Cyclopaat's various "altitude training" trips

Hochsauerland 2022 – Epilogue

November 18, 2022May 1, 2022

The epilogue of my Hochsauerland Tour 2022 turned into a complete cluster fuck.

Not (only) because of the weather: mostly foggy and back to near freezing temperatures, which is not nice but you can dress for that.

But while I usually meticulously plan and (double) check my route, I completely dropped the ball on this one.

And when I (finally) gave up, I managed to not save my ride 🤦‍♂️

I pushed the stop button, put my Edge in my back pocket to get the bike in the car, then changed clothes, only to find that the touch screen had received “input” that discarded my ride…

We ended at the Brilon Wald railway station we used for a break before, but even they had nothing to offer today, so no strudel to finish off the tour…

Hochsauerland 2022 – Stage 6

November 18, 2022April 29, 2022

Final round trip stage today, as tomorrow we’ll head home.

Although the temperature was a bit lower today than yesterday, it was actually pretty good and I think it featured the least wind of all my stages this week.

I picked and reversed a 2014 route again, but didn’t want to get over 100 kms, so I shortened it to just over 80 kms.

And where the 2014 ride is mainly remembered for the freezing cold and a hot bath afterwards – considering I never take a bath, that was special – I also noticed the nice scenery back then.

Today was much the same and it was also the one with the most quiet roads I rode over this week.

Hochsauerland 2022 – Stage 5

November 18, 2022April 29, 2022

Today would bring us the best weather of the week, so I took a shot at a long stage.

Not long enough to push my luck, though, and I had a plan B, cutting off the far end of the loop.

This stage was the Rothaarrunde I did back in 2014, but in reverse direction.

With the little detour I knew I’d have to make approaching Medebach, this would be around 115 kilometers.

I didn’t want to make yesterday’s detour, as that lead me over a goat trail, which was bad enough going up, but best avoided going down…

Hochsauerland 2022 – Stage 4

November 18, 2022April 27, 2022

I was looking for a route of about 80 kms max and picked the “Kleine Rothaarrunde” which is just under that.

Just 3 kms in, I ran into a closed road (Orkestrasse towards Medelon), so I improvised a detour.

That, plus some minor “Off course” warnings later, brought the total to 84.48 kms.

Which, by accident, gave me a perfect palindrome, but Americans just don’t see it.

That’s totally on them, though 😂😂😂

Hochsauerland 2022 – Stage 3

November 18, 2022April 26, 2022

Today’s stage was something I did plan: a round trip called “Rothaargebirge“, but modified to start/end in Medebach instead of Winterberg and I reversed direction.

As I skipped the “Medebacher Burcht” part, it would be around 105 km and my first over 100 km stage.

It didn’t go very well, despite the weather being better: just a little bit of rain close to Winterberg, although the low temperature was about the same as yesterday.

But my biggest problem – or as stated yesterday “an increasingly worrisome issue” – are the injured ribs and my decreasing ability to handle the pain…