March 4, 2017: Summerish double century in the hills of West Bohemia


Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1603157880
200 km, 8h51, 3149hm


I took the metro to Zlicin as I really hate the Prague city center.


In Zlicin it was 7 and I set up my GPS for the ride to Dlouhy Ujezd


Some streets led me to the outside lands of district Beroun


Good morning and well on the road again


I noticed from the start that the given route was very different from before.



Stopped at the first Potraviny I saw for some drinks and snacks


Nice castle


I entered the town of Beroun, where I was once last year


In the early stages of the ride there was a lot of climbing


The weather was great! It even felt hot


Best weather day of the year so far


During a climb, really amazing weather


I was sweating really good


Feeling of freedom out here


Good weather days would finally be back!


I entered the Krivoklat again, but through different roads



Considering my recent trips this was just fabulous!


Longer daylight and this kind of weather... good times ahead


Looking forward to your next visit


There was one area within Krivoklat that I remember... today I took it in the opposite direction


I visited this spot in winter, crazy how much it changed over a few weeks


A 5km descent brought me all the way here


This image btw reminds me of Taiwanese mountains


It went down to Krivoklat and then all the way back up again to 500 meters. That was a very long climb.


Maybe in the morning I felt a bit chilly in my clothes, but right now I already felt hot in them


I took a break here and took off some clothes. It was really exceptionally warm!



A whole new area was discovered today


So far this ride was ticking off all the boxes for me



A nice lake




Didn't really expect to land in Ustecky Kraj today, but here I was after 95 km


Few km later I arrived in Pilzen Kraj. That made more sense to me.


100 km in the pocket and halfway.


Impressive buildings


Just wiling away in the Czech hinterland



Rim brake Roubaix this time, still waiting for the other one to be fixed


There was an area here with very crappy roads. The Schwalbe 28mm were a master here


Big castle in the middle of nowhere


A few very steep descents made me understand that disc is still better. It required much more power and attention to do this on rim brakes. Coming from rim brake experience, I felt this difference


And back up again! This little fellah was darn steep!


Czech republic is full of these cute little steep roads


There is also a place in Prague called Vysocany...


Mwah... enjoying this ride!


One of the bigger cities, of course with cobbles



One last break before I finished the whole ride



More uphill came, it never stopped in fact!


I was constantly between 400 and 600 meters. These are the hills I have seen from my car when I first came here in November 2015. I drove through Germany, then Pilzen and Prague.


District of Tachov, a new first. 25 km left to my destination.


With all these hills, it seemed impossible to arrive before darkness. 


So I made a mental determination to have max 15 km in darkness to do.


Downhill, uphill, forest, fields, it was a very varying ride.



So many climbs, what can I say?




This ride was unfolding to be a wonderful memory



I thought of something neat: I noticed a few times that in Germany and Belgium the days are a bit longer, almost one hour. So I guessed that being 200 km west of Prague, daylight should be around 15 minutes longer. That logic made sense! Moreover, the skies were quite open so I had some 30 min more daylight then I had anticipated!


Picture taken right after a fierce climb. Lovely stuff


Nevertheless, it was already five and it would be dark soon. There was no escape!


For the last segment I resorted to my famous Trebic tactic: follow the main road for the last bit as it results in greater average speed. I went to Tachov like this.


It really helped! In Tachov it was only 5 km left to the destination and with reasonable daylight


One last mother fucker here. I was already over 3000 meters at this point


Epic sunset in West Bohemia!


The beautiful inter-season glow over the fields


I made a little detour to make sure I had 200 km


And then I made it. Great mission accomplished. I had food and went to bed


Almost 9h, a full 200 km AND 3000 hm. Fantastic numbers

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