Daniel, Mathias, and I entered the Schwarzwald Ultra Radmarathon. It’s a bike ride that starts in Alpirsbach, Germany and ends in Alpirsbach, Germany. It makes a rather inefficient attempt at getting from point A to point A by taking cyclists on a 240 km ride through the Black Forest. For good measure 3800 m of climbing is also thrown in.
We stayed Saturday night with Ole, RIG’s long distance specialist, who lives in Alpirsbach. We were a little late to the start on Sunday and left at 7:20 am. This was fine as just like the Saentis Classic it was a cunning trick and it wasn’t actually a race. However, this time I was informed. The three of us rode together for the entire ride. The course is quite scenic with lots of roads with forest on either side. I felt good until the Kandel climb where I blew out and had to stuff myself full at the food station at the top. I wasn’t in the best of shape for the next 15 km or so but then came right again. We stocked up on food one last time at the 200 km mark and then smashed the last 40 km to the finish line.
Above left: Heading out in the morning. We were a little late to the start line and left just the three of us. Above right: Having a rest at Kandel at the 130 km mark. I was rather low on energy and made sounds of riding alone or abandoning. The others weren’t having a word of it and we carried on. I did some wheel sucking for a while until I came right again. We all had low points along the ride.
Above left: Yet another break at the 200 km mark. Above right: At the finish line after 9 hours of riding.
Schwarzwald Ultra Radmarathon 240 km / 3800 m