Today features exposure, my bike alarm and an average speed of 29km/h; yes, we have got a LOT quicker, but then there are lies, damn lies and bike apps.
The day started with the alarm going off; yes, for once, it was going off without us knocking the control. I shot out of bed and flung open the curtains and shouted at the man wrestling with the bikes that immortal line that's bound to work three stories up in a hotel with a lift and getting dressed being between them and you catching them... "Stop Thief", then, as if he didn't know what he was doing," Leave the bikes alone." He looked up and make some comments in German and pointed to the garage beside them and the washing trolly he had come to collect. Stupidly the bike rack was an afterthought so adding your bike meant the garage door was partly blocked. He could have been more gentle thought, and it was a genuine case of the alarm doing what it was meant to do. It's turned from a stupid heap of rubbish to a brilliant must-have for any biking holiday in just one incident.
Dressed, breakfasted in the hotel and out to the station, which was just 3 minutes away, we are soon on the train.
There we stowed the bikes against the bike rail and sat down. There was one seat beside me, and a couple came on board after a few stops and made their way to the seat. He was a large man, and she a slight woman; he took the spare seat and made her stand. Being an English gentleman, I was compelled to stand and offer the seat, which seemed to cause Benjamin, the man and his partner some consternation. She kept looking at me, and I gestured that the seat was hers, he looked like he was going to attempt to occupy both, but she quickly snapped it up.
On arrival, I walk the bike to the road and then enter the coordinates into the bike app so we can get on our way and follow the map.
It's great; it tells our average speed, even removing stops, so it's the average while cycling and the terrain. We make great progress, and I look down to see that our average speed is declining; only Mach three (3704.4 km/h) soon, we are approaching the sound barrier in our deceleration.
I stop and shout to Benjamin. Surprisingly he can still hear me despite the average speed still being more than the speed of sound. I realise the issue, the network connection is not good, and so the app has decided that we actually started from where we boarded the train, and so in the minute we had started, we had travelled over 57km.
This was not irritating as the average speed would always be declining, and the mid-way point in our journey would be in one kilometre!
We noted the flatness of the journey and the profile set out on the app and were shooting through the countryside. I was in my usual racing kit but sans shades as there were a lot of clouds, Benjamin wearing an extra layer because, at 23 degrees, it was ......cold, cold I ask you, at no point was it cool, let alone cold, but he was instant he needed the extra thermal protection.
One feature of our trip today was roadworks, and lots of them, we were stuck in some places trying several streets all blocked by the same road works. Is as if they have a deal on the digger, so dig all the planned excavation in one go and then decide to start working in a bit of it while leaving the whole area impassable.
Another thing that happened was blackberrying. We have passed lots on our journey, all juvenile in their maturity, mostly read with a hint of black, but today it was as if it was national pick blackberries day irrespective of their ripened nature.
On one very long stretch, I needed relief. I asked about the etiquette of peeing behind and bush in Germany, whether it was a capital offence or just a shot arm or leg. I'm told, "no one cares." So I nip behind a suitably bushy bush, dig a hole high enough to hide me, erect a tent and then quietly pee.
Then back on our way, me feeling comfortable and cycling without a care in the world until the horror of horrors, a cyclist who passed us some km back is basically in the road peeing without a care in the world and wearing bright orange!! How blatant, how, words fail me. Benjamin asked if my sensibilities were offended, of course; I mean, what if a superfluity of nuns had also cycled past?
We hit Leipzig at about 10kms from our destination and continued straight, straight, straight. So straight that when we did have a turn, I totally missed it, so used to the straightness I had forgotten what corners were like. Then we made out way through parks, impressive parks and down by the river, where we encountered canoeists, punters and other pleasure craft on the water. It was blissful and my favorite part of today's journey.
