General touring stuff
Santiago So, quickly through Santiago. It’s cool. I can imagine living there (you’ll have noticed by now that that’s kind of the benchmark I use). Dense, but not European dense, lots of bars/restaurants/cafes with outdoor seating, different neighborhoods with different vibes. Dig it. The pretty extensive network of bike paths & lanes also touched a soft spot in my heart. Obviously. Something you probably did(n’t)
End on a (literal) low point Because my day ended when I picked up Vera from the airport, I completely forgot about the blog. Oops. Anyway. The last day was kinda great. The first 55km or so were a slight uphill, with the last 45km a descent of about 1100 meters or 3500 feet. The descent was awesome, snaking its way through canyons, over saddles
The best Today was, in general, awesome. Easily the most beautiful stretch of road, almost exclusively through untouched forest on relatively empty roads. I also had better legs and unsurprisingly was in a better mood. It started almost straight off the bat with a 20km climb to cross from Kosovo into Montenegro. It started in a dense deciduous forest on the front of this wall
First, the cycling Compared to day one, the metrics returned to normal, meaning same power numbers as before, but at a 30 bpm discount on the heart rate. At least until I bonked after 95km, just in time to start a 25km climb, then the power fell off a cliff. Joy. Otherwise, it was lovely. Mostly rural, rolling hills mixing between agriculture and untouched forest.
A cool combo in Skopje About five minutes after I got to my hotel last night, a call to prayer sounded. Cue the flashbacks to my time in Kuwait and the less-than-fond memories there (nothing to do with Islam, but the call to prayer takes me back instantly). But this time, it was different - probably because I could hear the thumping bass of what
Adventure time So, round three. You could say bike touring is becoming a part of the annual routine, if you consider three years running to constitute a routine. I can certainly say it feels that way to me, partially because I have looked forward to my next tour since last year, and partially because Vera is great and is happy to have me out of
A sparkling end The ride Last year, after nearly a month on the bike, my rear wheel blew up, and I couldn‘t get it replaced. This meant my tour ended very anti-climactically, pushing my bike home from the train station. Thankfully, this year I got the triumphant ending I wanted: (My friends are the best. This tour wasn‘t my first, and wasn‘t the
Woke up on the wrong side of the bed The ride I woke up this morning and felt blah. Not surprising, considering I had gone hard the day before, and had four hard rides in the past five days (over 23 hours of riding). It was like I woke up bonked. My body was giving me the middle finger. Understandable. Thankfully, having gone through this
Rolling hills are so much fun The ride Technically, this is day 5, as day 4 was a rest and a hike. Anyway. I spent the last day with one of my best buddies in Germany and his family. Was lovely. The hike was lovely, but it was also just nice to be in a family environment. I miss family dinners. Anyway, I rolled out in
More than I hoped for The ride Today was the day circled on the calendar, so to say, mostly because it had the most climbing. On that point, it delivered. But it exceeded expectations pretty much everywhere else. The flats Before doing any climbing (at all), I had a nice 50km or so warm up following the Rhone. The same direction as the day before,
