It was the vertical aspect that had me focusing training on hills, the more the better. Niki has quite a bit of experience in the high mountains with cross country skiing and hiking. However, he was new to mountain biking and we went on dozens of training rides together and a modest number with others. When the Berliners turned up for 5 days, Volker and I went out everyday for 1 1/2 hrs, 500+ vertical metres. Trails whole or in part included the Hameau Trail, the long, continous but quite pretty Dambachgraben road, Wilhelminenberg, Schottenhof, Kahlenbergerdorf, Weinberg and Oberer Roan Trails. From Susanna's parents' place to dirt trails was just a few minutes up the road. A stark comparison to a 45min drive from Fremantle. We were aslo so very lucky with weather, being able to ride almost always without rain.
Some of the bigger rides are below.
Salzburg I
Still in June, Susanna and I took the train to Salzburg. Taking bikes on trains in Austria is very easy but one has to book first. The trip is around 2 hours. Long enough for the weather to turn and it is raining steadily when we arrive and we are saturated by the time we get back indoors. The next day finds the sun shining and we attempt the 1000m high Gaisberg. Suz was feeling a little crook so pulled out two thirds of the way up at a very nice place with excellent views of the mountains to the south. I continued to the top for an Almdudler before meeting up with Suz to enjoy those views over lunch.
23/06/2022 View from the top, above and over lunch 2/3s up, below.
Salzburg II, 16/07/2022
I brought the KTM bike (hybrid) on our second trip to Salzburg so I could ride with Suz up to Werfengweng to Willie's Hut. It was a relentlessly continuous 1000m climb straight up from the railway station.
While the first half of the trip was on bitumen, the second was on steep mountain roads. On the lowest gear the wholeway up. We stopped to eat about 4 times. Interestingly, the town halfway up rents out e mountain bikes for non cyclists to access a number of routes in the area including the one we went up. We were passed by a family of 5 like gravity was not there . . . Good to see Willie and Roswita at the top, but it was good to just stop . . . Of particular interest, was our accidential meeting with Chris Weber, a friend now living on the mid NSW coast, at lunch at the new local guasthaus, 100m away. I knew he was in the area but it was a crazy coincidence meeting up there. We invited them over for coffee.
The point of the KTM was to curb my enthusiasm for going downhill quickly on shared mountain trails . . . it worked to a degree but I still left Suz behind and this was not appreciated when she stacked it on hairpin corner. Hmm. However, the highspeed descent on the bitumen made up for it.
On the way up, above and below
Coming down
Back on the asphalt.
Back to the railway station at the bottom. Map and profile, below.
After a day's rest, we ride out to the biopool, Naturbad Aschauerweiher in Bischofswiesen across the border in Germany. Established in 1880, it was converted to operate without chlorine in 2003, using reed and lilly beds to clean the water, and bubbling CO2 from pipes to keep the water acidic enough in inhibit alge growth. We ride back by continuing right around Untersberg mountain, managing 725 vertical metres over about 55km to home.
The cycleway west of Untersberg.
We repeat this ride on our third trip out to Salzburg when we have to go to Innsbruck for a meeting with Leitwind.
Molding to Baden epic, 13/08/2022
The last big ride, a fortnight before we start, involved a few trains to get to Modling, a hour south of Vienna, where I joined Doris and Niki for a 1500m epic that took most of the day. It began with a solid uphill climb to the 565m high Anninger and a view from the 4 storey lookout.
In front of Anningerhaus, after yet more climbing, below.
The three of us at the top of the lookout tower.
Access to this point was with a wire cable bolted to the rock. . .
We drop down to the stunning and gentle Helenental Valley. The next summit was even higher, LindenKogel, but a late lunch was available nearby, below.
While the routes to the top were on trails one could drive up, at the bottom of a couple of rather difficult descents, looking back it was obvious they were actually hiking tails on two occasions . . . one never has to carry a bike on proper bike routes. A very useful experience as it turned out later. We caught the train back to Vienna from Baden easily riding the remaining small hills home.
There were around 3 trips to Klosterneuberg with 3 different routes to the top but all involved long, steep gutwrenching climbs . . .
The first time we climbing that hill, Vienna's biggest private telescope.
The last was a week and a half before the trip. We were riding past a peak Niki wanted to show me, the highest point in the Vienna woods. After leapfrogging a fit, young man on a gravel grinder on the northside of Weidling valley (he was quick uphill, slow down), we found a short cut, a trail up to Hermannskogel Wachturm, an 1888 watchtower, now communications tower. After almost half an hour of dragging the bikes up a slippery steep slope to a 'proper' trail we endure a little more climbing. Rides with Niki always seem to have an element of Abenteuer, adventure. Turned out to be excellent training and actually worse than anything on the alpine crossing itself. Not so much the downhills . . . I once tackled the Wurzel (tree roots) Trail, a very steep, gnarly downhill I decided never to do again.
View from the Watchtower, 3 storeys up, and rather late in the evening, 558m above sea level. To right, just, can be seen the radio Tower at Exelberg.