The first house in Kirchgandern out from Goettingen and once situated in the DDR has this great garden gate and a wonderful sculpture denoting the distance to Hanoi and Moscow to name two places. We wondered if the occupant had ridden to them? Just before Kirchgandern and the old DDR border is a sort of… Continue Reading
Latest in: Strade Bianchi
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Training camp? I think not – a day for a cool gravel ride with Gunnar Fehlau and we almost reprised the route we rode for the first time with him in March. I can’t quite believe that I have been here five months! This time and although we followed similar sections we pedalled over a… Continue Reading
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RideWe asked Tom our visitor from the Netherlands where he wanted to ride this day and he opted for a mixed surface spin out to Duderstadt and then the old East German Border (60km round trip). I meanwhile began to wonder if I am on some sort of never ending training camp simply because I… Continue Reading
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I note that it has been raining a lot and it is pretty cold in Britain. Tales of punctures and soakings are plentiful on my social media timeline. Meanwhile here we welcome rain as everything is dry and somewhat wonderfully when it does rain and although it can be really, really hard stair-rod style, it… Continue Reading
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It was intended to be a rest day at the training camp, but the sun was shining, the birds were tweeting and we wanted to wear our best white road shoes. So we did and I enjoyed a 62kmh plus descent although otherwise it was more about enjoying being alive and enjoying the views, plus… Continue Reading
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Having ridden for three days straight from the Netherlands to us in Germany we of course took Tom out on a bike ride next day. We joined Gunnar Fehlau for our regular lunchtime spin taking in a mixed surface route with a twist – we got a puncture! All fixed with the quick hands of Gunnar… Continue Reading
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Determined to chill out this ride and not push on we stopped (on a long climb) to look at something we had spotted during the spring from the road when the lack of foliage had revealed a stone urn at the village of Appenrode. It looked like the type of stone urn that you often… Continue Reading
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We followed the line-of-march of the US First Army through Göttingen and we rode adjacent to the Leine River to Bovenden where the 3rd Armour fought off a Nazi Panzer counter-attack in 1945. Just a few kilometres from Bovenden is Lenglern, this is a rather generic German village where old farm houses and a sombre… Continue Reading
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The temperature had been a nice 25 all day which wasn’t much use to me as I was busy. Thus, I ventured out at 6.30pm thinking it will of course be cooler only that’s not how Central European weather works. It was instead 28 to over 30. I covered pretty much now well-known roads, gravel… Continue Reading
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It had been hot, over 40 at times and nor did the heat relent that much in the evenings. For a cool ride it was best to get up early and I mean early and too early for me, and head for the forests. Prudence said in my ear not to ride too much, so… Continue Reading
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The letter from the Zoll said that on pain of fees, taxes and fines we must collect a parcel they had held from us for over a week. We had ordered an item from a German company, via a German website and paid in Euros, but the vendor had sent it straight from the USA… Continue Reading
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Once more Gunnar Fehlau and I went out like ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen in the mid-day sun’ for a quick lunchtime ride (30 plus being the temperature). We zipped along although Gunnar had to be patient with me on the climbs and the gravel descents as my battered ribs still do make me go ‘oooh’.… Continue Reading
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Or following in Grandma’s footsteps and German Castles are just not ‘hard arse’ enough. My image of castles was formed by visiting Wales where large and imposing castles were built to express power, deliver military dominance over and the subjugation of the Welsh by the English. Also ‘hard as nails’ castles built by the Norman… Continue Reading
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A week off the bike after bashing my ribs after a very slow and silly fall from my road bike, I set off to redeem myself with a Sunday gravel run. I must have had my mind elsewhere when getting dressed….. oh yes, and thankfully I was told before I would be outed on social… Continue Reading
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A list of cycle road races on the 2019 road race calendar that feature gravel, pave and dirt. I have always had an interest in cycle races that deviate away from asphalt roads such as the Paris Roubaix ‘Spring Classic’ held over the notorious pave of northern France and I have often posted video, pictures… Continue Reading
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I went for a road ride with just a few metres of gravel and I did it simply so I could wear my favourite shoes. These road shoes are only for sunny days and ‘clean’ riding. They are white and they glow silver in the sunshine. I have been thinking that for most of my… Continue Reading
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Apart from the Baltic Coast few Central Europeans have access to the sea, therefore being from the UK it is a very odd feeling not to be within even a 100 kilometres of a beach or sea in a landlocked Goettingen. So what to do? Central Europeans visit the lakes and there are many to… Continue Reading
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Only mad dogs and Englishmen, plus Gunnar Fehlau go out in the mid-day sun Noel Coward wrote a song in the 1930’s satirising the English – “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.” Previous to this Rudyard Kipling had written about the English in Empire India: “Only fools and Englishmen go… Continue Reading
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The sun is strong and the temperature is high and there is no better place to ride than the forest in such conditions. Oddly, there is something about a German forest that is slightly disturbing even on such a nice day because you do get the feeling that the trees are watching and twitching behind… Continue Reading
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This was super solo ride taking in some new gravel sections on a well known route and a wee bit of mixing up the order of climbs and descents. It was great to find new way to one of the old watchtowers that circle Goettingen. It was also great to ditch the leg warmers after… Continue Reading
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