Timmelsjoch Day 3: Timmelsjoch Pass

Woke up with aching everything in the morning today, once again by two alarm clocks. Had breakfast as the only guest there, as we were the only guests. After some semmel, cheese and jam we got changed to set of.

After getting everything prepared we were back on the saddles, me with an aching knee, but nothing to serious. Had to find our way back to the track at first, as we had taken as short cut to Längenfeld yesterday. Stopped at a SPAR once again, but being the holy day of Sunday (especially in Austria), it was closed. After Nico refilled his bottles at a well we set of for real and somehow got back onto the track. Meet the Ötztaler Ache again and continued on along it until we reached Huben. Shortly after Huben it went up a long steep tarmac road, something we would never have managed at the end of the day before. We were aiming for Sölden after all. After that along the river and mountainside until we reached Sölden. Sölden being a tourist town was bustling with life and tourism. I pointed out the huge ski resort to Nico on the way. Stopped at a petrol station and I had a look at the climb we were about to scale on the GPS. I was rather dishearten as we were at 1400m and had to go all the way up to 2500m. Carried on thought as an aim had been set; reach the top of Timmelsjoch. Had a few stops here and there, me being in front for a change. Reached Zwieselstein after a while and looked for a place to fill up our water supplies, as I though there was a long stretch of no inhabited land coming up. Found no well, so we rang at the last house and got some nice cool tap water. After that up and up and up, me being behind Nico nearly all the time as we kept getting some headwind and then none at other times. Stopped in front of a tunnel to put our lights on and the continued on. We where being overtaken by race biker rather a lot but no other mountain bikers so far.

Reached a suburb of Obergurgl and had a quick snack to keep up our energy, a “Alm Toast” (bred with cheese, ham and egg; yummy). After that a lot of curves uphill, Nico carrying on and me trying to do a stop at every 100m altitude again. Failed at that as I was trying a bit to keep up and stopped after about 200m for the first time. Reached Hochgurgl and Nico later on, him taking pictures of the spectacular view over the Ötztal. Was really windy, so we got on some long clothes before going through the toll gate, not paying anything due to being bikers. A short stretch downhill, picking up speed and after a sharp turn it was goodbye Ötztal, hello more mountains. Came around the curve and saw a long road go strait uphill. Continued along that for a while, biking through the barren lands of the Alps, having passed the tree line a while ago. Stopped for a short while and had our sandwiches at an info point about the smuggle routes from Italy to Austria and vice versa. After a lot of curves, less traffic and more cows on the road we reached the top of Timmelsjoch.

About six hours of nearly constantly biking, a lot of aching bum and muscles we reached the top and the goal of our journey. Taking some top pictures and ringing up dad to ask if he could pick us up we decided that we hadn’t spent all our energy for nothing coming up here. Back on the bikes, long clothes on and downhill we went. A lot longer than the day before, so that makes that downhill part the my longest to date. Through dark tunnels, past Alpine scenery and overtaking moped and cars alike we spent 1 hour and about 27 km getting downhill. I suggested we let some cars past at one point, but we just caught up to them again. Had a stop to change our SD cards, as Nicos 16 GB were full with GoPro videos. We noticed we were in Italy rather soon, as the heat swelled up a lot compared to the top. Reached St. Leonhard in Passeier one hour after leaving the top and had the finishing ice cream. Wrote to dad were exactly we were and Nico got some Internet on his cold handy. He had put it in his bag at the top where it was windy and cold and it had stayed like that all the way down. After dad came and I bribed hi with some ice it was back home over the very pass we had biked. Rained on the way back, but no bother to us as we were in the car. 3 Days of biking finished with a super time in the Alps.

Track at GPSies and pictures at Picasa.

Time in saddle: 6 hours

Distance: 74.6 km

Average speed: 12.5 km/h

Altitude meters: 1573 m