Distance: 139.0 km
Ride time: 8:30:18
Average: 16.3 km/h
Max speed: 33.8 km/h
Total: 45016 km
Even though touring cyclists are obviously in good physical shape, most of the time we will be out there on our heavy bikes, riding into a head wind or climbing a mountain, feeling that riding is pretty slow and hard. But then, once in a while, there will be a day where the legs just feel good. Today was such a day!
I had only planned on riding half way to Maltahöhe, but after an hour on the road the legs felt good and my average speed and number of daylight hours left indicated that I would just be possible to make it today. I decided to go for it.
Desert flowers after the rain.
The first part of the day I was riding around another small mountain – which always results in great views. Can you spot the wild boars?
Then things turned more flat and monotonous, and there was nothing to do but the keep the head down and pedals turning. Since I didn’t have time for a long break I had to ride through the hot afternoon hours as well.
I was pretty tired as I made it to Maltahöhe with 15 minutes left of daylight. 139 km on a dirt road, not too bad! Tomorrow I think will be a well deserved rest day.
140km, in that heat, is a pretty good achievement! Btw, how do you deal with sunburn?
The sun is really strong around here – even stronger than in the Australian outback I would say… If there are no clouds I prefer to take a break in the shade between 1 and 5. And sun blocker of course 🙂