Category: Rides
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The riddle of the grumpy hiker
Picture the day. It’s warm. The alpine breeze is gentle, coming over the top of the exposed peaks above you; cooling your skin. It feels good after the climb up the dirt road to the treeline. You’re stopped on an exposed rocky bend; a 180 degree view of the valley opens up before you. You […]
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Messing about in the woods
I spent a little time messing about in the woods today. I’ve been getting over my weekend cold quickly, but I still wasn’t ready to do any kind of proper ride . Instead I pedalled up to the LanserKopfl – the little forested chunk of land right on the southern edge of town – and […]
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The Grand Round
I went for a longer road ride the other day. After a couple of rides on the Mountain Bike, I’d been getting a bit bored with the stop start of finding new trails, post-holing through snow, and getting turned around by Thunderstorms appearing out of nowhere. It’s absolutely certain that road biking will never produce […]
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The minor problems with paradise
Beautiful places have problems. Even the most exotic of paradises suffer from their popularity in some way; in Innsbruck its the smog. Its not that bad; it’s hardly even noticeable most of the time. The problem is that Innsbruck, or the Inn valley to be precise, is one of the busiest corridors in Europe. The […]
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Scharnitzer Tal
When you look at a map of Innsbruck (something I seem to spend a lot of time doing) you notice immediately the huge chain of mountains running along the northern edge of the valley. The Nordkette (literally “north chain”) is a run of peaks reaching to 2500m, almost 2000 metres (6600 feet) from the valley […]
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Up a random hillside
I had the good fortune to ‘virtually’ bump into an American recently. Virtually in its cyber-sense that is. Tracy is a friend of Christoph, my only other riding partner here in Austria, and after an online introduction, we quickly agreed to saddle up and ride some trails.
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Birthday ride
A pleasing twist of fate decided that today in Austria was a Feiertag, or a public holiday that just so happened to fall on my birthday. A day off work and celebrating to be done too. Perfect. Although I don’t have much idea how Ascension is supposed to be celebrated in the catholic world, I […]
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Colour in my skin
Seasonality is surely the best thing about the Mountains, about the northern latitudes than dip and dive between summer and winter with such little warning. For all the suspense and anticipation I place on the arrival of spring, cycling forces me to live in the moment. If its cold outside, I will put on my […]
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Perverse satisfaction
I hereby formally declare it is summer in Austria! What was the defining moment? Today I rode outside with bare legs. Finally, my awesomely white calves had a glimpse of the Alps, and they didn’t complain. After a winter of riding in cold weather, you’ve toughened to the elements, and there’s little that can stop […]
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Where does that go?
After plenty of time exploring the local roads, I’ve got a good feeling for the Inntal (Innsbruck valley). Each road ride fills another blank area of my map; the empty contours fill themselves with mental images of churches, bridges, rock faces and small villages. When I get home, the anonymous lines on maps now have […]