Two days after finishing my solo ride across Europe here is a summary covering various aspects:
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| The 16 stages of the route |
- Duration
- 17 days (1st to 17th of June 2022)
- 16 days in the saddle, one break day (9th of June in Davos)
- 119 hours of effective pedaling.
- On average 7.5 hours of pedaling a day.
- Length
- Total 2600 km. From Cambridge UK to Savârsin, Arad County in Romania..
- A bit over 22 degrees in longitude and about 6 degrees in latitude.
- Longest day stage: June 16, 2022. 263 km, 10h17`. From Mohacs (Hungary) to Arad (Romania). This was also the flattest stage.
- Average day stage length: 162km (100 miles)
- 9 Countries: UK, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania
- Average speed: 22 km/h
- It does not sound too much, but it includes all climbs and traversing towns and cities. The route also had long gravel sections and many roads with poor surface
- Elevation gain
- Total accumulated elevation gain: 19750 m
- Highest elevation gain in one day: 2675 m, passing two alpine passes
- Average daily elevation gain: 1250m
- Crossed 7 passes in 4 mountain ranges: Ardennes, Vosges, Jura, Alps
- Ballon d' Alsace (1177 m). Vosges
- Scheltenpass (1051 m). Jura
- Alpine passes:
- Fluela Pass (2383 m) - Highest point of the route
- Ofen Pass (2149 m)
- Jaufenpass (2094 m)
- Sella di Dobbiaco (1219 m) - Not quite a pass.
- Klippitztörl Pass (1642 m)
- Hebalm (1410 m)
- Bicycle
- Decathlon B'Twin Ultra.
- Mid Range Road bike from 2019
- Full Shimano Ultegra equipped (2x11 speed, rim brakes)
- Aluminium frame, carbon fork.
- Aluminium wheels
- All stock except the softer saddle (Selle Italia Shiver Gel Flow) and narrower handlebar (38 cm)
- Bicycle weight including all luggage and full bottles of water: 17kg of which about half is the bicycle and half the luggage .
- This proved to be a very robust bicycle. Except chain lubrication/cleaning and a few pumps in the tires no other maintenance was needed
- Tires: Vittoria Randonneur 700x28c
- Cheap and very strong with puncture protection layers.
- Had 0 punctures!
- Not the fastest or lightest tire though.
- Bicycle maintenance kit: mini pump, spare tube, tube patches, multitool, tire levers, toothbrush (for chain, sprocket cleaning) chain lube (only for wet conditions... not the best idea as it is quite sticky)
- Safety
- Every single top piece of my cycling clothing was in high visibility green color! Also the helmet.
- Lights: A powerful LED headlight. Two miniature LED position lights. Only used the once when passing through two road semi-tunnels.
- Had a bell and used it quite often when overtaking other cyclists.
- Always used cycling glasses with UV protection, mostly colorless ones.
- Had a first aid kit with me. Luckily, I have never touched its contents during the trip
- Used sunscreen cream daily
- GPS Cycling Computer
- Garmin Edge 520 plus
- Rather old and basic model, but after learning its quarks it is very capable.
- Used stock firmware, no extra applications
- Battery only lasts 8h so I also had a very small external battery,
- Route Planning
- I used Garmin Connect, using its "popularity" option that uses the heatmap from users' activities. In this way I discovered amazing cycling routes.
- I used OpenStreetMap to see the official european cycling routes
- I also used Google Street View to get an idea of how various roads along the route look.
- This helped me to identify and avoid potentially dangerous roads for cycling
- Route surfaces
- 50km of gravel cycleways in the Italian and Austrian Alps.
- The rest paved of different types from dedicated cycleways to roads
- I tried to avoid large cities as they are hard and slow to navigate through, Also not the best place to leave your bike unattended.
- Accommodation along the route
- Never planned more than a day in advance
- Preferred a certain level of comfort for a good rest:
- All were single rooms with private bathrooms (I also rinsed my smelly cycling clothes every evening...)
- Almost all had breakfast included
- All sorts of types: Ferry cabin, AirBnB, 2,3,4 star hotels, bed and breakfast.
- I found a secure place to store the bike overnight at every place I stayed: underground garage, storage room etc.
- Food/ Mostly from supermarkets for several reasons:
- Very fast to get food/drinks. Can be eaten on the spot or taken away as it is always packaged.
- Consistent food standards - never had any stomach issues
- I am vegan and many restaurants do not have good vegan options
- Staple foods: Dense integral+seeds breads, baked beans, fruit smoothies/juices, bananas
- Lots of fruit, muesli and nuts batons... got sick of them!
- Food supplements:
- A daily multivitamin + minerals pill
- A salt pill every 50km or so. Every pill contains 15% of the daily Mg, Na and Ka..
- I added extra salt (NaCl) to food on the days I sweated a lot.
- Costs:
- On average about 100 Euro / day for accommodation and food
- Sustainability...
- Probably not as sustainable as it seems!
- Buying food mainly from supermarkets means a lot of packaging waste, especially that in most places I could not figure out where are the bins for recycling.
- In the mountain stages I always found water sources to refill my bottles. Otherwise I wasted a lot of plastic bottles...
- I guess that the crossing the Channel by train would have been more environmentally friendly than taking the ferry.
- Luckily the weather was not too hot so I did not have to use air conditioning in the places where I spent the nights.
- In Romania, after the last stage I was collected by a friend by car. I could have taken the train, but the Arad-Brasov train line is practically closed as upgrading work is taking place. At least my friends car runs on cleaner GPL and he has a very economical driving style...
