Cyclopaat, an alter ego with a twist
After our previous trip to the Hochsauerland area in 2014, I promised to come back for more cycling and last week we made good on that promise.
Like last time, we rented a cottage in Medebach, which is in ‘High Sauerland District’, the area where the highest hills are located.
And while these will not make it onto my ‘been there, done that‘ list, they offer enough altimeter gains to help you finish a Strava climbing challenge in no time…
Now that September seems to be done throwing record-breaking temperatures at us, it’s time for our next trip to the ‘hilly’ area of Hochsauerland, Germany.
If the trip to the Vosges was any indication of my abilities to handle that sort of terrain, I’d do well to plan my cycling adventures a little less enthusiastic, lest I’ll end up in the back of the van again.
As it seems these ‘climbing abilities’ – pitiful at best anyway – have diminished further, even the hills in the Vosges proved enough to finish me. In my defense, I’d like to point out that the average grades on the ‘friendly rolling’ hills there are often close to 10%.
However, the hills in Hochsauerland are not as high as in the Vosges and the climbs are – in general – a lot shorter…
Although I stopped meticulously planning my season after everything got messed up in 2012 and 2013, due to unplanned short holidays in the hospital, I still do plan short cycling outings abroad.
These are typically aimed at humiliating myself in ‘mountainous areas’, or at least anything that involves something more challenging than what the south of my country has to offer.
For this year, I have not planned anything as spectacular as a ‘Tour de France’ or ‘Giro d’Italia’, but both the Vosges and Hochsauerland offer (more than) enough challenges…
