The third in the ‘It’s A Small Cycling World’ series features the leader of the Giro d’Italia riding in the mountains alongside a snow bank that was created when the high pass road had been cleared. Water flows from the snow making it a wet and dirty ascent. Links: It’s a small cycling world 1… Continue Reading
Latest in: Kopfsteinpflaster
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Sunday it was hot at over 30, on Monday a massive storm hit central Europe and Tuesday we all kept under cover, but on Wednesday the sun shone and once again it hit over 30. I have noticed that many Germans have hydrometers and barometers (we have both) and watch the rise and full of… Continue Reading
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A ride to the now defunct Internal Border. Every location has an intrinsic value and the landscape can be dramatic or even supine and a ‘back-water’ can have a story to tell, if often a little more prosaic than some. Additionally man’s intervention in the landscape can be dramatic (or traumatic) and with the passage… Continue Reading
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I began May with a bike ride and ended it with another; in fact I rode quite a lot in this spring month. On Wednesday I went road riding but went off script and ended up on gravel, Wednesday I did the same ride on my cross bike and it was so much easier. This… Continue Reading
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Despite my best intentions to go for a road ride I ended up including gravel, concrete Panzer Weg and cobbles. A quick post tummy bug spin taking in lots of quiet tarmac close to home was my thinking, but like many best laid plans I went off script. I knew that I would be crossing… Continue Reading
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For this ‘it’s a cycling small world – for the love of pave part two’ (Part One is here) I got a little more ambitious and imagined a scenario where it has been raining all day. At this point in the race it has stopped pouring down and the riders are beginning to dry whilst… Continue Reading
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There is ‘London tight’ and there is ‘Roubaix tight’; this passed through my mind when after much bike preparation I hit the first stretch of pave at Troisville the first section of cobbles on the route used by the Paris Roubaix pro road race held in April. In the race the riders take in a… Continue Reading
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Since my big change in life I have ridden my bike, listened to more LP’s and read more books in one month than I did in a year. Maybe this also has something to do with me being without a TV service which means no plonking myself in front of the ‘telly’ (which I do… Continue Reading
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With my favourite Jimi Hendrix song in my head I got a little carried away. I had intended a simple spin down to the Bahn, but I became adventurous and rode some great and new to me gravel roads. On route I managed to include two old watchtowers (hence the song) that once guarded the… Continue Reading
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40 kms of rough stuff, kolonnnenweg and kopfsteinpflaster, mit cakes, watch towers and an old Jewish Cemetery on our May 5 ride. Cakes we consumed at Spinnerei Gartetal e.V. The ride – https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3620853847 Cycle Fahrrad Goettingen home page
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Mayday is a public holiday in Germany and like most public holidays and Sundays retail life slows almost to a halt and it all seems a bit old fashioned compared to the 24/7 shopping fuelled frenzied lifestyles (and endless sales) which seem the norm in the UK. Except, even here in Germany there are those… Continue Reading
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Where I go mad on a road bike… and I win Paris Roubaix. “Don’t play in the dirt it’s dirty” – an often used expression to curtail an action of an adventurous child, and if inculcated deep enough it could mean a lifetime of avoidance of all sorts of things. Thankfully I know that there… Continue Reading
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Around the globe most of the land is owned by just a few people and this affects how much access we have to it. I’m not a believer that land is somehow French, German or English and for me talk of sacred soil is weird and somewhat nudging on nationalist fanaticism. What I believe is… Continue Reading
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Today’s midweek ride with Gunnar Fehlau seemed to pay homage to the Spring Classics with a route that combined sections of Flanders like Kopfsteinpflaster, bergs and Ardennes fast tight flowing roads. I should add that of course we included gravel. Post ride Kitty seems to not be impressed with yet another ride by me and… Continue Reading
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Light snow had been falling all day on Tag 21 on the German Haus, nonetheless David led us into the forest for an evening ride – we did feel a wee bit like Hansel and Gretel especially when we hit some truly gnarly single track made slick by the snow. This forest was planted in… Continue Reading
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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
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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
Velo Klubhaus 