Bayernrundfahrt 2009

[Peter]

Grosse Bayernrundfahrt 2009

It was the first time that this ride was organized. It started out of
a small village called Osterdorf, about an hour away from Nuremberg in
Bavaria (Bayern) , Germany. The organizer, Karl Weimann, wanted to
create a loop that closely marked the borders of his province, avoided
major roads, showed the beauty of the land and was challenging.
Well, he achieved almost all this.
The route was 1267 km long and had a total ascent of 14,489 m (47,500
ft). The first third was the flattest piece, in the foothills of the
Alps were the major climbs and the steepest sections came at the end
with 3 climbs with 18% gradient and about 100 m elevations gain each.
Like around Calgary, there was almost no really flat piece of road of
any significant length.
The weather was a bit of a mixed bag: the temperature was always high
enough, between the high twenties during the days and high teens in
the early morning hours. The rain, and there were some huge downpours,
was warm as well. Here to mention that my feet have never been so wet
as on this ride, they looked like soaked in water for 24 hours.
The start was on August 10, my birthday. I got a nice "Happy Birthday"
tune in the morning. They had all the anthems for the various nations,
the most distant ones coming from Japan. I had met a few riders on the
LEL two weeks earlier, and met Wim Kok from BC as the only other
rider from Canada. We rode quite a while together on the first day.
At ten o'clock in the morning the crowd started. The first control
came quickly and there was a long line-up. Later the field was more
split up. The first 500 km all the controls were public places and not
really a place to rest. Later there were some controls at schools,
sport clubs etc.
For me the ride went well. I had no accident and not even a flat tire.
My shifting was a bit of a problem since the front derailer was almost
blocked by the dirt and it was almost impossible to get on the big
chainring. However, at the later stages I was not really missing it.
My GPS worked fine this time, I made one 30 km mistake when I
overheard the beeps for the turn and went 15km on a busy road in the
pouring rain. Due to the noise of the passing cars I could not hear
the beeps and due to the dirty glasses I did not see the display.
I recharged the Garmin with the AC adapter at the stops and used my
battery package with the USB cable on the last part of the ride, when
we finally did not get any more rain.
I was not suffering the first 1100 km of the ride, no sore legs etc.
However, there were these brutal climbs on the Steigerwaelder
Hoehenstrasse, 18% and three of them. I could make them on my bike BUT
a few hours later my quads were super loaded with lactic acid for the
rest of the ride. So much, that I had to use the other muscle groups
heavily while idling the quads.
The downhills on this ride were hard to enjoy: the curves were very
narrow and hard to oversee. As I had my lesson learned on the LEL
where I had a bad accident this time I was really careful to not go
fast into any bend on a downhill. Speaking about the accident: my
broken rib did not bother me a lot other than when I laid down to get
a nap. I still slept probably 15 hours total, I just don't understand
how people get away without sleeping in days.
To the food and water: it was very difficult at times to find anything
at night. Yes, there is always a village close to you but No,
everything is closed between 6 pm and 8 am. I could find people awake
until 10 pm outside their houses and they happily helped out with the
water. However, one evening I left around midnight with two bottles of
water. They were empty a few hours later and by five in the morning I
was running critically dry. My buddy at that section did not have
anything to spare and was beginning to suffer. We looked at every
window to see if there was light - we would have knocked on the door
if people were awake - but everybody was asleep. No water at the fire
fighter stations (unmanned in the rural Bavaria), no creek you could
drink from. It was seven in the morning when a gas station that had
just opened. I drank a liter in 30 sec and another one in the next
five minutes.
Arriving at the finish line was great: the volunteers and other riders
cheering you up, coffee, cake, soup, sandwiches, beer and more were
waiting.
My daughter and her friend arrived shortly after me. They had found a
good Gasthaus a few villages away where I had a great sleep.
The next morning we went back to Osterdorf to see the late riders
coming in. Of the 88 starters 61 arrived within the allowed time, a
few finished the ride but were out of time and the other had to quit
somewhere during the ride. I did not hear of any accidents or injuries
other than soreness.
The 1400 km of the LEL did not really affect my ability to ride the
1270 km of the Bavaria. I took both rides easy, tried to see as much
of the beautiful country-sides by minimizing night riding, and talked
to as many other riders as possible.
It were a great 3 weeks in Europe with the two rides at the beginning
and the end. The time in between I spent with my daughter, family and
friends.
Peter Hoeltzenbein

[Bill Bakke]

Congratulations, Peter. I think you are the AR rider of the year for
2009! No offense to David, Maurice, Dan and other road warriors
who've ridden the Series and a 1200, you've all done a great job!

Bill