Freiburg to Basel

August 11, 2016

Wow, what a day. A long day with a lot of backtracking! Not on the course per se. But we spent some time today looking for bike shops, of which there are many in Germany, but only one that carried what we needed . . . and that was after a compromise.

Today's ride to Basel.

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One of the many bike shops we stopped at on our way out of Freiburg.

A happy, cycling family we followed for a short distance. The young girls were very confident cyclists, and it was cute watching them navigate complex intersections with what appeared to be large lollipops dangling from the end of their extended arms at the turns!

Mark uses Speedplay cleats! And somewhere on our course Monday (we think), he lost a critical component from the right one, making it impossible to lock into his pedals. Why fancy racing cleats on a touring bike? Because he also rides a Trek carbon fiber something or other, and somewhere in the conversation about going to Italy, I observed it would be simpler to have only one system. But I didn't know what I was talking about, and the old logic about keeping it simple still applies.

Because the second problem was finding replacements! They are not common in the US and even less so here. So we spent 5-1/2 miles pedaling around Freiburg, visiting bike stores and getting recommendations on where to go next. Two stores carried another style but not the matching pedals. We considered switching him to SPD cleats and pedals, but that type of cleat will not mount on his shoe.

It wasn't like he couldn't ride; he just couldn't lock in and would therefore slip occasionally. So no standing, his favorite method for climbing. And we have some climbing to do!

So on with the search. But to no avail. Maybe in Basel. So off we went, leaving much later than planned, with my only concern being finding a shop that was close to our route and still open when we arrived.

The ride out of Freiburg was very pleasant and definitely hillier than what we had experienced for several days. Maybe for many days. We were used to long climbs out of and into towns. This was more rolling through the foothills of the Black Forest. And most of it was on bike trails, occasionally passing through villages and small towns.

There were lots of grape fields on the way out of Freiburg.

Bike trails go in all directions, so it helps to know the next village you need to pass through, as further towns and cities may not be indicated.

Our real serious climbing got underway around MP 20, but the climb of the day started at around MP 26 and went beyond MP 30.

That one climb peaked at over 11%. Mark and I can't agree on how long that section was, but we can agree that the overall length of the climb was easily four miles. When we hit the 11% grade, I wasn't sure I was going to top out without a rest stop, but I persevered and felt strong at the top. Mark, handicapped by his pedal issue, remained seated and, being the stronger rider, did not complain!

At the (false) top of the big climb right before we hit the 11% grade. We actually thought that maybe we were at the top. Nope!

There is a castle in the distance . . . even further up, of course.

We had a nice downhill after that before one more climb and then a descent into Kandern, where we stopped to eat pizza (but no beer!). There, we stopped at a bike shop and inquired about cleats. "Nope, you will need to go to a big town to get those," we were told. We figured, but he had some recommendations.

On to Kandern . . . passing through a heavily forested part of the road.

So on we trekked (no pun intended). Weil am Rhein was our destination, but we stopped again before getting there (the shop he mentioned was actually in Haltingen). That shop referred us to Bike Supply in Weil . . . you get the story by now.

Well, we almost overshot that one and had to backtrack (at my insistence) and were successful . . . sort of. Another problem is we had no data service on my phone. I had purchased a Lyca Mobile SIM card and a plan, but for some reason it had not kicked in yet (it did that night), so wayfinding was difficult and searches impossible.

But we found Bike Supply. But they didn't carry Mark's model, only a different type . . . but they fit his shoes and came as a package with the required pedals. So 118 euros later (and we received a small discount for some reason), we were in business. They installed the cleats for Mark, which seemed to take forever, but that turned out to be in our favor as the supplied screws were too long. Imagine buying these and trying to self-install them in our hotel room and finding that problem!

At Bike Supply, waiting for new cleats and pedals!

Now, on to Basel! We only had four miles to go! Oh, and the Swiss border. Amazingly, even with a queue of cars, we just biked through without as much as a hello.

The German side of Basel is not very pretty, but the river crossing is spectacular, as is the old town where we are staying. We arrived close to 7:00, so we had nice light over the river. We were at dinner by 8:30, a record cleanup for us!

Crossing the Rhine River for the last time . . . on this trip at least!

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 504 miles (811 km)

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