Hochsauerland 2025 – Report

As preparation for my upcoming Giro d’Italia 2025, we spent a week in Hochsauerlandkreis, Germany.

This mountainous area is no match for the Alps, but it offers a large number of climbs that are considerably longer than anything I can find in my own country and much of the neighboring Ardennes.

Many of them are throwing stinging grades at you – or stinging for me anyway…

I planned to ride 8 days, trying to log as many new kilometers as possible.

That is getting harder after every visit, and other than village streets and goat paths, there will eventually not be that many new roads left to cycle.

Still, I got over 400 new kilometers in, according to Wandrer, which is good, but less than I planned.

Here’s the nifty VeloViewer wheel of the week:

The numbers are unsurprisingly similar to previous years, although I cycled less than intended.

That started on Saturday already: it was scorching hot when I got on the bike for stage 1, immediately having to get up a steep-ish climb.

It was an uphill battle all the way after that and I gave up exhausted after 74 from the originally planned 110 kilometers…

And last year, I didn’t cycle the last stage due to problems with the (team) car, this year I didn’t cycle that last day due to physical problems.

While I have already more of those than I can handle any given day, they were now aggravated by a crash into a car on Tuesday.

At least, this time it was my own fault…

I missed a turn, had to turn around, failed to see a car behind the one that I did see and that one crashed into my left flank.

Luckily, as this was inside a small town, the speed was low, but the impact was still high.

While waiting for the police and paramedics, I noticed the left pedal had snapped in two and the left handle bar almost completely bent inwards.

The paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital, for further check up and an X-ray, but I respectfully declined.

I could tell from experience that even if I did break any bones, i.e. rib(s), it wasn’t serious enough to pose an immediate danger.

Then again, getting back on the bike probably wasn’t very smart either…

But first, I needed to get the bike back in order, so we searched the area for a bike repair store and eventually found one in Korbach that was able to help.

I had to swap my Look Keo Blade pedals for Shimano SPD though, which meant I also needed new shoes as SPD cleats do not fit mine.

The delay didn’t make it any easier to get back on the bike, but I did and completed about 3/4 of the stage.

Obviously, the next morning things were even worse, but Wednesday and Thursday I also completed a good part of the courses I had drawn.

Knowing I was forfeiting Saturday’s stage 8, I pushed as far as I could get on the Friday – that ride turned out to be my longest at just over 100 kilometers.

At home, my own doctor advised me to go to the hospital for an X-ray, which I will do tomorrow ¹.

Whether or not that shows (a) fracture(s), I have for sure a bruise or two, which is not any better.

It’s too early to tell if or how this will affect my upcoming Giro d’Italia; I did continue to cycle, which might not be advisable, but it didn’t make things worse.

Breathing is not overly painful, nor is sitting on the bike, although going uphill is less comfortable and I did have to go easier / slower on the descents.

Paula won’t mind my doing the latter 😂

¹ CT scan showed no fractures, just fissures in the scapular glenoid and a rib, both on the left side, which makes sense. Not ideal, but also not too much of a problem, me thinks…