As its a holiday weekend, I had arranged 2 ride options. One Friday and the identical route on Monday. On Thursday evening there were 3 signed up for Friday. Companion 1 got the train out to Gelterkinden which arrived at 09:04 and we set off together into Eglisee and the other 2. Along the way, not a clue how, we managed to be late.... and a frantic "We are coming" text message was sent just as we got to the edge of the river at Birsfelden. Perhaps we had been chatting too much..... :)
All was fine and we gathered at the tram stop - initial introductions to Companion 3 - a new joiner - before we set off. We caught a lovely draft on this initial ride through the trees from 2 riders in front but they left us behind after a few kms. Now we had to navigate the shared path along the Wiese with people and their children and dogs. This didnt seem to slow us down much though as, according to Strava, I had some PBs - clinging on for dear life at the back.... It wasnt very long till we reached the start of the climb at Schopfheim. After a short stop to eat after we finished negotiating some roadworks we set off. Once on the real climb we settled in all at our own pace. The weather was cool but sunny so my factor 50 was needed.
At this point everything was green and very springlike, that would change later.
Companion 1 and I are member of a cycling community that collects approved climbs - collect just means cycle under your own power and add them to your list - and today we had the opportunity to collect 3. The first of these meant we needed to go a bit off road and a short diversion over some gravelly/mud tracks. Col 1 successfully collected, we continued up the hill towards Gersbach.
The road had been quiet so far with very little traffic which was great. Once back on the tarmac, we made our way up again and the traffic was still very light. As we climbed steadily upwards we began to see small patches of snow. To start with, this was a tiny snowball size clump in the shade of a tree but the higher we went, the bigger these clumps became.
This is col 2
After a tiny detour to make sure we had successfully collected Col 2, we started the last part of the climbing and arrived in Gersbach to even deeper snow. I have been here once before and I knew there was a toilet. When I was last here it was 20 Eurocent and today it was 50. Its been a while.... We had a proper stop here and were concerned about Companion 2s front brake lever which appeared to do nothing when pressed. This lack of braking meant the rest of the adventure was going to be a bit concerning. All ended fine though and the bike is now booked in for a service and root cause analysis :).
After Gersbach its all downhill to home. First we had to collect Col 3. This led us on a narrow empty road at the top of the hill with brilliant views all around.
What a beautiful bike I hear you say!
Now it was time to go back down the hill. This was just brilliant, once down the steep part into the gorge we descended all the way to Wehr where we had planned a coffee stop. Before that, we had a wonderful run down the valley, the trees and steep sides flying past and still hardly any cars so we had a great time. The photos dont do it justice.
Now the coffee stop, which officially took ages. But we were refreshed with soup or chips or simply a really warm hot chocolate. Setting off again for the last run downhill before we turned west towards home through the Naturschutzgebiet Wehramündung avoiding people and dogs again and a teeny tiny bit of gravel. This is where the wind started... jings.
The next section of the ride was perhaps not as fast as the initial flat section but this one had head wind, in abundance.
We ploughed through the headwind and finally ended up at Wyhlen where we said goodbye to Companion 2 - going home and to arrange the bike service. The rest of us found the river crossing and the very new cycle path that used to be a road and Companion 1 continued on back to Basel while me and Companion 3 cycled back to Gelterkinden.
Altogether a great ride - the weather was good - except the head wind - there wasnt much traffic and the scenery was wonderful.I am doing it all again tomorrow - Monday 6th April.
Total distance - 132km
Climbing : 1072m
Avg speed: 22km/h
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