Apr-Jul - contrasting rides

It's been a year of contrasts, so far.  Four, depending on how you count them, different 1200's ... one being 6+6.

Sardinia and Sicily

First there was Sardinia and Sicily.  The latter became my first DNF; done in by a mechanical issue ...

Hamid, Shab and Sandy were there for the Italian rides.  None of us had been to Sardinia before.  Sandy and I had traveled around Sicily a few years ago, sans bike.  I was interested in heading back; Hamid wanted to complete the Italian tour and talked me into this pair of 600k's with only a few hours in between.

Randonesia has set in now.  My memories of the rides and terrain are fading.  Sardinia was like an SR600 only with a 40 hour time limit vs 60 hours; almost 10,000 meters of climbing.  The roads were generally good and the scenery somewhat stark, services few and far between.  I would go back and ride in Sardinia.  The ride provided an overnight location and I got a few hours sleep.  With a night start, Hamid and I finished up on the afternoon of the second day with a few hours to spare.  From there we took the ferry to Sicily, a 12 hour overnight jaunt, and then a morning start to the next 600k once we were off the ferry and checked into the next ride.

The Sicily ride also provided a sleep location but that was a brief one.  While well organized, the logistics of checking in, eating and into the hotel room used up an inordinate amount of time - almost half of what we could allow ourselves.  Prior to getting there it was incredibly windy, enough to stop you in your tracks going downhill, and then the temperature dropped way, way down, creating problems for many riders.  I was well equipped as usual, always afraid of being cold. 

Mid afternoon of that day, three of us riding together (Hamid, the Italian Aldo and I), we found ourselves in the middle of a small group, add more Italians and some Brazilian friends.  A short steep curve to a stop sign and I braked hard, slid and crashed.  A little road rash in a few places and I was ok ... but the bike wasn't.  Somehow I'd bent my rear wheel.  Ranial, a Brazilian friend, helped get it straight enough to roll but there really was no way to do 100k at any speed.  Hamid and Also rode ahead to the next Control and chased down a possibility of a replacement wheel but I made the only realistic decision - by the time a wheel would have gotten to me, I'd be out of time.  I would have been risking my friends' completion as well.  I rode slowly to the coastal rail service and took the train to Palermo, getting there in time to welcome Hamid and Aldo who finished.

My memories of the DNF have mostly clouded out everything else from that ride.  From the sounds of things, I didn't miss much in that last 100k.  Lots and lots of traffic on crowded roads made Wolfgang quit 20km before the end even though he had time.  Hamid and Aldo stuck it out but that's not a route that I'd want to hit again.  Riding in the interior of Sicily was great but not on the coast. 

Logistically, this was a very difficult combo.  Everything was geared and timed to taking that once-a-week ferry.  That's what produced the night start.  Multiple drop bags, including one for the ferry and large luggage handling ... it's not something that I'd want to be responsible for. 

We had a good time but the DNF added a sour note.  The champagne stayed corked :).

Sunshine 1200k

Back to the US, with a few days to spare, I was organizing the Sunshine 1200k.  We had a pre-ride one week before - Melanie, Susan, Greg, Jerry, John, Jim and me, supported by Wayne.  We weren't off the keys before Melanie threw in the towel and then Jim and John.  Four of us completed, but it was brutally hot.  Melanie worked with Wayne to support us and in some instances, were only 12 miles between support stops. 

Jerry and I hung out in Fort Myers Beach for the intervening day and then supported the main event with about 20 riders.  We had a few DNFs for various reasons but no injuries, thank goodness.  A road closure due to a major accident created a re-routing issue on the 3rd day and some bonus miles for many.  I was delighted to have Vinny complete - his first time through a Florida ride without having to come back and ride it as a Permanent.  He's learning how to cope with the heat. 

I'm not sure if I'll run it again.  Ask me again in a coupe of years :).  It's not a route issue ... had there not been the Cracker Swamp and Tip to Tail rides, perhaps there would have been more demand.  It's just a whole lot of work to run a point-to-point for a small group of people.  That said, we received praise from the riders and that made it worthwhile.

Belgium HCH

Shortly after the Sunshine ride was over, we headed north and at the end of June I found myself winging to Frankfurt, meeting up with Hamid and Greg and heading to Belgium.  I had ridden Herentals=>Cosne sur Loire=>Herentals before and enjoyed it.  An easy 1200k, comparatively speaking, it's very well organized, relatively flat, scenic mostly through France with the bike tour of Paris thrown in for good measure.  The ride fee covers most expenses other than snacks and dinner each day.  If you haven't done it before, do it.  Jan Geerts runs it every year, even PBP years. 

Slovenia

From Herentals we had three days to get to Slovenia, a full 12 hour drive that turned out to be more like 14-15.  We met up with Shab in Munich, who was going to support us on the upcoming ride.  She had a car and Hamid rode with her to Markovci, a tiny not-even-a-town in the northeast corner of Slovenia.  Our drive there took us into Hungary !

In Slovenia we met up with Mark Thomas from the US and Stephen Kenny from Alberta and his riding companion from Russia.  Stephen had met her doing four corners of Croatia a few years ago.  She speaks some French, as does Stephen ... which created the connection.

This ride was completely DIY.  Mark had made bookings before/after the ride at Farm Mali Raj, a delightful Agraturismo, and hotels in three locations for the nights during the ride. 

It was a true smorgasbord !  Slovenia=>Austria=>Slovenia=>Austria=>Czech Republic=>Slovakia=>Austria=>Hungary=>Slovenia; three currencies, multiple food offerings, a variety of road surfaces (you can tell that Hungary has a poor economy ...) some steep climbing ...

At the top of one hill, pausing, the sign ahead warned drivers of a 15% descent.  Looking backwards, a similar sign warned of 16% - that was the way we had come up ! Yikes !

We had heat, cold rain, a dirt track heading into Bratislava and a dawn arrival - ugh.  Supported by Shab we made it through but it would have been difficult otherwise.  She had food for us; had already checked into hotel rooms; but we didn't see her during the day.  Greg had stomach issues on the morning of Day 2 and decided to do some touring instead, renting a car and going to Vienna.

The culture changes were substantial country-to-country.  One very nice thing about this ride is that, unlike riding in France or Italy (or Spain !), there's no daily "siesta" with nothing open in the afternoon.  We were always able to find something ... but weren't always able to pay for it !  I made two stops one morning in Czech Rep before finding one that took a credit card as I didn't have any local currency.  Hungary, which has its own, didn't refuse Euros; Czech did.  Go figure. I really wanted that coffee !

Leaving tourist-crowded Prague late afternoon on Day 2(amazing !), I again caught up with Mark Thomas and we stopped at a McD's before leaving the city.  The automated ordering machines wouldn't take my credit cards but Mark waived his phone with Apple Pay and it did the job.  I have now installed Apple Pay ... but have yet to use it.  Soon afterwards, I hit something and broke a spoke ...oh oh.  I loosened some opposing spokes and made it to the overnight, installing a Fiber-Fix spoke and fixing the side-to-side but leaving a hop. That hop adds significantly to the rolling resistance and I was constantly checking for more issues.  I knew that there were spokes that were over-tight and I was risking more breaks.  On Day 4, the other shoe dropped or, rather, another spoke went.  That added another hop and crossed fingers.  Gingerly I made it through the rest of the ride, finishing about 9:15 for a time of 87:15 vs the time limit of (I think), 93.  Hamid finished a few minutes earlier; Mark about an hour earlier; Stephen and the Russian girl, hours and hours earlier.  Stephen actually rode in the dark some days, which is unusual. 

This was an interesting albeit difficult ride. I want to go back for some touring; we may do that after PBP this year.  I definitely want to do some riding in Germany and Austria.  There are bike paths everywhere, good bike paths.  We had busy roads elsewhere, other than Slovenia, although the drivers were very considerate.  There were a number of times that we stopped to let a line of traffic go through. 

Wrap up

Back at the Mali Raj, we organized and headed out.  Greg and I overnighted in Passau and then picked up Hamid in Munich, Shab's gateway.  We drove to FRA and flew off.  I picked up Cassie on the way back to the cottage and that's a wrap !