My goal for today was to crack 200 km again. So after the success of yesterday, I went about it exactly the same way. As it turned out, I'd camped right next to a big chook shed, so I was woken up before my alarm at about 5 am by what sounded like a hundred chooks and roosters. It was still dark though, so I dozed until 6:45 am, ate the usual breakfast of Weet-Bix, corn flakes and muesli, packed up and set off before 8 am.
Unfortunately, but as expected, my legs were much less compliant today than they were yesterday. The conditions and terrain didn't help either (a fresh 3°C when I set off, and I was gradually going uphill on average). But cool temperatures are what you get when you get up early.
Unsurprisingly my legs just weren't fresh; they felt sluggish, often with a dull ache. They wanted to rest but I wouldn't allow them to. I was teaching them some discipline, they have to do what they're told! As Jens Voigt would say, "Shut-up, legs!"
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| Near a town called Klingen in the Main-Tauber district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. |
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| Riding by a lake called Wöhrweiher, in Heiligenkreuz, Bavaria, Germany. |
To ride 200 km in a day, you have to be so efficient with your time so as to maximize your time on the bike. It's difficult to increase your average speed on the bike much, and you don't want to tire out your legs by riding hard, because then you might crack before making the distance. The most important variable is time spent on the bike, this is what determines how much distance you cover. So it's a case of "slow and steady wins the race", I guess.
So I was trying to minimise breaks, and the duration of breaks. When I stopped for lunch, I kept an eye on the time, and managed to limit my break to 35 minutes (yes I'm a slow eater).
I've also found it is a good idea to spread my food intake into smaller but more frequent portions, to give a more constant energy release. At home I would often just have two big meals - breakfast in the late morning, and then a big dinner.
I'd been trying to follow a bike trail called the Romantic Route, and at the town I'd stopped in for lunch, I noticed that the route marked on my MotionX-GPS map differed from the route marked out by the signs. I figured it was probably just a slight detour and the signs would soon steer me back onto the route marked on the map, so I decided to follow the signs.
Unfortunately without the help of a map, I eventually lost the route, and I became lost in a pine forest.
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| Somewhere in a pine forest between Rühlingstetten and Fremdingen, Germany. |
Anyway, I made me way back to the route marked on my map, which was slow doing, over gravel roads, bumpy sealed roads, and even paddocks until I got back to the marked route. I decided if it happened again, I'd just stick to my map rather than following the signs if they diverged from my map.
The whole day the roads and all the towns I'd been through seemed pretty dead, because it was a public holiday, "All Saints Day". I didn't know what that meant though.
The next town I got to, however, was jam-packed full of people. It was as busy as Burke Street, with lots of market stalls, lots of open shops, etc. I didn't know why that town was so lively when all the others had been dead. I looked up the town on Wikipedia later on and it's meant to be one of Germany's most beautiful medieval towns. So it was probably just full of tourists because of all its attractions. Maybe I should have walked around and taken more of a look at the place. Oh well, these are the things you miss when you're trying to cover 200 km in a day.
By the late afternoon, I was still struggling, my body energy-less, weak and sluggish. I think I'd ridden for too long without stopping to refuel, so I stopped at the next seat I found.
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| Stopped in some fields to refuel. Looking towards the town of Raustetten, in Bayern, Germany. |
When I hopped back on the bike, the change was remarkable. I had so much more energy and felt so strong, I couldn't believe the change. I'm not sure what it was that did it, I guess a combination of the energy drink and snacks.
I put on Black Rebel Motorcycle Clubs album B.R.M.C., followed by Howl to listen to as I rode, and this kept me motivated.
Just on dusk, I stopped at a bakery to top up the energy supplies with a slice, and refilled the water bottles which were empty.
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| Near a place called Maihingen, in the district of Donau-Ries, Bavaria, Germany. |
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| The sun setting over Wallerstein, Bavaria, Germany. |
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| The sun setting over Wallerstein, Bavaria, Germany. |
As I'd come to expect, the chef/waiters couldn't speak English, but I still ordered a pizza, just without knowing what all the toppings were. It was a delicious pizza, but I was still so hungry after it that I decided to order some pasta as well, which was also delicious.
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| Eating pizza for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Donauwörth, Bavaria, Germany. |
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| I was still hungry after the pizza, so ordered some pasts for a second serve of dinner, at an Italian restaurant in Donauwörth, Bavaria, Germany. |
After Donauwörth I left the Romantische Straße for the third distinct section of my route to Vienna. The last section was following the course of the Donau river all the way to Vienna.
There were some people outside one of the restaurants that were up for a bit of a chat, an old woman and two old men. They mostly just stood there and nodded where appropriate while the woman who was apparently the best at speaking English chatted to me. She said she'd been on a holiday to Australia last year, in Queensland, but they went during the wet season and she reckoned it was raining the whole time.
They asked me where I was going to stay, and "you'll be looking for something like a hostel, right?"
But actually I didn't want to be staying in a hostel, for a few reasons: it wouldn't be good value for money since I'd be getting in late and leaving very ealry, and because staying in a hostel would only slow me down, since I'd have to find one, I'd be restricted as to how far I could ride by the locations of a hostel, I'd have to go out of my way to find one and I'd have to check in and unpack all my stuff to take up to my room. When you're trying to cover large distances every day as I currently am, then I reckon camping is the way to go. It's so much more convenient to camp because I can ride exactly as far as I want to and then set up the tent on any old patch of grass I find, which shouldn't be a problem since I'm setting up late and leaving early.
So I set off from Donauwörth and was determined to crack the 200 km mark again. After the carbohydrate packed dinner I'd just eaten, I knew I'd have no problem reaching 200 km again.
When I'm on the bike a lot, funny things happen with my digestive system and I was farting heaps. I'm not sure what it is, but the same thing happened when a few friends of mine, Shane, Oliver and I were touring around Tasmania in Australia on our bikes for three weeks. At times it was quite unpleasant just to ride in each other's slipstream because we would be farting every minute or two. And inside the tent always smelt foul, with the three of us all farting in there together. We just had to put up with the smell, I guess we kinda got used to it.
Presently I was having the same problem; the amount I was farting was incredible, at peak times, I'd have another fart ready to let go every minute or two, seriously. I don't know how my body was producing so much gas, it would have been enough to power a gas stove and cook a meal!
I'm fairly ignorant of what goes on inside the body, mostly it just works and I accept that. I only did physical education up to year ten in high school, although I wish I'd done year eleven and twelve PE too, I think it would have been really interesting.
I would love to know what was going on with my digestive system though, the biological aspect. Because I must have been farting out lots of energy, since methane is flammable. Why wasn't my body using this energy?
Okay enough talk of farting.
As I approached the 200 km mark again, the cycling was quite boring, because I was just riding along a gravel path on top of the river wall, and pretty much straight and looked exactly the same for kilometre after kilometre, until the route finally made a slight departure from the river.
I crossed the 200 km mark and became on the lookout for a camp site.
Again not being fussy, I decided on a spot at the corner of a paddock at the intersection of two roads, and behind one of those Jesus Christ commemorative monument things. I'm not sure what they're called, but I've seen them all over the place, every town seems to have them, they're all different but each has some kind of statue of Jesus Christ, often nailed to the crucifix, sometimes lit up by a red light. The one I was camping beside here was enclosed in a small building, maybe a metre by two metres, as some of them seem to be.
I was pretty tired, but again quite satisfied that I'd achieved 200 km of cycling in the day again. I set up the tent and laid down, and it doesn't take long to get to sleep after cycling 200 km. If anyone has sleeping problems, I'd recommend going for a 200 km cycle, and you'll have no problems getting to sleep.
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| My route for the day, Markelsheim to Rennertshofen, following the Romantic Road (Romantische Straße), Germany. |
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| An overview of my route so far, from France to Germany. |
Distance: 202.03 km
Average: 19.3 km/h
Maximum: 59.5 km/h
Time: 10:25:22
Total ascent: 1422 m
Total descent: 1244 m
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