Hills, more hills and a bit of the Alps: 600 km round Bavaria
Hills, more hills and a bit of the Alps:
600 km round Bavaria
To complete my Super Randonneur Series for 2022, and as my last long audax before LEL, I entered ARA Nordbayern’s 600 Brevet, organised by Karl and Heidi Weimann, which took place over the weekend of 2 and 3 July 2022. This looked like a particularly nice audax for me because it effectively covered home territory.
The start was in Treuchtlingen in the Franconian Jura (Fränkische Alb). From 8 am the 80 of us who turned up to ride were set off in groups, a few minutes part. It was a slightly cool, misty morning but the forecast for the weekend was hot and mostly dry. Unfortunately there was also a strong breeze from the south-east, though it was forecast to switch back to a westerly direction by Sunday.
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| Kilometerfresser is ready for his Bavarian adventure |
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| At the start in Treuchtlingen |
The first leg took us on a loop eastwards, crossing the rolling hills of the Franconian Jura almost to Regensburg, with a control after 102 km. As usual, the starting pace was fairly hectic. I tried to stay attached to my starting group, hoping to gain some free speed from drafting, but the intensity was too high, so after half an hour I dropped back and decided to ride at my own pace. The sun soon burnt off the mist, and the temperature began to rise. After an hour or so, I found myself riding with a small group of riders, one on a recumbent bike. I started chatting to Christoph who had done PBP previously and also had a place on LEL. I’ve been finding it very helpful to talk to riders about their experiences of long brevets, what worked, what didn’t work. At this point I had a good system for audaxes up to 600 km, but was very uncertain about how I would get on during longer distances. Christoph had a relaxed pace and we passed the time comfortably.
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| Riding with Christoph |
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| Beautifully empty roads |
At about 10.30 am the route took us through a small village called Litterzhofen where my mother’s cousin Michael lives. I’d messaged him ahead of time, and amazingly he was waiting by the village sign just as we arrived. Coffee and fresh croissants were waiting at the house, so, of course, Christoph and I decided to make a quick stop. Breakfast at my hotel had been a bit limited, so this was a perfect pick-me-up. Replenished, we pushed on and reached the control – a petrol station outside Hemau – by about 12.30.
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| Taking a break in Litterzhofen |
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| The start of a hot and cloudless day |
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| A beautiful tree in the distance |
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| Eichhofen |
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| Eichhofen brewery |
From Hemau, the route turned southeast, towards the Danube, which we crossed about an hour later. The Danube floodplain gave us some relief from climbing, but soon after we were back in a hilly region between Danube and the river Isar, and here the heat and the headwind really started to drain our energies. Going uphill provided some shelter from the wind but as soon as we reached the top, the wind caught us, giving our legs no relief. We reached the next control, Wörth an der Isar, by 16.40, having covered 190 km. It was a motorway service station, but surprisingly well suited for groups of sweat-soaked cyclists. It was great to sit down for a hot meal – Kaiserschmarrn hit the sport perfectly.
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| Crossing the Danube |
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| Kaiserschmarrn |
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| Looking hot and tired |
As soon as we crossed the river Isar we were back in hilly country which now seemed to go on forever. I began to be a bit concerned about time. I was below my usual 25 kph average riding time which I had previously found I could hold even on undulating ground, so I said good-bye to Christoph and decided to pick up the pace a bit. The temperature dropped, providing some relief. At 19.40 I reached the third control, another petrol station just outside Waldkraiburg, and found a large group of audaxers there, though I’d not seen so many on the road. Leaving the control, I had a quick chat with Mike, who was conspicuously wearing a Randonneurs USA jersey (and of course I’m now a member of RUSA!). He’s ex US army and settled in Bavaria after meeting his wife here.
The route took us across the Inn, the third significant river of the day, and at this point actually longer than the Danube, though it is a tributary. Through Waldkraiburg, a lovely town with the distinctive Inn valley architecture common to all the towns along the river in Bavaria, and straight uphill again. As dusk began to fall, it cooled off, the wind dropped and the terrain finally flattened out on to the Alpine foreland. At sunset I passed Seeon Abbey, its onion-domes just visible in the falling dark. Onwards, and at night I eventually reached Prien on the shore of Lake Chiemsee, where a town festival with closed roads jarred me out of the calm of night riding. The control here was a McDonalds, at 301 km. Since it was already 22.15 and I had a hotel booked another 19 km further along the route, I asked staff to just stamp my brevet card stamped and then I pushed on.
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| Waldkraiburg with the typical architecture of the Inn valley |
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| Bavaria is lovely |
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| The river Isar |
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| A first glimpse of the Alps in the evening light | |
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| Seeon Abbey is just visible in the falling dark |
Straight out of Prien there was another steep climb, the route now turning south-west towards the Alps. Then downhill, along a dark and quiet road, a brightly lit cement factory suddenly appearing on the left, then back into the dark. And finally, there was the sign for the village of Rohrdorf where my hotel was. I reached the lovely Gasthofzur Post at 23.00, having phoned ahead to warn them when I was coming. What a relief. In spite of the late hour the receptionist brought bread rolls with cheese and ham to my room, and the proprietor, who knew about audax riding, even gave me an alcohol-free wheat beer for re-hydration. It was heaven. A quick shower, food, devices plugged in and I fell asleep. For a glorious three and a half hours.
I set off at 4.15 am and soon afterwards the sky turned grey, as dawn was breaking. I was now heading west, with the uncomfortable sensation of wind on my face. The wind had turned in the night, back to its prevailing north-westerly direction. This was going to be another long day: with a headwind out and a headwind back! I crossed the river Inn again, which was here still a fast-flowing Alpine river, and after a further 10 km I reached the big climb of this audax.
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| Dawn |
The road up Hundhamer Berg crosses one of the Alpine pre-mountains. The climb is about 3 km with an average of 9%, starting with a steep section of about 1 km, with a ramp up to 15%. The air felt warm and humid and as soon as I reached the top there was a rain shower, so I stopped in a bus shelter for a few minutes and watched the sun rise, far in the east. After a quick descent, I passed through a village, saying “servus” to a man out early on his bike. He saw me, and responded “Host ah kiah g’hoit?”[1] Then followed another, shorter, climb and then a long descent through a forest back down towards Gmund by Lake Tegernsee.
[1] Sorry,
but I needed to leave this in the original Bavarian. He said “did you get cows
as well?”
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| Sunrise from the top of Hundhamer Berg |
The temperature had now dropped at bit and at this point I felt fairly damp, since the roads were wet. I was also beginning to feel quite hungry, so decided I needed to stop to eat the bread roll the hotel had packed for me. I looked for a spot to sit in the sun to warm up, but of course there was none nearby. Twenty minutes later, my mood depressed, I found a bench in a village and sat down for a rest. I felt terrible. I was cold, and I’d only done 46 km so far and that had taken me more than two hours. I was so slow! Embarrassingly slow. At this rate I wouldn’t finish until late at night. Clearly my recent holiday in the US had destroyed my fitness. And I was so tired! The three hours of sleep had done nothing. I felt like I could just fall asleep on the bench. How could I possibly ride another 250 km now? Bad Tölz, the upcoming control, has a train station. I could just wait for the first train, and I’d be back at my parents’ house in time for breakfast and a nap. This would be my first audax dnf. How depressing. I felt like crying. I ate a Snickers bar, and made a deal with myself to carry on past Bad Tölz, to the next train station along the route, and then I would reassess. Two female riders passed me. Maybe I could catch them up for some company.
I caught them up not long after. One of the women was planning to take the train as well, as she’d developed a very painful genital sore and just couldn’t keep riding, but the other was carrying on. I decided to swallow my desire to whinge at them. Their pace was a bit too slow for me, so I carried on to Bad Tölz, where I found an open bakery. Amazing for 7.30 am on a Sunday morning. The lady in the bakery stamped my brevet card and I bought a donut and a coffee. And then I carried on.
An hour later I reached the southern shore of Starnberger See (Lake Starnberg). I knew there was a train station here somewhere, but the urge to quit had disappeared. The lake looked Mediterranean in the morning sun and I decided that audaxing wasn’t so awful after all. The route now gradually turned northwest, and I was back in hilly country that offered glorious views south towards the Alps.
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| Starnberger See looking Mediterranean |
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| The Alps visible in the distance |
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| And a bit further away |
I reached Landsberg where the control was, by about 11.30 am. It’s another lovely town that I’d never visited before, but there wasn’t enough time to stop. I crossed the river Lech, the third big tributary of the Danube on this route, after Isar and Inn, and headed to find the control, another petrol station. Time for a coke and ice cream. I had now covered 459 km. My average speed had picked up again and I’d clawed back two extra hours time-in-hand. Clearly I had bonked earlier in the morning, after the two big climbs, and now, fuelled properly, I was making good progress.
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| Crossing the river Lech at Lansberg |
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| Refuelling |
The route was fairly flat at first, heading up a steep terrace above the Lech river plain before turning north. The terrace was aptly called Prügelberg (beating mountain), with a gratuitous section of 18% thrown in by our organisers. I walked. The next stretch of the route took me through lovely rolling countryside west of Augsburg, called Stauden. It was hotter than the day before (in the low 30s), but the wind was now a cross-wind, so it was less draining. I kept leap-frogging the same three or four riders, one on a recumbent, so even though I was riding by myself, it felt quite sociable. I saw two of them asleep under a tree and not long after I had a quick rest in a bus shelter, until they overtook me again.
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| Sheltering from the heat |
Just before 4 pm, I reached the last control at Wertingen, at 544 km. Of course it was another petrol station. Here I found American Mike again, who had been one of the riders I’d been following on the way here. The others arrived not soon after. Everyone looked very hot and tired, but spirits were good, because the finish was not far off. Mike and I decided to carry on together. He had ridden this audax a number of times before, so he knew the route well, but he was also tired and appreciated English-speaking company. Mike had done PBP, and I was keen to get his insights and advice. The route was wonderfully flat until Donauwörth, where we crossed the Danube again. I had last been here in 2020, when I toured from Cambridge to my parents’ house in Erding, in Bavaria. Reaching Donauwörth had felt so significant then, because from there I was in known territory, and the following day was the last day of my 1300 km tour. As we crossed the bridge, I mentally waved at my less experienced self in 2020.
Not long out of Donauwörth we reached the last climb of the day: out of the floodplain and up a steep river terrace. Mike went ahead, but I was not far behind. My legs felt strong again. Since my wobbly moment in the early morning I had religiously been drinking my 10% drink mix and eating Haribos, as well as eating as much as I could at the controls, and the sustained fuelling was paying off. We rode and we chatted, and the last kilometres passed very quickly. We reached the finish in Treuchtlingen at 19.15, after 35 hours and a few minutes.
Thanks a lot to Karl ad Heidi Weimann for planning such a challenging and beatiful route!
Bonking and nearly quitting
Even though I successfully finished this audax, I came very close to quitting and this experience really knocked my confidence for a while. Even when I’ve felt very bad on previous audaxes, I never actively considered not finishing, but this time I came very close. But a few weeks later, and especially during LEL, I was glad to have had the experience, because I really learnt something from it. For one, I now know that bonking really seriously depresses my mood. It makes me tearful and prone to catastrophising. Second, I found that I have the tools for dealing with it. Obviously fuelling is key. In hindsight, I should have stopped to eat something immediately as soon as I started feeling hungry, but I was also cold, so I made a call in favour of one need (warmth), neglecting the other (food). It happens. But more importantly, I used mental tricks to stop myself from giving up. I forced myself to make a commitment not to quit immediately (head to the next train station, not the nearest one). I also thought about Mark Beaumont’s motto for ultra-cycling “if it’s good now, it will be bad later and if it’s bad now, it will be better later.” It’s trite, but my low mood did really turn out to be transient, followed by really positive feelings quite soon afterwards.
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