Cycling with a fully trained supernatural with super powers is always a challenge, but at least we learnt our lessons on the first day.
So what are the conclusions of the first day?
- You can't have enough water. 4 litre and more are recommended and still you don't have to go to the toilet
- Don't overpace
- Eat regularly
- A good pair of cycling pants is worth every penny
- 50km are nice to bike, 60-70km are ok to be satisfied, 80km+ are a challenge, if you don't do it regularly
So let's start day 2 with a 96km trip (one hour earlier than yesterday), which turns out to be a very hot day (what can possibly go wrong?).
The first few kilometres were used to get the kinks from the day before out of the system and then a very hilly trip started... at the beginning with the wind in our face, which reduced the average speed.
Side note: getting money from a Cashpoint seems to be in the UK completely different than in Germany:
"with all this menus I expected to get an offer for a car, too"
After two hours the sun really started to take a toll on us. The temperature increases to over 35°C and we struggled from shade to shade (which I learnt is normally used instead of "shadow") and from drinking break to drinking break.
To be honest, the second day was very uneventful. One woman in a car came towards us wild waving, mentioning that a bridge is closed (which was no problem for us to pass through the narrow point with the bikes ... probably next time she shouldn't use her car on the bike trail. Two other women overtook us, loudly ringing their bells as we fought with a steep incline. Wasn't that embarrassing when we recognized they were using electric engines.
A highlight was for sure, after a long hike, to speed down a very big hill for many minutes reaching over 50km/h.
On the 40km mark, having only a bit water left, and the sun burning from the sky, we decided that we'll not go the whole trip today.
We wanted to reach the 50km mark, get something to drink in a restaurant and then look for a train station.
While passing village after village, surprisingly, we couldn't find a restaurant for 15km+ (Google Maps confirmed) and decided to go directly to the train.
So in the end, we had a bit over 68km in total + a 30 minutes train trip for the last distance.
Therefore we had enough time left to support Elisa (who will join us tomorrow on the trip and will write the next blog post) by doing a 6km run in some competitions, but sadly the Frankenstadion was far from accessible, so we could not access the tribune and had to wait outside.
In return we cooked some nice rice+vegetables meal in our flat together and enjoyed the gathering.
Good take away is: nobody tried to kill us with their cars today and we can plan the routes better, knowing now the effect of the heat. While yesterday the last few kilometres were brutal, today the whole trip was a slaughter.
Some random quotes from the trip having 37°C:
"In London, everything over 23°C is midsummer, when over 17°C we do not leave the house"
"Hey, you can be lucky to be in cold Germany, in London it's currently over 40°C"
PS: yes I know, images are missing, will also coming soon.
