The "Big Tour" - climbs, views and getting back home

Snow is still drifting down outside the window, the roads are still salt and grit-strewn, and the bike is hunkered down under a blanket in the cellar. But the days are getting longer and it’s time to get down to some real planning. Ideas have been buzzing around for much of the winter, but now it’s time to add some detail and see what is possible.

While total spontaneity, just setting off in one direction or another, is great, some practicalities need to be considered. Last year it took us three days to get home by train from the Baltic and after another long ride, we were told “Non. C’est ne possible pas” when we asked about trains home from a ride to the south of France.

 

A book full of ideas leading to some hard graft

The feasibility of getting back home from long international road rides is one factor to take into account. Added to the mix are the wish to see spectacular scenery, historic cities and, with luck, “lifetime experience” climbs. Accommodation along the way isn’t a major consideration – there is always something and we usually don’t know how far we will ride each day or where we will end up.

Europe’s main rivers, from source to sea have been an inspiration: the Rhine, the Rhone the Main and the Moselle as well as Austria’s ever-popular Danube, Mur, Drau and Salzach rivers. Starting by a stream high in the Swiss Alps and ending up riding alongside a huge mass of water heading silently towards the sea is an education in itself. Cycling from our front door high in the Austrian Alps to the coast another – the Alpe Adria route is a classic.

When France is our goal, we start with the Tour de France route and try to incorporate at least one of the current year’s big climbs – easy enough to plan when riding in the Pyrenees and the Alps – though attempting the climb itself is another matter.

The Bikeline bike tour books have provided lots of ideas and information about road surfaces (beware the dreaded East German cobbles), steepness of climbs and route profile as well as clear maps.

 

Rides completed: the Bikeline books are a great source of ideas and information

Added to the above are: inspiration from our book on Europe’s greatest cycling climbs, poring over maps and unravelling the French Railway website to find if it is possible to take a bike on a train from A to B without dismantling it. The winter months will fly by, and soon it will be time to set off once again.

YOU SAID IT!

“After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go.”

HG Wells.

COFFEE:

Espresso Exclusive, ground on a hand mill at home. Brewed in our Bialletti espresso machine, strong and black. www.tridor.at

IDEAS

For half a million kilometres of long distance routes in Europe: www.biroto.eu

For Bikeline books: www.esterbauer.de

Hunkered down in the cellar, the bikes are ready and waiting for the starting gun