Its day 19 in the German Haus and kitty sniffs my shirt contemptuously post ride – ‘what another ride’, he seems to be saying. Gunnar Fehlau and myself this time and where took off our coats there was once a railway now just a relic in the gravel. We mixed tarmac and gravel (with only… Continue Reading
Latest in: Kerstlingeröderfeld
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A 14 KM ride in 43 minutes early evening (6pm) saw me skip down the ‘Tilly Berg’ through housing and quickly onto the gravel paths that took me along the ‘watch towers’, across the Leine River, lingering at the Keissee Lake and onto the Bahn. Very few battles have been fought at this spot on… Continue Reading
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With time a little tight this day our ride with Gunnar Fehlau included more tarmac than normal, but it was good tarmac and mostly traffic free. We rode between the Leine River and the B27 along the Leine Valley (and back). There were also a couple of awesome gravel descents. From May we can stop… Continue Reading
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Inspired by the Gent Wevelgem women’s bike race we popped out for an hour. For the first time in a long time I felt a bit of sparkle or at least signs of life in my legs. Only a few short stretches of tarmac on this ride in between the ‘good stuff’. The ride: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3512812699… Continue Reading
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I am a new immigrant; I am not an expat hiding behind a term because of prejudice toward immigrants, a prejudice that is oddly extolled by some people who themselves live in a foreign country. Whilst I am an alien I do blend in with the majority of people in Germany (even when wearing Lyrca),… Continue Reading
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Lunch time gravel ride with Gunnar Fehlau und Andrea Hofling, so gut! Almost all gravel and a lost railway riding between the Leine River and the B27 (Wendebachstausee, Rheinhausen, Gartetal). Five minutes of light traffic and then we were on the rough stuff, brilliant. The ride: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3503452420 Cycle Fahrrad Goettingen home page
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With so few miles in my legs in recent months this ride, my first since coming to Germany, felt tough especially on the cobbled climb through what were the Zieten Barracks and then the abandoned Panzer Weg up to Kerstlingeröderfeld. Once a place where Chieftains and Leopards roamed. My fitness will come back to me… Continue Reading
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The last days has seen huge rain fall, which although good for the forest, ground water and the water supply is still a pain. Today, and after a torrent in the morning the sun shone and made the trails look almost bianche as they dried. This ride is the smaller route version of the Gutingi… Continue Reading
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There is, of course, something great about adventurers who strike out, often to the ends of the earth for long periods of time. Heroic as such adventures are, they should not put the day to day journeys on the ‘home front’ in the shade. In my years of living in London I have taken many… Continue Reading
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Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace gravel cycle ride and a gem in London. In an effort to optimise the sales value of the cluster of luxury high rise towers in Vauxhall and Battersea, rebranded as ‘Nine Elms on the Southbank’, there was much hype about a new linear park to link Vauxhall with Battersea Park… Continue Reading
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Riding out from London and over the North Downs and into the Mole Valley has been part of my staple cycling diet, sadly the last time I rode here was in the late summer of 2017. Today, June 26, 2018 I rode into the valley again. Combining the stresses and strains of the North Downs… Continue Reading
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Epping Forest is a Mecca for London cyclists and an area where access to the ‘people’s forest’ is seen as a birth-right. Well, it is now, but only after a fight. At the end of the 19th Century Epping Forest like other common lands, forests or heaths was in danger of being swallowed by London’s… Continue Reading
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The River Thames towpath gravel cycle ride from Putney to Hampton court is just under 26 kilometres long and can be completed in a hour and a bit (plus the time taken to get to Putney or Hampton Court) making it a convenient London ride for when time poor. I often combine it with the… Continue Reading
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The 2012 Olympic Games cycle road races featured nine ascents of the Zig Zag road, better known as Box Hill, for the men and two for the women. It was intended that this North Downs climb would smash the race apart. Sadly, for the British team working for Mark Cavendish and despite setting the pace… Continue Reading
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The North Downs are a long line of green high ground to the south of London. The Downs have become a place of pilgrimage for cyclists on and off road and here you can find sunken roads, great views plus killer climbs – not a place for the pious rather a place for any cycling… Continue Reading
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In April 2018 I travelled back in time to the now defunct German internal grenze (border) at the Wurmberg Mountain. In the mid-eighties I had stood on the west side of the Grenze half way up the Wurmberg Mountain in the Harz, a region of mountains rich in folklore set in central Germany. Above my… Continue Reading
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I was on a training camp in Italy and a fellow guest spoke up loudly that the almost five minute ride out from our sea front hotel to the country roads was far too long. Laughed? We would have but our breath was further taken from us by a follow up comment – ‘it’s a… Continue Reading
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The Harz Mountains are 2,226 square kilometres of medium sized mountains and forest that seems to have been spit out of the ground of middle Germany. Circling the Harz are the cities of Hannover, Gottingen, Wolfsburg, Leipzig and Magdeburg. Much of the Harz today is a national park and the area is home to a… Continue Reading
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Even if abandoned, it must still lead somewhere? I said to myself. Is it a redundant motorway, an abandoned motor racing circuit or maybe an airport? It has shades of each? Now I know At one end of this traffic free concrete road or ‘Betonweg’ are modern and rehabbed housing, a college and public sport… Continue Reading
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The River Thames is 215 miles long and I have been riding my bike along the Putney to Hampton Court section for 20 odd years. The ‘gravel’ Thames path here lines the south bank of the river and has been my regular haunt to play out my ‘Roubaixesque’ fantasies. It’s not a tough ride but it… Continue Reading
Velo Klubhaus 