After last week’s flat Danube odyssey, I thought I could probably handle at least the uphill bits on the way to Pentling and bask in the river bank’s flat glory on my way back — especially since I didn’t feel like a three-hour tour (a three-hour tour) today, and chopped my route down to a mere 20 km.

I was right in theory; but in practice, GraphHopper picked a route for me right up a tractor track between a couple of fields, which was steeper than I expected. Probably would have been NBD in June, but in December, with my city tires, eventually I spun my rear wheel and had to get off and push a bit. Fortunately the downhills were all clear and dry, and the rest of the snowy bits were not icy. Lesson learned: probably “bike” is a just-fine setting for GraphHopper in the spring, summer, and fall, but for the possibility of icy hills in the winter, I need to tell it I want “racing bike” routes to keep me outta them frozen tractor tracks.

You can see that everyone else wanted to use the Danube banks for a walk/jog/ride today, too. It got kinda hard to enforce a 2-meter distance what with oncoming traffic and all.

Snap

Just one to speak of. I saw a mess of ducks just floating there in a calm stretch of Danube. It was a good time for a little water break, so I stopped at the nearest bench and approached them to take this shot. However, my presence (on the shore!) seemed to alarm them and they bugged out for the opposite shore. I wonder if they have negative associations with people in day-glo flourescent outerwear…

Route

You might need to tap or click the map to make it bigger.

Stats

Distance:         20.8 km 
Time:              1:30
Calories:          1079
Calories from fat:   15%
Average Heart Rate: 135
Maximum Heart Rate: 174
Fat Burn:          0:14
Fitness:           1:16
Weight:     not weighed