from breathing) and stretch, but to be honest the dead-leg feeling after each stop was almost too much to make the stops worth it. The final part of climb was a victory for will over physical reality. I crawled (almost literally) up the last few metres and didn't stop shaking for 10 minutes; 2 hot chocolates and a cake later.

Roy and John C. You can tell this is taken after cake and cocoa, as Jeremy has stopped shaking enough to take the picture.

The views from the top of this 1700 m col were fantastic though. Interrogating John's computer showed we had climbed about 1400 m in 20 km and he had used 2500 kcals+ !

The view looking back the way we'd come. Much steeper than it looks.

Our descent took us into the heart of the Austrian alps, with small villages and scattered high homes in the middle of high pastures which were busy taking in a harvest of fresh-cut grass. At the bottom we had lunch with golden vistas at Au (blogging support just noticed the geochemist's joke here...).

We then headed directly in to our next climb, following another river of clear fast flowing water up into dramatic scenery of precipitous mountains with severe scree scars, forests of conifers and high pastures. The valley narrowed to a near canyon at one point and we were unable to see the mountain tops without looking up. The climb followed the pattern of the previous climb - pleasantly achievable to start and then dramatically steepening for the last 5 km or so. Scenery was increasingly dramatic, accentuated by accumulating clouds and strong beams of sunlight. Again we pedaled at our limits, minds and bodies already fatigued by the previous climb. The road itself was spectacular, at one point swooping out into space on thin stilts poised above a small village. 

The amazing road on stilts.

John C on the second climb. This time you can see how steep it it! 

Nearly at the top, looking back in evening sunshine.

At the top. It's cold!

We finally reached the top exhausted and quickly decided (since it was now 6:30) that we would stop at the first place on the descent and find ourselves rooms. Which is why we find ourselves in Warth am Arlberg in a top floor guest house room with fantastic views. Tomorrow we have another 1800+ m col, so are bracing ourselves for the hard climb. 

The view from our hotel window.

Despite all we did in the Pyrenean trip, John C and I (JR) both agree that today was harder than anything we did then, mostly because of carrying our own stuff.

Vital Statistics

70.76 km, 45.82 miles, Average speed 14.1 kph, Maximum speed 60.1 kph, 5 hrs in the saddle, 2291 m climbed

5963 calories used.

Day 9: The A Team Report is delayed

Just to let you know that the guys are safely tucked up in a hotel for the night (probably just as well - the forecast is for an extremely cold night in the mountains, and they're all in one-man tents so they can hardly huddle together for warmth!).

They were intending to file their report using the Wifi link at the hotel, but they wrote for so long that the money ran out. I'm promised a newsy report first thing in the morning.

***You might also start looking back at previous posts, as the guys have sent me some lovely photos which I am adding as I get time.***

Day 9: The day according to Team B

John H phoned in his report from St. Gallen.

I began the day with the rest of the group, wanting to have a go at one of the big climbs before I turned back. I got my wish as I was basically dragged up one hill up to around 1200m with guys. At this point, about 15 miles in the wrong direction for getting back to Zurich, I decided to I’d better turn round. I’m slower at climbing than the others, not having had the time to train, and I didn’t want to hold them up or myself. I swapped some bread sticks for cheese with they guys and began to retrace my steps.

I didn’t actually take exactly the same route as yesterday, trying a few new routes to vary the scenery, which is amazing, and enjoying fantastic weather for the whole day. At Altstatten, I discovered a nice cycle route which took me out of town in style. However, one road was really tough – climbing up to Gias, I found that the road was 18% which was a nasty surprise. In fact I had so much trouble making the climb that I contemplated chucking out various bits of my kit to lighten the load! At one point, I stopped at a roadside shack, and a woman there asked me why I wasn’t taking the funicular, (I didn’t take it, by the way, honest…). The last bit of the ride was the least pleasurable – on a more main road than I’d have liked, with traffic whizzing past scarily close.

The decision to turn around proved to be very sensible as I only got to my intended campsite at 7.30pm, just as reception was closing. Unfortunately I’m nowhere near any shops, so tea is going to be the left-overs from lunch, and I’ll be falling asleep dreaming of a big breakfast. I’m 6 miles out of St. Gallen, in a nice spot by a river, in the base of a little valley. This of course means that I will have to do a climb first thing in the morning to get out of the valley… I’ve managed over 60 miles, which is a respectable distance, and had a great day’s cycling.

I’d like to wish the A Team all the best for their big climbs to come and a safe ride to Venice.

Day 8: Mammem to Feldkirch

Today was a 4 country day! We passed through Swizerland, Germany, Lichtenstein and Austria.

Despite the plums missing the tent, 3 of the team hardly slept last night because some Swiss folk in an adjacent camper van had a party until about 2pm, and with 3 churches within hearing range we were serenaded by bells on the hour every hour. John C slept like a baby throughout and awoke refreshed, wondering why the others looked so bleary eyed!

We emerged to find a really heavy dew had soaked everything, and the low cloud and mist meant we had a slow wet pack up. We headed off and immediately discovered a small problem. It turned out that there was a big team cycling event going on around the lake. This would have been fine, except they were going round clockwise... and we were going anti-clockwise! As the racers weren't expecting us, some of them weren't really looking out for moving obstacles, so there were some interesting problems avoiding on-coming cyclists.

A group photo with a little perspective trick that somehow makes Jeremy look even taller than normal.

Luckily, we emerged unscathed and went into Konstanz itself - which is how we went back into Germany as the town is across the border. Then we crossed a narrow spit of land between 2 parts of the lake which gave us fantastic views over the water and of the many sailing boats.

Taking the cycle paths around the lake gave us a pleasant, mainly traffic-free ride, but it did slow us down as the road weaved around quite a bit and some parts were gravel rather than tarmac which really saps the speed. The weather was sunny by now, and we found a lovely lunch spot on the shore, with a picnic table and plenty of room for us to spread out all our wet stuff to dry. We're not sure that the couple trying to have a romantic picnic there were pleased by our arrival, but they did appear to have arrived on a tandem, so maybe they understood even though they studiously ignored us.

After lunch came a substantial climb up to St Gallen - a very picturesque town with great views across the lake on the way. Then we picked up another road from there going towards Trogen, which gave us another big climb. This eventually mellowed into a high-level undulating ride through meadows to the sound of cow bells. You almost expected Julie Andrews to come running through the pastures singing! The route topped of at the Ruppenpass at 1003m - though it was another of those anonymous passes, without a height sign. John H said it didn't feel very anonymous!

The route descended 600m (fun!) to a plateau containing the Rhine. The views from there were spectacular - flat land in front of us with the Alps rising out of it in the distance (and the "Yikes, that's where we are headed next" thoughts running around our brains...). After a while we reached a town called Altstatten where we had decided to pick up a road south, as this gave us the chance to go into Lichtenstein. Unfortunately, our talent for disaster caught up with us again. First, we had hoped to pick up food, but the shops were all shut. Secondly, there was a huge running race on and thirdly the race was using the road we'd hoped to take and was all barricaded off. Fortunately an official let us through one barrier, then 2 other marshals helped us to find an alternative route, but it still took us half an hour to leave! We had time to appreciate that the race leaders were going at an impressive speed.

All the delays meant that we finally reached Lichtenstein at 7.15pm. For the record, it took us 15 minutes to cross it! We then had a quick sprint to get into Austria before it was too dark to put up our tents. Fortunately we reached Feldkirch at 7.40pm, just in time to be met by a very friendly campsite host and managed to put up the tents just before dark.

The B Team in action on the climb towards St Gallen, with John C bringing up the rear.

John H is remarkably unscathed. The rest of the us are impressed by how he kept up, not having had the week's riding we had, having had little time to do practice rides and never having ridden with laden panniers! Tomorrow - the A team knows it has to face some really big climbing. The B team has to work out how to retrace his steps in an interesting way to get back to Zurich in one piece and avoid doing an extra 10 miles in the airport car park. We wish him a safe journey and wish he could have been with us for longer.

Vital Statistics

112.7km / 70.8miles, 6 hours 2 minutes in the saddle, climb 1091m, 4773 calories used, 18.6kph average speed, Max speed 47.4kph.

Day 7 - Todtnau to Mammem

We've had a really good day today. We successfully met up with John H as planned and we're now camped on the Bodensee (aka Lake Konstanz). Here's the blow by blow account.

We had a tasty breakfast of bread rolls, cheese and jam, but it didn't really have enough calories for cyclists. We got out just after 8.30am and quickly found a good bakery which helped to solve the breakfast problem and give us the makings of an excellent lunch. Then straight out of town, our route was a 10km of constant climbing up to one of the highest passes in the Black Forest - Roy nearly murdered Jeremy when he discovered that this was an "optional route" (he says he enjoyed it really, but this should be renamed the Highest Roads tour). The climb took an hour and John C noticed he'd already used 1000 calories by the time we got to the top - a place called Feldberg at 1233m. It only took us 11 minutes to get down the other side, which was a really fun descent, reaching speeds of nearly 40mph. On route we saw quite a number of kites (ie. the birds) skimming over the trees.

The top of the pass

The ride continued to be really enjoyable, with really nice weather and great views  into the mountains across a deep cut valley. We followed a high route across the tops to Bonndorn, which although at a height, was just gently undulating, so it was easy cycling and helped us recover from the brutal start. We had a nice lunch with great views and the weather held fair as we got back on the road, apart from a lone grey cloud that took a liking to us and followed us for about an hour, dropping spits and spots of rain to remind us it was there. At one point Jeremy showed his map reading prowess by confidently predicting a  road was an easy downhill, only for the group to discover it was an up of 15%!

At Stuhlingen where we crossed the border into Switzerland, and made our way to Neuhausen to meet up with John H and have a look at the Rhinefall, the biggest waterfall in Europe. It really is big - only a 23m drop, but phenomenal amount of water coming over it at a huge speed, in an impressive gorge. John H had cycled up from Zurich and had arrived on the East bank and rung us from there. He only had to wait about 45minutes for us to arrive, which gave him chance to get to the West side. John had already done quite a few more miles than he'd expected to at this point because he'd had great difficulty leaving the carpark at Zurich airport! He put on a significant number of miles going round in circles, trying to avoid taking the exit to the motorway. Once he'd escaped that things still didn't go smoothly as he found roadworks blocking his way and resorted to cycling across a field to get around them! Who does he think he is, Lance Armstrong?!

Meeting up with John H at the Rhinefalls

A view from further up gives a better idea of the size and the volume of water.

At the Rhinefalls, John C had been telling John H what a good map reader Jeremy is. So of course Jeremy then made a map-reading error almost immediately!! Eventually on right track again, we followed a cycle route that began as a cycle lane on the main road, but then took us along more minor roads and through small villages running close to the Rhine. The route signing was a bit ambiguous, but it was a nice route and made for a very pleasant end to the afternoon, taking us to the shores of the Bodensee / Lake Konstanz.

Sunset over Lake Konstanz

We are now in a campsite at Mammem on the shores of the lake. It's a treat because it has a special area for tents - much appreciated as it's not muddy or compacted into concrete by motorhomes or caravans. We've sited the tents under some plum trees which may be a mistake - we suspect we'll get plum-bombed during the nice if the breeze freshens. We just had some really good food - fish from the lake for Roy and Jeremy, and the others have had a Regional Speciality - risotto poured into a Swiss Cheese then scraped out so you get some cheese melted into the risotto. Apparently people come from miles around to eat this and 1 cheese lasts a long time, being large enough to use for 100kg rice. We are currently perusing dessert menus, though John C is almost asleep and John H is only awake thanks to red bull and caffine having only got 2 hours sleep in his efforts to get here. Roy is starting to think that the others are all mad and John H is feeling lardy compared to the other 3 whippet-fit cyclists. Essentially though, we are all tired but happy after much nicer weather than on the last few days, and with the weather forecast promising more of the same, we're looking forward to tomorrow.

 Risotto served from a cheese.

Vital Statistics
106.4km cycled / 66.4miles, 5 hours 20 in saddle, 1042m climbed, 4420 calories used. 19.9kmh, max speed 62.3kph.

Day 6 - Pairis to Todtnau

Blogger support would like to apologise in advance for any spelling errors in today's blog. These will be the result of a phone line that mushed consonants + my unfamiliarity with the Geography of this bit. So - here goes...

Today was an extraordinarily hard day. We started early and quickly reached Colmar in lovely weather, but as we approached the German border, we could see massive black clouds glowering over the Black Forest, right above the area we were aiming for - and we would find that they were as nasty as they looked.

On the way up to "La Ligne"in nice weather.

The morning route we took to Colmar ran along the top of a ridge called "La Ligne" that had obviously been a major front in the First World War, because we kept passing war memorials at the roadside. It was sobering, and made us think about the sacrifice of all those soldiers and how lucky we are to be free to do what we are doing now.

One of the many war memorials on the ridge.

View back over the typical high rolling landscape of the Vosges.

We crossed into Germany over the Rhine floodplain. It was much wider than Jeremy had imagined it would be, and the river surprisingly large, with a channel made to divert some of the flow to a hydro-electric dam, as well as the navigable river which was full of barges. The actual crossing of the border was celebrated by Mother Nature with an astonishing torrential downpour - hail, thunder and lightening -the works. We tried sheltering under a tree next to the church in Ihringen to stay dry whilst we ate our lunch, but it rained so hard that in the end we were getting as wet as if we'd been out in the storm. In the midst of this, Roy still managed to change his brake blocks!

Crossing the hydro-electric channel of the Rhine, just before the deluge.

Fortunately the hail and thunder stopped fairly early in the proceedings, but when we set out for Freiburg, the first half hour was stunningly wet with roads awash and all of us completely soaked through with water sloshing in our shoes. At this point, Jeremy would like to remind Chris, if he's reading this, that he promised to double his sponsorship if the weather was bad!

We reached the outskirts of Freiburg at around 3pm, now mostly dry, but the change of country really hit home as we realised that all the road signs were very different from the French style, and the way that they portrayed information was really unfamiliar. We eventually managed to reach the Centre through following cycle routes (slow) and finally working out the signs. There we briefly appreciated the picturesque Cathedral before noticing the rather nice looking food shop next to it which took our attention for a while.

Then we tried to leave Freiburg and failed several times to do so... initially because we found the route we had hoped to take (to save time a more main route than usual that cut out a climb and some wiggles) was a 'bikes forbidden' route. This forced us to revert to Plan A - a quiet road that just happened to have a major climb in it. But then we couldn't find the right road and it had become late enough for rush hour to start. Ironically, at one point on our way into town we had stopped at a cycle shop to see if they had any maps of the region as we felt ours weren't detailed enough, and they had tried to sell us a map of Freiburg, which we'd turned down! We eventually got on the correct route out of town with the help of a map we bought in a petrol station and then, breaking the stereotype yet again, asking a passerby (asked in German, reply in German and understood!), but we were very behind schedule at this point - it was just after 5pm and we faced a steep 16 km (10 mile) climb to the Schauinsland Pass (over 1200m) - and we didn't reach the top until 7pm!

View of rain over the Rhine Valley with the Vosges in the background.

The view at the top of the Col. Looks as wintry as it felt.

We'd hoped to stop at Birkendorf for the evening, but quickly abandoned that idea, so we made the fast descent looking for somewhere to stay as we went. We did pass a campsite near the top of the descent but it looked pretty windswept and chilly, plus we were going so fast we were about a kilometre past it before we knew it. And that is why we find ourselves tonight in a hotel in Todtnau. That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.

So what have we learned today? Well - we found out that Roy can even manage fiddly tasks in a monsoon. John has resolved to make sure in future that the navigator has any map he wants (in advance presumably). And Jeremy has finally worked out why he has so little free time on a cycling trip, "Well, if we're not cycling, we're either eating or looking for food or thinking about where we can look for food..."

We are particularly looking forward to Day 7. John H, who was part of the original group, but unable to make the tour because of other commitments, is coming out to join us for a weekend's cycling. We're hoping to rendezvous with him around 3pm, and we're also delighted to see that he's bringing good weather with him. The forecast is for a pleasantly warm and sunny day.

Vital Statistics
113km, 6 hours 15mins in saddle, climbed 1508m, 70.31miles, 5776 calories used.

Day 5 - Lac de Bouzey to Pairis

Another low-tech post again tonight. The guys would like to thank everyone who has looked at the blog, and those who have commented. They would like you to know that the did manage to get a Wifi link for a little while last night, and tried to send a comment themselves, but the link wasn't good enough and it didn't go through. Here's the update that they gave me.

We got away late this morning because everything was so wet that it took us a while to get packed up, so we didn't leave until around 10am. We first went into Epinal to find a mobile phone charger for John, as his had packed up. Having succeeded in our first aim, we then left Epinal, following the Moselle River along a very pleasant route - a nice, quiet and picturesque road that followed the river bank, made even better as we were cycling in the sun for the first time in a while.

We crossed the river to little town called Arthes which is where we'd been told about the bike shop that could supply a replacement for Jeremy's broken gear changer. When we eventually found the shop, it turned out to be an amazingly large and well-stocked temple to expensive touring bikes with lots of lovely Campagnolo kit. To give you an idea of the prices, John found a magnesium handlebar stem for 210 Euros!! They had the spare part that Jeremy needed, but it took us a while to explain to the shopkeeper that Jeremy could fit it himself. He's been able to get just the single lever he needs from a used set and managed to get if for half the price of a new one, so he's quite pleased.

We then headed south into in a strong headwind, again following the Moselle. When we drew level with  Remiremont on the opposite bank, our path turned away from the river and we started heading east up a valley to our first col. This was Col de Haut, a 799m pass, but we were a little disappointed that it didn't have an official name and height sign. We were a lot disappointed by the rain, and even more so by the driver of a car coming towards us that was overtaking and didn't bother to pull back on to his own side of the road as he roared passed us rather too close for comfort. Still - first nasty driver really, so we're doing ok. Another feature of the route was that it went through various places where granite was being worked. One town called Le Syndicate called itself "Le Ville de Granite", so it's obviously a big industry here.

Next stop was a town that's an outdoor activity centre for the Vosges, called Gerardmer. It's picturesque, with a lake and lots of posh shops. It was getting colder so it was a good chance for a hot drink and to get stocked up on food. We then headed out of town, up a long climb through conifer forests to the next col. Where we could see through the trees, there were nice views over to a string of lakes. We stopped briefly at a view point - Roche du Diable - rock of the Devil - Jeremy says it's mostly granite, and of course we believe him, since he's the trip geologist!

 Roche du Diable

Then our first proper col - Col de la Schlucht - 1139m - with a proper sign to pose next to, just like we like them.

First "proper" Col.

After that we followed the Route de Cretes -  which runs along the top of a high ridge up to 1228m and has stunning views which particularly impressed Roy, but the weather turned wet and cold, although the view meant we could see tantalising patches of sun in the distance.

Eventually dropped down towards our goal for the night - Orby. It was a spectacular descent, which we all enjoyed a lot. We didn't quite make Orby - it was getting late because of the late start and the shopping trips (and not because of our taxi turning up late, despite what John said!), so when we passed a nice looking campsite we decided to just go in.

So we're in Pairis, and because we were so wet and mucky, we have rented a small chalet. We have manage to get dry and warm but it does smell of "well exercised" men... There's a pair of bunks and a double bed, which Roy got it as the oldest! John was basically tired enough to sleep anywhere and Jeremy felt the same, so there wasn't much of a fight over it. It's definitely a Campsite with Character. It's run by moderately ancient lady who offered to feed us sausage and chips, but was unfazed by having 2 veggies in the party and responded with a nice big heap of pasta and a tomato salad, which we ate in front of a roaring wood burning stove, trying to take as long as possible to finish it. We're currently trying to dry washing - we did lots.

Our Chalet next morning

We're looking forward to more beautiful views over the Vosges tomorrow, when the weather promises to be a little better, and we're hoping to get away early to make up for the shorter distance today.

Vital Statistics
102.37km covered, 1425m climbed, 5hours 22mins in the saddle, Average speed 19kph, 5133 calories used,