Garmin activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1679228504
. 100km, 4h30, 900hm
I had a good breakfast this morning and took it easy. I went outside around eight thirty
From Kaplice I would cycle to the Austrian border and go to Linz, where I would meet my mom who was coming from Bratislava by car. Talk abuot logistic planning!
Another spot I remembered. Over a year ago I took a right here and went to Cesky Krumlov. Today I followed the GPS and went straight for the little town of Omlenicka
From the very start everything was a climb. I started at 530 meters and I was rising.
It would be another glorious day on the bike and I was still caring this oversized laptop in my backpack
At 700 meters I found this beautiful church. These small Czech towns are very peaceful and far away from terrorism.
Right after that was a lovely descent
Making way through to last stretches of Czech republic
Dolni Dvoriste indicated on the signs. According to the map, that is the border crossing
20 km in the saddle, roughly one hour. It was already very warm.
I took this moment to make one last status on facebook; since the connection would be gone over the border
My very last ride on this S-Works Roubaix with rim brakes. As much as I love this bike, this weekend once again showed me why I am selling it. The disc brakes I have on my other Roubaix are just fabulous. Rim brakes cannot even come close. So I decided to keep only the disc brake Roubaix and upgrade it a little.
Once again I was living a beautiful day. According to my estimations; behind those hills is Austria
Great! I found one last Potraviny before crossing the border. I drank 1.5 liters of ice tea here and relaxed a little. Then I went for the border. I was a bit surprised to see that Dolni Dvoriste was still 15 km away. It did not make sense to me.
A s,all road indicated a German name. It means I am close...
In the middle of nowhere I found this tiny border crossing. It was funny to see it.
No border checks; no need for bringing my passport haha
I still had connection at this point so I made one very last status and then it was definitely over
Welcome to the Republic of Austria. It seems that I crossed the border at Horni Dvoriste.
Province or region of Oberosterreich, which means higher Austria. High as in hills...
In Austria I found myself in between hills of 650 meters. I also saw a few cyclists
There was one cyclist who was a bit slow and I gained on him. I told him I had cycled from Belgium and that I was going to Linz today. His facial expression as I said it... Priceless!
It was not a complete lie; I did stuff like that before and I have something colossal planned for just 3 months from today.
I did take it easy on the descents. I was not very proud of myself cycling without a helmet for these two days. But luckily nothing happened. Never to be repeated again!
Austria is very beautiful and has better road conditions than Czech republic. Similar to Czech republic were the hills, always going up or down.
From the border I went to a bigger town called Freistadt and then to Linz. That was my route. There were some indicated bike routes as well; but honestly the Czech system is better.
Just behold this beautiful day, not a single cloud. It seemed impossible that it was only the second of April.
A very long descent led me to Freistadt. The Austrian cyclist I met explained to me that between Czech Republic and Linz I would descent around 500 meters.
Linz was already indicated on the signs. I took a break here.
I ate my apple and bananas and checked the time. I would arrive around 2 pm.
A longer descent brought me below 300 meters. That cyclist was right.
This sign sums up pretty well what I have been doing these two days, From Prague to Linz.
District of Perg
Everything went according to schedule. From this spot it was just 25 km left.
Beautiful place to live
So far so good! I was gonna make it with this way too heavy backpack!
If I did not look at the calendar; I would reckon it's summer right now...
Another close up of my soon to leave me bike.
I took a quick breka here. My mom told me she would be there at 3. It was 1.30 at the time and I had 17 km left.
The rest would turn out to be flat lands
Somehow I was led to a cycling path along the Donau river. I drove over the Donau so many times by car the last few years. This time I was cycling alongside it.
A right to Linz, a mere 15 km away
There were really a shitload of people on these cycling lanes and there was a gentle headwind. It is funny how I got so bored of this after just 15 km.
This phase made me think about other river side cycling I used to do: The Albert channel in Belgium, many small rivers in the Netherlands, the Tamsui river in Taiwan; the Vltava and Labe in Czech republic, the Elbe in Germany etc.
I made it into the city of Linz but the waypoint I calculated seemed to be another 30 km away. I would never make it before 3 so i called my mom to meet at a different location; I looked for something as close to the highway as possible.
I found it next to the A7 highway. I found a little place near Unionsstrasse. At 3 my mom was there.
I had already changed clothes and prepared my backpack. It was still 9 hours of driving to Belgium from here but all went well. Another epic cycling weekend came to an end.
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