Friday, June 17, 2011

Thursday Storm Tour

Set of today on my first Thursday bike tour on my new bike. Arrived at the gym after piking everybody else in Brand up and discussed where to go. I suggested we go cycle up the Bärenmoos but group 2 was doing that already so we had to go somewhere else. Sepp had the idea we cycle up the Wertacher Hörnle to the Schnitzleralm (think that is what it is called), and good that we went there.
Left the Alpspitzhalle at exactly 18.45 o'clock and cycled towards Wertach. At the bottom of the serpentine in Nesselwang we where caught up by Heti who was late and had just spotted us. At the top Hans drove by in his car. Stopped, got out in biking gear, lifted his bike out of the back and joined us. He said he had been late to and just driven round until he had seen someone, as he normally cycles with group 2. Raced along the Grüntensee and Sepp was looking at the ski worried. But it didn't look to bad. Blue ski and sunshine. On the other side of Wertach it was a bit different. We saw black (and I mean black) clouds coming from the Grünten towards us. Getting a bit worried we still cycled on and the ski was getting blacker by the minute. Forgot about the weather for a short time and had some real mountain biking up a gravel trail. We stopped at some point for a drink, carried on a bit more and then had to pump up the tires from Moni and Hans a bit more as they had lost a bit of air. At that point the ski was looking worse by the minute, but it was still at a distance. Cycled a bit on and took a wrong way so we had to turn round. At that point we were standing in a quiet well protected forest and suddenly a gale hit us. Really was like “switch on the wind”, it was just there. No slow start. At that point it was decided we race back home, because that weather looked (and felt) bad. Being a bit frightened (that was a storm you don't want to be in) I raced downhill behind Moni. On the way down we came through some forests, which where near to pitch black because of the weather and I still had my sunglasses on. Stuck behind Moni to see at least something. It started raining a bit then and a few stopped at a hut for shelter for what we new was coming. But Hans was missing. Apparently he had half a race; one: he was running from the storm, and two: with another mountain biker which had whizzed past us before tiring to get away from the weather. It was a good idea to stay under the shelter as it started raining cats and dogs a few minutes later. The wind was also really strong and on the way back we saw some damage it had done (tree bit lying everywhere, bins thrown over,...). Stood under that hut for about half an hour until we set of again in a less hostile weather condition. Picked up Hanson the way which had found an even better hut to stay in and he had the drinks. After picking him up we set of with rain gear on (those that had it) and had a nice back wind which had been driving the storm. Sepp's suggestion was good to come this way as we were really fast on the way back. Group two had a front wind coming home so we were lucky. Raced along the main road to Nesselwang and went home to shower before going to the bistro.
Track at GPSies and this time no pictures as Jon was in Egypt and I hadn't got my camera with me.
Time in saddle: 1 hour 20 min.
Distance: 24.9 km
Average speed: 17.8 km/h

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