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Having stayed in Altenmarkt im Pongau, Simone (my wife) drove us to Bishopshofen to set off at 8pm. The plan was to climb to Wagrain, then Flachau, Altenmarkt (for coffee and Cakes) and then attempt to climb to the Sattelbauer and cross over to the Zauchensee valley to climb to the top for the finish. …

Leaving the Honey shop we headed towards the Hochkönig mountain, knowing we had over 85 miles to cover wit 2114 metres to climb we started early. Leaving the Strass im Zillertal from the beautiful AirBnB hosted by Gerhard in Reith im Alpbachtal early we covered the distance on the flat valley floor as quick as …

Leaving our lovely AirBnB in Schonwies (highly recommended) we started riding from Strengen towards Strass im Zimmertal. The Austria scenery was stunning, every corner you turn exposes outrageous images which photos cannot capture. The railway bridge across a valley with a castle to the left is a classic example, 4 miles downstream from Strengen, looked …

Leaving far far away we headed along the Levee of the Rhine past Lord Farquaat castle heading through a small pass into the Arlburg region of Austria. Once in the Arlburg valley we started to climb to cross the Arlburg pass – a monsterous 1360 metre climb, after two hours climbing we reached Stuben im …

Leaving Zurich early we were quickly surprised to hit a 25% climb, this caused front wheel of bike to lift when you pressed on cranks – requiring you to hang over the front. Simon dropped out of his cleat and had to return to the bottom as you could not start halfway up, I managed …

Leaving Saint Louis at 730pm in the morning we headed into Basel past the Roche Pharmaceuticals (building is a white cheese grater) following the Rhine upstream. After about half an hour the town thinned out and we crossed into Switzerland (see border crossing below). For most of the day we followed roads along the Rhine, …

Saying goobye to Russel and Audrey who were flying from Basel early we departed from the beautiful home near Strasbourg towards Basel. Our route was mainly along roads with sections of canals breaking the monotony. At 10am we could see the Alps from the side of a Canal. We stopped for lunch at Bantzenheim, a …

We left the Industrial city of Saarbrucken heading along the river Saar which quickly turned to pleasant countryside. We soon departed the river into the Alsace region entering the “North Vosges Regional Natural Reserve”. The terrain was rolling hills and forest, with gentle gradients perfect for the bikes. We stopped in the pretty historic hill …

The day started well, but we soon hit some very steep climbs – over 12.5% which rapidly ate into us. By mid afternoon we hit the river Saar and followed the river which was flat and our average speed increased. We arrived in Saarbrücken at 7pm, exhausted. We covered 84 miles with a moving time …