This years' trip for Kom Op tegen Kanker consisted of a 7-day ride from Mechelen to Prague. I decided to take part but also to skip 2 days because of the high amount of heighmeters during those days. We started out in cold weather but somehow we managed to avoid rain during the whole trip. Also te wind was in our favour for 6 days, only blowing against us during the last ride from Dresden to Prague. I had no mechanicals, no flats and no setbacks.
Mechelen to Valkenburg. A ride of 118.6K over mostly flat roads taking us over the river Meuse into the Netherlands. It was cold and the wind was blowing from our left side from the north-northwest. We had a break at Zelem more or less halfway into the ride.
Valkenburg to Breckerfeld. A more hilly ride of 160.5K through Saxony and High Saxony which took us straight between the major cities of Dusseldorf and Cologne. We crossed the river Rhine today, using a ferry. The weather had been cold and the wind was blowing hard form the North. No rain though.
On Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th I took two rest days.
Nordhausen to Leipzig. Today took us form Nordhausen - where we briefly visited former nazi camp Dora - to the major city of Leipzig. 140K were added to the total. The wind was turning more to the West and this provided us with slightly warmer weather. Ranging from 13 degrees in the morning to just over 19 degrees when we arrived in the late afternoon. The ride was relatively flat and took us through beautiful landscapes.
Leipzig to Dresden. Today we only had to do 116K. We wanted to arrive early to have a bit of time to visit the city of Dresden. The ride took us over gently flowing landscapes to the river Elbe, which we followed for 33K into Dresden.
Dresden to Prague. Already the last day and a hefty one due to the 158k and 1740 heightmeters that had to be concquered. First we followed the banks of the river Elbe for 23K . After that a long climb of 22K took us into the Czech republic and to the highest point of the trip, at 754 meters. We descended to find the river Elbe again (which is called Labe in the Czech republik) . We had to battle the strong southern wind before arriving at the river Moldau and follow that into a sunny Prague.

Ride Stats : 700K and 5645 heightmeters (Garmin) in 30h00mins

2535/13900

14-05-2016, 00:00 geschreven door Big Bad Wolf