Well today turned out to be a pretty epic ride I must say. The good news is I concored Mt Kendal. So the day before I went with Alexandra and her husband Bernd to check out the race course for this Sundays race. It turned out to be a 20km ride there rather than the 10km’s I was told. That was cool. We rode a few laps of the course, I loved it, and then we rode back. With riding to meet them at their gym, claning the family pool and then this ride by the end of it I was feeling a bit shattered. But they had invited me to go with a bunch today on a 160km ride in the hills which would include Mt Kendal the highest rideable mountain in the black forest at 1200 height meters. So knowing that anna’s very neglected road bike was in the cellar I decided I would go. So up early to clean the bike and get ready. Cleaning the bike turned out to be a hard enough task as the chain was like it had been dipped in a bucket of grease at the start of winter and then ridden all winter long. After 3 good scrubs and some rag work I had it to an acceptable state and I was off to meet my lift. Well turned out that in German when they say somebody will drive with you, they mean ride with you. Drive in car is autohuben or something like that. So I was in shorts and a T at the meeting point and had to do a quick change as the guy was waiting all kitted up. So the 160km ride just turned into close to 190 as it’s a 15km ride to the starting point. This was all good, why not make it as hard as you possibly can. Since I was not ready we had to time trial there but we made it on time. Didn’t realise it prior, but it turned out that Anna’s bike had no rear brakes. In fact it had been like that awhile as it was metal on metal with some pretty ugly groves in the rim. So I got some new pads of Bernd and the group was away. About 30km’s in we had the first climb. It was a 600 height meter climb about 5km long. I felt pretty good and ended up riding with one of the guys off the front and doing it pretty easy. It turned out though that I could not use the top gear on the rear cluster as when I went into it the derailer was rubbing spokes and there was no way I wanted to risk ripping it off and destroying a rear wheel on this ride. So everything was going to be 1 gear down. So we decended down through a few towns and made our way to the Mt Kendal climb. It was an easy start for the first 2km’s but then it got pretty steep and I found myself wanting that extra gear I was assessing the risk in my head as I churned upwards leaving the group strung out behind me. Anna’s bike at SRM cranks on it which told me my cadance and power output with every pedal stroke. Unfortunatly there was no speed or distance but when your climbing a hill and you are sitting on 320 watts power output with 10km to go you know that your in for a fair day. I soon got into I though and started picking off the many riders doing the climb ahead of us. With about 4km’s to go I caught a semi pro rider who could speak english. It had taken me 8 km’s to catch 200meters on him so I decided to climb the rest of the way with him chatting. It was a pretty good feeling hitting the top and especially since I had left the rest of the bunch for dead. I had time for a few happy snaps and a self video as well before they started coming in. As we had a bit of time I decided to try and fix the gear problem. Funny thing was I found that I had about 8 spokes that were completely loose and the wheel was close to cloapsing point. Right got them tightened and the gear fixed so I was happy. Wonder if I would have climbed even better if I had of had a decent rear wheel? At this stage also I was regretting having not put suncream on my legs and also knowing that we had a god 100km’s to go. From the top we decended and then undulated our way along the black mountains for a bit before one of the guy hit a wall (metaphorically that is) he was wasted and starting to get disey. This turned out to be a good chance for us all to stop for cake at a hill top café. Hmm nothing beets cheery cheese cake on top of a hill. The decent out to the mountains was a hoot. I still suck at decending but riding the Tour de France style switch backs and wizzing through little villages at 60+ kmh was a definat highlight. Once down we headed for another climb that was rumored to be quite a tough one. There was a lead in little climb but it soon turned into a wall. I was up the front climbing with Bernd and he was keen to prove his strength so the pace was up there. As the climb got tougher the noice came back on the rear so I was stuck again deciding weather to risk the top gear or to do it tough and drop back one. I opted for the safe bet and went down a gear. This hill was steep though and to keep the pace and even moving I was doing 400 to 420 watts. I was hurting and so was Bernd. I knew this cos the SRM had picked up his heart rate monitor and he was on 188bpm which for a 41 year old was pretty high. My legs gave out though and I felt so weak I even took the risk on the top gear. The bike made a hell of a lot of noise as I made my way up the rest of the climb but I was happy to get there. Once at the top I inspected the rear wheel only to find that the spokes had once again loosened and even worse this time. Hmm some wheel builder must have forgotten his loc-tite when making that one. So down again, another food and drink stop and it was back up the first climb of the day and then the homeward stretch. I had been feeling good in the legs but Anna’s seat was not the best so I had been riding on the bones on either side for some time. I spent a lot of time out of the saddle for the last 50 or so km’s but hey, it can only make me stronger. So as we got back to Rammiswire I aske the guy I was with what we had done. 201kms, 2343 height meters and an average of 27kms an hour. 7:30 in the saddle in total. Hmm feeling a bit shattered now and I think tomorrow will be a day off the bike. Swim sounds nice. My legs are like beetroot on the tops too but I expected that. So next adventure should be the race. Cant wait to put all this strenght work to good use. Its going to be tough though as my category only race 3 laps of a 4km course so im predicting 40mins of flat out and it will all be over. Another amusing thing that happened was I decided since it was going to be such a long ride I would use some chamios cream. I grabbed a tub and applied it pretty libberally as I was in a hurry. Well a few seconds later things started heating up down there. I got pretty scared for a sec that I had actually put deep heat on. I read the tub again and it was definatly not deep heat. Got told later that this is normal so I relaxed but for some minutes I was fairly worried.