September 21, 2021
To Dorfgastein
We’ve put some thought into how to tackle the ride south from Salzburg. There are three climbs of note, and based on the experience of others and consultation with our aging engines we decided to break the ride into three short stages and take on a single climb each day. We’re in no hurry and we might as well take our time through here.
Yesterday’s climb through Pass Lueg is the least of the three - particularly if you’re crafty and come through on a day when it’s closed for construction and manage to time your ride to catch a shuttle bus. Really, we hardly noticed yesterday’s climb at all.
Today’s ride covers the climbs south of Schwarzach im Pongau, which we expect to be significantly more painful - Ben Parke says we’re entitled to kudos if we bike up nonstop. And, curse the luck, the road is open and the weather is fair today so we have no excuses but to ride. Truth be known, it wouldn’t have broken our hearts back in Salzburg to have seen a couple of days of solid rain in the forecast and had a decent excuse to just catch the train straight through to the top.
We’re booked to stay in Dorfgastein tonight, only 26 miles away - a short enough distance that it gives us no reason to hurry out the door. It’s cold this morning so we take our time and don’t leave our hotel until 10, the latest checkout time available. The first fifteen miles of the day are a pleasant, easy ride as the route hugs the bank of the Salzach the whole way, passing through a few villages and alternating between paved and very rideable unpaved paths.
Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 5 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 3 | Comment | 2 | Link |
3 years ago
Heart | 1 | Comment | 2 | Link |
3 years ago
Just past Saint Johann we stop for a snack at a roadside bench; and a short distance later we pass through Schwarzach, cross the Salzach once more, and begin the real work of the day - a series of steep climbs that lift us high up on a shoulder that crowds the left bank. It’s not a long climb but once it starts it’s relentlessly steep, climbing about five hundred feet in the next 2/3 of a mile and sticking between 11 and 14% the whole way according to our Garmins. It’s painful, and a relief when we finally top out. And a disappointment when another short 10 percenter soon follows, and then another.
Heart | 4 | Comment | 5 | Link |
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
3 years ago
Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 8 | Comment | 2 | Link |
3 years ago
We painfully roll along the top of this plateau for about five miles, cross a high bridge over the Gasteiner Ache dizzyingly far below, and then come to the second significant feature of the day: the Klamm Tunnel.
Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Immediately past the bridge we enter the tunnel; and surprisingly soon after we’re out the other side. Surprisingly because I’d thought it was quite a long tunnel. This isn’t it though. This is a pre-tunnel, or a tunnellette (not a word yet I don’t believe, but I expect it to fall into wide usage soon).
Heart | 2 | Comment | 2 | Link |
3 years ago
Another few hundred yards on we come to the real Klamm Tunnel, and for the next mile we burrow through the mountains, deafened by the constant roar of traffic noise echoing in the long shaft. Thinking back, this may be the longest tunnel we’ve ever biked through. There’s one back in Japan that comes to mind, but I’ll have to check my notes on that.
Heart | 4 | Comment | 1 | Link |
Heart | 3 | Comment | 1 | Link |
And that’s the work for the ride. It’s an easy cruise the rest of the way (now along the Gasteiner Ache; we’ve finally left the Salzach) to our day’s destination, tiny Dorfgastein. We’re too early to check in so we stop at the cafe right next door to fill in some time and digestive organs.
Video sound track: Air, by Jesse Cook
Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Heart | 0 | Comment | 3 | Link |
3 years ago
3 years ago
Ride stats today: 26 miles, 1,800’; for the tour: 1,359 miles, 46,500’
Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 1,359 miles (2,187 km)
Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 11 |
Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
3 years ago
3 years ago