Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1643476625
104 km, 5h04, 1769 hm.
Overnight daylight saving's time kicked in. Awesome for cyclists!
I had a breakfast, got ready and left. This was around 8.30. It was still very cold.
Descending from the hotel to the main road. Today's plan was entering the Jesenik mountains and going to Praded, the highest peak
From the very start Garmin was sending me through some cute tiny roads along this mountain creek
Some offroad sections as well...
Steadily I was climbing again, already above 500 meters. Beautiful view though
A 7 km steady climb of 2-3"% led to Bela pod Pradedem. According to Czech logic, it would be the path that leads to the Praded
It was very sunny yet chilly. Climbing made me feel warm, otherwise it would be cold
Then it became steeper. In a few km I climbed from 650 to 950 meters high.
That section was very steep, constantly around 11%. I took a small break at this hairpin turn
One steep mofo. I was counting that 950 meters meant 500 left to Praded. That seemed doable
In the Jesenik mountains on a sunny Sunday morning...
To my big surprise I left the Olomouc region and entered Moravskolezsko. Unfortunately it went downhill here, some good 200 meter of climbing was wasted like this.
A descent led to 790 meters and from there I had to climb all the way back up, again pretty steep. I was hoping this time would lead me to Praded.
A long climb led me to 1000+ meters of height. Highest point all year!
I saw another summit... which meant another descent... which meant I did not reach Praded yet...
If you would ask me what is the difference between Czech and Taiwanese mountains, my answer would be: Taiwan's mountains are higher but they are just one climb. Czechia's mountains are lower but you have cross many hills before you can actually get to that mountain.
Shocking to see a sign in German language here. This area is rather close to Poland, not Germany
One thousand and four meters above sea level. In a small forest in the Jesenik mountains...
The descent was not comfortable as the road was full with cracks.
Karlova Studanka, the place I had selected this morning on my map. Didnt think it would take me so long with so much climbing to get here.
Now we should be getting ready for Praded...
I asked some people how to get to Praded, they sent me to a parking lot, where I found this map. It describes Praded and the surrounding peaks. I was standing at 800 meters, so I had roughly 650 meters of climbing left.
The entrance to Praded, a red sign with barriers is used to dose incoming traffic. Good idea! As a cyclist I could to straight in.
There was a sign that said 12% gradient over 6 km. That sounded promising...
Honestly, at this point I was feeling weary. Not only the 264 km yesterday, but also the more than 1000 m of climbing this morning. Good thing my bike has gearing for this kind of situations. The road continues...
The higher I got, the more the snow became apparent. However, the sunlight and blue skies seemed promising. It was a day for Praded, even though it was only -3 here.
At 1200 meters, 300 meters left. I was taking a small break after every 100 m of elevations
Awesome bike! It will be one of the last rides with it, as it will be sold in ten days.
1250 meters. I had to make way for an incoming bus. The road is very narrow and so it Czech's driver's patience btw haha
Over 1300 meters I could already see the TV tower that marks the summit of Praded
Very sweet, I was here!
Unfortunately the last mile or so was covered in snow and ice, so I could not finish the last 150 m of climbing. I was not gonna walk 3-4 km with my bike either. So I called it a day here. I consider this mission accomplished. I saw the thing with my own eyes.
Maybe another visit in the summer... Now descent.... The road being curvy and steep that was also a lot of work, especially on rim brakes which I had to constantly pinch. To the extent that my fingers hurt. It reminded me why I am actually selling this bike.
I made it back to the parking lot in one piece. Here I took the map and decided what to do. The choices where Ceska Trebova or Olomouc. Strangely enough Ceska Trebova was 128 km away according to Garmin. So I chose Olomouc which was a little under 70 km. I took a right here and went into a very long descent...
During that descent I felt downright cold. At this point a few hills came and I was floating in between 600-700 meters. Slowly I began feeling warmer
Nature park Jeseniky, I had officially exited it.
There were quite some fabulous views here and remarkable descents and ascents
It was time again for a chilly afternoon section, without any stress
Once again it strikes me that no people were out cycling here. I was all alone here.
After sweating and climbing a lot more, I entered the Olomouc region again. This is the point where I definitely left the mountain range and descended all the way back to 200 meters.
This was a very long descent indeed and for a long section it was straight, i could just roll without even braking, speeds were above 50 kmph
I stopped to give my fingers a rest from braking. Magnificent panorama once again
All of this was very cute to see
The last section to Olomouc was pretty much flat. It was the perfect cooling down after this ride
There is apparently an extensive bike path network between Sternberk and Olomouc. I liked it a lot
I needed to look up the address of the station, since it was not called Nadrazni in here.
The city was full of cobbles, that was annoying.
Here I was, Olomouc! 300 Ck and 150 minutes later I was back in Prague. I cycled another 15 km from Hlavni Nadrazi to Cakovice
