GLOBAL GUTZ 2009



"The idea of Global Gutz is to have a live traffic bicycle courier race in lots of cities all over the world, starting simultaneously, e.g. at 1 p.m. in San Francisco, and 4 p.m. in New York, etc. and held over a given distance and a given amount of checkpoints in an effort to try to make race conditions as equal as possible for everyone."
check out the global results and more information here.

raced my first alleycat this saturday and came in second.
the race course was easy and fast and took us from the Severinsbrücke to Zollstock, back to the riverside, down the river to Mühlheim where we crossed the bridge and headed towards the finish line at the Südbrücke. I was lucky to see the finish line first and could sprint away from a pack of four riders.
the winner Kai did an awesome job and truly deserved the victory. he broke away from the field of 10 riders shortly after start. he rode alone in the wind the first third of the race. even when we closed the gap he was still the one in front, making the pace.
congratulation to Kai and Rupe who came in third and thanks to Norbert for creating the race course.


total distance: 21,3km
time kai: 34:38
my time : 34:42

FINAL TRIP REPORT - 3 - GEAR REVIEW

the bike
all the components held up really well during the tour. a pothole in london caused a spoke to break but I'm used to that.
when I changed the cog from 16 to 17t I appreciated the carrier system on my Miche hub for the first time. you don't need a chain whip, only a lockring wrench and you are ready to swap cogs.

the tyres
the first day of my trip was a tough test on the Durano Plus tyres, the route took me trough 30km of gravel paths. the tyres felt reasonable comfortable and I didn't get a puncture! the only downturn was, that I had a really hard time to get them on my Mavic MA2 rims, the nylon bead is really tight. but I probably won't have to do that very often due to the excellent puncture protection. thanks, schwalbe!

the bag
when I first got the bag, I was a little sceptical about the bag being waterproof.
nowadays we are used to high tech fibres and sealed zippers, so waxed cotton with leather straps seemed very old-fashioned to me.
but the bag did it's job perfectly, it was totally waterproof, easy to handle when used with the support rack and it looks really unique. how could I doubt that a british company knows how to design a waterproof bag?
thanks again to carradice for supporting my trip.

clothing
I was so glad that I decided to buy armwarmers one day before the tour, it was so cold, especially in the morning.
the restriction of luggage because of the bagsize was no problem at all, I didn't miss anything and I used every item I carried at least once. (except for the suncream)

tools
fortunately there was no major mechanical problem with the bike, but the Trixie and Critical Mass from Pedro handled everything perfectly. the lockring tool on the Trixie is really good to handle due to its thickness and sharp edges on that little tooth. because of the radius of th lockring wrench side you can apply a lot of pressure on the 15mm axle nut wrench. I even did some adjustments on my break with the 10mm wrench located in the middle of the tool. I was sceptical about usability of those wrenches, but they work fine. thanks Pedros for hooking me up with those great little helpers!

food
aside from chocolate bars, belgian waffles and fruits I ate one powerbar a day and was impressed by the immediate impact it has on your body. when you slowing down and getting hungry, just take one bite and you regain power for at least an hour. ususally I'm not into scientifically designed food, but it works.
I carried just a small bottle of water with me and refilled along the way at cafés, bars or at the lock guards along the canals. helps getting in touch with the locals.


most valuable item
cycling gloves and armwarmers

unecessary item
suncream

"STERNFAHRT" THIS SUNDAY

just a quick reminder of the second annual "sternfahrt" in cologne this sunday.
show up and demonstrate for car free cities and bicycle rights!

we start at 1300 at the bike syndikat shop to join the ride in Weiden at 1400.
there will be a soundsystem on a trailer too!

FINAL TRIP REPORT - 2 - THE ROUTE


Radroute 193655 - powered by Bikemap 



Radroute 194387 - powered by Bikemap 



Radroute 202787 - powered by Bikemap 



Radroute 202799 - powered by Bikemap 



Radroute 193645 - powered by Bikemap 

FINAL TRIP REPORT - 1 - FACTS AND FIGURES

600 km, 5 days, one gear

or

104071 pedal revolutions, 1360 altitude meters, 30 hours in the saddle, 10 liter water, 5 countrys, 5 powerbars, one gear, zero flats, zero mechanicals.

DAY FIVE - UPDATE



left canterbury early in bad weather, heading towards Honey Hill. I wanted to avoid going on the main rote A2 until the motorway M20 is running in parrallel from Faversham onwards. traffic was okay, no dual carriageways, no high speed truck passing. nonetheless I bought a reflective vest for increased visibilty and that also made me feel a little safer than on day four. (updated with pictures now). I joined the national cycle route from Erith onwards, going just alongside the Thames. the scenery on the path is very strange, almost hostile since the route mostly runs through deserted industrial sites and rotten harbours. and you loose so much time because it's more like a cyclocross track with potholes, steps, guardrails, gravel...



finally arrived in London, received my honour batch and now I will enjoy the city and spend time with steffi, so there probably won't be any updates until next week.
there's going to be reviews on the gear I used, exact routes I travelled, facts&figures, lessons learned and so on. you don't want to miss that.



thank you all for following my trip and the supportive comments, that really helped my motivation.

DAY FIVE - CANTERBURY TO LONDON


after 7 hours in the saddle I arrived in London today, I'm very exhausted. I will put up more pictures and a detailed description of today's ride tomorrow, so please come back.

meanwhile check yesterday's post for picture update.

DAY FOUR - BRUEGGE TO CANTERBURY

what a day!
took off early in the sunshine, found my route and rode very relaxed towards dunkerque. I wanted to take the ferry at 1400, so I took it easy, made a lot of brakes to enjoy the sunshine and drink coffee verkeerd.
at 2/3 of the way I met a cycle tourist from amsterdam going towards south france. he took the ferry from dunkerque once and told me that the ferry terminal was nearly 25 km from the centre. that totally killed my timing, from there on I really had to push it hard to make the ferry. I flew into dunkerque to get directions but the tourist information was closed and 4 of the 5 locals I asked refused to answer. thank you! I arrived at the ferry terminal at 1330 and the guy at the ticket office said I was too late for security controls, next available ferry would be 1600. I was totall bummed but decided to go to security control anyhow and the lady just waved me through and I could cycle into the belly of the ferry just before they closed it. jippiieee. one nice french made my day, merci!
took a nap on the ferry and enjoyed a break from the hard cycling.



setting foot to english territory, it started to rain, of course!
I planned to take the national cycle route 1 towards Deal, Sandwich into Canterbury.
after carrying my bike up the steps to the white cliffs and pushing it through sand paths, I changed plans and went for the regional cycle route 16.
after pushing my bike up two steep, one mile climbs, I had to change my plans again.
I decided to take the main rout A2 into canterbury, it runs on top of the hills without steep climbs. the big downturn is, that it is a dual carriage way road with cars and hgv's passing you at about 90 km/h, totally insane!
finally arrived in Canterbury safe at my hostel, the Kipps, really nice and cosy place.

DAY THREE - ANTWERP TO BRUGGE

the forecast was bad for today, so I decided to leave Antwerp early. cycled through an old pedestrian tunnel to the other side of the Schelde. found my route leading along canals ,old train rails and through fields to Zelzate. when it started to rain I decided to go straight way to brugge, leaving the touristic fietsroutes and rode along highways and main roads. once again, my equipment held up well, everything in the carradice bag stayed perfectly dry.
hoping for a dry day tomorrow heading towards dunkerque, taking the ferry to dover and riding on to canterbury. check the older posts updated with pictures.

DAY TWO - UPDATE

when I started in Thorn my left knee started to hurt badly due to the heavy headwind. I decided to change my gear from 45:16 to 45:17, and this really helped me.
so danke edu and muchas gracias pedro for saving my knee...
here is a picture. please also check the older posts as I'll update them with pictures.

DAY TWO - THORN TO ANTWERP

cycling in netherlands and belgium is really awesome. scenery changes between fields, woods, canals, farmhouses. finding your way is easy, but I still managed to get lost once. you rarely see a car but lots of other cyclists, mostly roadies on their carbon machines.
riding into antwerp after 140 km on a saturday was crazy, cobblestone streets mixed with tram rails and cars and pedestrians everywhere. took me one hour to find and get to my b&b.
now I´m going to hunt down some food to fill up the energy tanks for tomorrow when I head to Bruegge.


DAY ONE - COLOGNE TO THORN

took off in cologne at ten o´clock, weather was really cold but dry.
I didn´t have a map until juelich, where the RUR cycle path starts, so route finding was a little tricky. the cycle path from juelich to roermond has a really nice landscape but probably 80% of the path is gravel road, so that was a pain in the ass for man and machine, but everything held up well.
situation improved when I crossed the border to the netherlands, paths were paved, routes were clear. I went on to Thorn, a very nice little village, with a medieval abbey and stayed the night.

READY, SET, GO!






finally, after all this thinking, talking, blogging, planning I'm leaving tomorrow morning. the bag is packed, tyres ar pumped, chain is lubed. I can't wait to get on the bike and start pedaling, I can't wait to see antwerpen, brugge, can't wait to see englands coast from the ferry, canterbury and finally seeing my girl in london.
I'll blog on my way if I find access to the net, so stay tuned!

COUNTDOWN

I'll start my journey in less than 36 hours. I'm a little nervous but also really happy to get on the bike soon and ride. that's what it's about!

I found another blog about fixed gear touring, check their journey from tokyo to osaka here.

PICTURE PREVIEW


mainrace quali


sprints quali


footdown

I just returned from berlin, here are some pics from the ecmc 09. great fun, especially at the bike syndikat checkpoint!