Erstellt am: 25. 6. 2009 - 10:05 Uhr

Thinking Like A Cow

What to do when heaven quickly turns to hell.

Stage 4. Oberhof to Bad Steben. 120km. 2.446m altitude.

"There may be a better land where bicycle saddles are made out of rainbow, stuffed with cloud; in this world the simplest thing is to get used to something hard." Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men on a Bummel.

Bist du deppert? Nearly eight hours in the saddle, working hard just not to be dropped off the back of my group. What sort of mess have I got myself in here? I rolled into the finish line cold with exhaustion, weak of lung and with only one thing on my mind - getting off that bloody bike.

For about 80 kilometres a day being part of this race is just wonderful. In the morning we were riding in a long line at a fair old lick high up through the forests of Thuringia. We speeded through nordic sports terrain - past biathlon loops and ski-jumps. I was pedalling fast, close enough to the wheel in front to shade me from the wind.

trans germany

The shoes with clips, I'm relieved to say, were working wonders and there were fast, exhilerating descents over green flower-dotted meadows lined by cornfields. We swept past wide, green expanses looked over by spinning rotors of a wind farm. Then, at the bottom of a winding switch-backed plummet through the woods, we splashed through a pebbly ford, the spray exploding around us. I loved it. It was just how I imagined it would be when I embarked on this implausibly ambitious odyssey.

But then, every day, I hit a brick wall and it becomes a matter of pure survival. For me that always comes at the 80km mark. From that point onwards it is just a case of hanging on to the group. It's just pure grim survival.

trans germany

The 80km mark today came as we entered the Frankenwald in Bavaria and hit a long section single-track, strewn with roots and slick with mud. When the roots catch your backtire it is as though someone was kicking your bike from under you. On the narrow uphill sections the tires couldn't get a grip in the slippery dirt. Unable to eject from my clips in times I found myself slammed twice side-down in the mud.

It's the last thing you need when you are at the limit of your strength!

trans germany

But how do you train to cycle 120 kilometres in a day? It seems madness.

After the 80km mark, I adopt the attitude of an Alpine cow. Those docile creatures don't think about what they will be doing in an hour's time or in two hours, they just get on with the job in hand. In their case, it is mindlessly munching grass, in mine it is mindlessly pedalling behind the person in front.

Just three days to go, but more rain is forecast! And when I get back to Vienna, I swear I never want to see another sickly-sweet energy bar again.