Love of Bikes – December 27 2019 CX Ride

At the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt (1806) Napoleon Bonaparte defeated a combined Prussian/Saxony Army and occupied the 460 states that made up ´Germany´ at the time.

Napoleon subsequently reduced the myriad of statelets once overseen by the Holy Roman Empire (Austria) to just 32 and he made his younger brother Jerome monarch of Westphalia, which included Göttingen.

It is said that Jerome would meet his lovers in the pavilion in the Schillerwiesen Park and it was here I met Craig to embrace our shared love of pedalling bikes.

Except its been some time since I rode my cross bike on gnarly, muddy, rutted and root filled single-track and it was a bit of a challenge that saw me hit the deck once. Thankfully I rolled myself onto the soft mud and we were soon on our way.

Craig Lee Johnson from the UK like me has a romantic attachment bringing him to Göttingen and he has made good use of our guest bike in the last few days getting to know the trails well.

Our route included part of the old road up to the Kehr and which is now a gravel road, but once also doubled up as a public road and race car circuit. The latter featuring silver Auto Unions and Mercedes racing cars in the 1920´s.

The long descent of Bismarck Strasse was also a part of the circuit and it remains a public road open to all traffic.

After 20k´s we got hungry and it was back home for baked beans (white beans in a tomato sauce it says on the jar) and eggs.

The Ride
Garmin Connect: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/4372341674
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/2960273352

Cycle Fahrrad Goettingen home page