The Grossglockner

When we were in Salzburg the maitre de where David and Justine were staying mentioned that her boyfriend was a cyclist and that he had ridden up a hill near Zell am see called the Grossglockner.  Kim and I were keen to keep our training hours up on the day after the race so while David recovered we headed south, slowly, up one of the valleys away from the lake.

We decided in Salzburg that this would be our race loosener and hadn't discussed it much beforehand - just headed off with our pockets full of food and our bikes.

All was well for the first 15 ks or so.  Gentle slopes and smooth road surface.  The dozens of motorbikes should have been a clue to what we were in for and if they weren't the toll booth at the 15 k mark should have confirmed it.

We went through the toll booth.  Bikes don't pay (money that is - they certainly pay in other ways).  The road went up.  That's ok its only for a few hundred metres it will level out.

It didn't level out for 17 kilometres.  Although there were a few easier breaks the average grade for those 17 ks was nearly 10%.  And we were on time trial bikes with gearing that was not up to the task.  There were kilometres where I was out of my seat because 39/27 was just too hard to keep pedalling sitting down.

Should have taken more notice of this sign.  The 33 ks includes a descent from Grosslglockner and another climb

Probably should have looked at this before we went too

I waited for Kim several times.  We still had no idea how far it went up at that stage so each time we conquered the snaking hairpins ahead another lot disappeared into the clouds.  So I stopped waiting for Kim.

The view on the way up on the other side of the valley to the road

Amazing road.  In some places the road ahead was directly over you, built out over concrete supports.  The Austrians are pretty good engineers judging from their railways, tunnels and roads.

Anyway I made it and Kim almost did.  We did discuss turning back on the way up but I would have found it hard to face other cyclists if I hadn't made it to the top.

I'm not very good at selfies but I had to have proof

And then we had to get down.

I'd been a little worried about heat buildup in the carbon wheels when braking on the steep roads we had been riding over the last week or two.  Let the brake off for  few seconds and your doing 70.  Which is great but the hairpin at the end of the short straight means lots of brakes to get around it.  I had noticed during the race the front brakes on my bike had been gripping unevenly so took it easy on the first half dozen corners because of this.  The unevenness while braking had turned into a distinct bump.  

I pulled up to check it out and to see how hot my rims were.  As I slowed to a stop a loud bang anounced a flat.  Front wheel.  Both my rims were scalding hot and there were two small buckles of my front rim, where the tyre pressure had pushed the heat softened rim out.

As I changed the tyre I noticed that the rim tape (which covers the spoke holes and stops the tube from disappearing into them) had melted and there were holes in it where the spokes were.

Shit.

I use the cut rubber tyre rings that were holding the spare tubes together to reinforce the rim tape where it had blown through and pumped the tyre up to about 40 to try to minimise the chance of the rim tape failing again.  Then proceed down 15 ks of steep winding road at less that 10 kph.  Trying to keep the rims from overheating and blowing another tube.  No sign of Kim.

All the while dozens of other cyclists were zipping by at high speed enjoying the ride down.  All that work and there I was ticking along at 10 kph.

To make matters worse the buckle in the rim was chewing out the brake pad on one side and if it got too much worse I'd have no front brake.

Took an hour to get down onto a road with a slope that didn't require constant brakes.  Now Kim.

As I was thinking this I got a text message from Justine to say Kim was home.  Seems I'd been waiting at the top for her and she'd been waiting a couple of ks down for me.  And finally given up.

Need a new wheel but at least we got the race day lactate out.  Then put a whole lot more back in.