Kalkkögel – Side A & B
During the last 2-3 weeks I’ve been hiking and mountain biking quite a bit, and two tours brought me to the Kalkkögel, a mountain range near Innsbruck that belongs to the Stubaier Alps.
In winter you can ski on both sides of the mountains – to the North in the skiing area of the Axamer Lizum and to the South in the so-called Schlick2000 area.
The Kalkögel also some amazing hiking and climbing trails, and as they are not far from Innsbruck, the are pretty popular among the “Innsbrucker”
So just to give you a hint of what the Kalkkögel look like, here two panorama photos, the first one – the A-side – from the Schlick2000 side, the second one – the B-side – from the Kemater Alm and Axamer Lizum side.
the Kalkkögel as seen from the Schlick2000
the Kalkkögel as seen from the Kemater Alm
New Fixie – Felt Brougham
some things just take a bit longer…
already in December 2009 I ordered a Felt Brougham Fixie to replace my Specialized Langster New York (I somehow got tired of the yellow). estimated shipping: February 2010
in February I already heard rumors that Felt is way behind with the Brougham (in Europe) and in Mid April the dealer I ordered the Brougham at told me he had to cancel the order, as he was cancelling his contract with Felt as they were too unreliable (he had quite a few people waiting for the Brougham).
so that was that, and as a consolation I bought a Scott Scale 29er MTB – which brought me back to mountainbiking.
Now, after surfing around on the net for a bit, I saw that the Brougham is finally available, and even though I hadn’t planned to go for it, I just did it anyway…
so here’s my new ride….
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Markus Eibegger
Markus_Eibegger
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Cadel Evans
Cadel_Evans-4
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Ivan Basso
Ivan_Basso-6
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Vincenzo Nibali
Vincenzo_Nibali-3
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Michele Scarponi
Michele_Scarponi-5
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Thomas Voeckler
Thomas_Voeckler
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Daniel Martin
Daniel_Martin
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Pablo Lastras Garcia
Pablo_Lastras_Garcia
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Michael Morkov
Michael_Morkov
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Damien Gaudin
Damien_Gaudin
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Cameron Meyer
Cameron_Meyer
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Giro d’Italia 2010 – Playboy
Playboy_Fiat
Originally uploaded by stetre76
Kraftwerk-Trophy 2010 – wrap up
On May 15, 2010 this year’s Kraftwerk-Trophy was staged in Vienna.
The 12h race was once again organized by the 2RadChaoten and even though the weather wasn’t the best, the event itself was simply amazing.
For myself I was pretty statisfied with my performance – up until May 15 I’ve been in the saddle for maybe 250km (on my road bike) so my expectations were low.
Also, as I came to Vienna with a bit of a cold, I decided to ride only as long as it’s not raining – yeah, I know “what a softie”.
At the start at 8am it was still a bit cool, but temperatures caught up a bit and around noon it was nice cycling weather, except for the very strong winds.
Around 4.45pm it started to rain, but i decided to go on a little bit longer. Shortly before 6pm, with 2hrs still to go, heavy rain set in and that was when I decided 308km in 09h45min is enough – well, I’ve done more on one day than in the whole season so far….
race-start of the KT2010
an der schönen blauen Donau…
all along the river danube….
last Saturday (July 11), 2 friends of mine and myself cycled from Passau (Germany) to Vienna.
It’s a very popular tour among hobby cyclists, as it follows the river Danube all along the way, and there are quite a few places that are worth visiting along the route – like the Abbey of Melf, the Wachau Valley with Dürnstein, and of course Vienna.
Normally, riders take 4-5 days to get from Passau to Vienna, not only because they are visiting some sights along the river, but simply because most don’t want to cycle more than 60-70km per day.
But as we are a bit crazy, we decided to do the ride in approx. 12hrs – just for the fun of it.
so here’s the details:
Passau – Vienna: 321km
time in the saddle: 10h31min
time Passau > Vienna (incl. 2 breaks): 12h7min
avg. speed (net): 30.6km/h
VDO Z3 data:
route:
Kraftwerktrophy 2009
Last saturday the Kraftwerktrophy 2009 was staged in Vienna – a 12h bicycle race for solo riders and 3-man teams.
My personal goal was to hit the 300km mark which i reached – I cycled 325km. actually i could have cycled more, but after 240km I became a bit lazy…
The event itself was amazing – perfectly organized, perfect weather, not too hot, sun all day but a bit too much wind.
With Jure Robic (4 times Race Across America winner), probably the best Ultra-Cyclist in the world at the moment, the event also had a very prominent starter and a well deserved winner.
Jure, who took the Kraftwerktrophy as a good training unit for the RAAM which is starting in 3 weeks, cycled some amazing 498km and was oly beat by a 3-man team, which cycled 504km, one round more than Jure.
all other teams, and of course solo starters, finished behind Jure Robic – simply amazing…
For me personally, the race started pretty badly – I went to the start-line and saw that my rear tyre was punctured. not a good start with 5minutes to the actual start.
so i went to the official race mechanic, and Robert (thanks again, even though you won’t read it here), fixed my tyre in an astounding sub-4-minutes.
the start flag was just lifted when I jumped over the fences and hit the road with only 200m behind the big peleton.
the rest of the race went pretty well – the first 240km were amazingly easy and i was very positive on going more than 300km. then, however, i started to get cramps in my left leg and i had to take it a bit easy. another problem was that i was there alone, so i dind’t have anybody to hand my fresh water bottles or anything to eat.
so i had to get off the bike myself, which also meant that i was losing the group i was cycling in…
with 75 minutes still to go, i had cycled 293km and i knew that the 300km wouldn’t be a problem. at the finish line my odometer showed 327,8km, the official report states 324,8km.
it was a fantastic weekend and a perfect event – looking forward to my next 12h race in 2 1/2 weeks, this time in Salzburg on the Salzburgring.
2009…back in the saddle
the “new” year is already an old one, and with the winter we’ve had here in Austria, it’s a wonder people are already thinking about cycling….when i look outta my office window i can see the Nordkette (mountain range) and it’s still covered by snow – so it would almost be more fun to take the skis out again and head for the mountain tops…
anyway, next week i’ll start at the first “race” of the year – a 12h Fixie & Singlespeed race in Vienna. It’s gonna be fun, or as much fun as you can get when 65 Singlespeeders are curving around a 1.5km round. But i take it as a training, at the very best. The Last man Standing 09 will show me where i stand and if it makes any sense to start with the singlespeed also at the Kraftwerktrophy 2009 which will be held in late May, also in Vienna.
cycling…over and out for 2008
the cycling season is over, at least for me…
2008 started off pretty good, the Kraftwerktrophy in May was fun, even though I couldn’t reach my personal goal of 500km.
the next 24h race was less fun – in Grieskirchen we were supposed as a 2-men team – the problem was that my colleague had to cancel the night before the race >>> I “had to” cycle on my own. As Grieskirchen is not the easiest 24h race (at least in my eyes), my expectations were pretty low. so was I was pretty happy that after 24hrs I wasn’t last in the Team category (2-men team), but that there was another team still behind me, and they did cycle as a team…
the last 24h race for the year was the Kainachtal Trophy in Styria. I was really looking forward to this one, and I thought that I was in good shape. Well, for the first 200km I really was in good shape – but then my pulse dropped below 130, even on the short climb. As I normally ride with a quite hight pulse I was afraid that something was wrong. I quit the race and went back home the very night (Saturday) – and it was the right decision. On Sunday I was lying in bed, with a ore thraot an a fever…
For the last 2 weeks I haven’t doneanything – except eat and enjoy life 😀
next week I am on a business trip, but after my return i plan to start to train again (i am on my fixie everyday anyway, but start on the Ergo again). well, at least what I call training…
24h Kraftwerktrophy Donnerskirchen 2008
May 24/25, Donnerskirchen, Austria – the Kraftwerktrophy, a 24h cycling race is taking place.
my personal goal was to cycle 500km, in the end I did 453km – not the best result, but considering that I was cycling on my own for more than 85% of the race, I think that’s ok.
I finished 18th (out of 24), so not the most spectacular result, but still not last…
a cool summary with plenty of photos can be found here
T-Mobile Mountain Challenge 2005
bad weather, but still cycling….
this was taken during the T-Mobile Mountain Challenge in (August) 2005. It was a cycling-race for amateurs during one of the stages of the Deutschland-Tour
the route brought us up to Kühtai (Tyrol, Austria) at 2.020m and as you can see, the weather was really bad (2°C and rain/snow)
during the interview they told me that the Pro-riders weren’t coming up to Kühtai, because it was too cold for them – well at least we had to cycle up there….
planning to buy a new bicyle…Fixie on the way
as if 4 bikes wouldn’t be enough already I am now planning to buy yet another bike…but something a bit different this
time
not sure why and how it came to it, but somehow I am really interested in Singlespeed/Fixie cycles.
so next week I am going to see a dealer some kilometers from here and try to get my hold on the
2008 Specialized Langster New York
photo by Specialized
As far as I know the Langster series is somewhat limited and it’s not that easy to get the bike – still, after talking to the dealer just last week he was confident that he will be able to order one of the Langster New York’s and get it here for me.
So if everything goes well I’m going to ride this cutie from beginning of april onwards
getting ready for 24h of Mountainbiking
As the 24h Mountain-Bike race in Freistadt is getting closer and closer (Feb 23/24) I am not trying to ready myself for the race.
Even though this MTB race is only a “warm up” for the rest of the season and I am just there to collect some kilometers, I still want to cycle at least 200km – so let the training beginn…
stats since November 2007
November: 7:01:24 h 240.5km
December: 13:33:36 h 342.86km
January (so far): 5:14:00 h 171km
Total: 25:49:00h 754.36km
for a Pro that’s not even a proper warm-up, but for me (and especially my family) that’s quite somehting…
1 1/2 months left…
today I got the ok that I am allowed to start at the 24h MTB race in Freistadt (Austria) on Feb 23/24.
although I started to train already in November, time is running short, especially after the Christmas holidays with lots of celebrating and plenty of good food.
So now it’s all about eating less and train more…
in the world of... 