Barenbad

Today I hit the road, feeling tired from yesterday's ride to Hochfugen. I decided to head to Barenbad, a really nice little alpine hut in a valley called the Zillergrund, possibly one of the most beautiful in the Zillertal.

The road climbs striaght from the digs in Mayrhofen. I've ridden it a few times now and know what to expect. The first big gradient is 500m from the digs - 15% for about 200m then in levels out. The road climbs at gradients between 1% and 15% for about 10 miles all the way to Barenbad. As you climb there are several cafes and guest houses to stop at and the views of the surrounding mountains are amazing. The road is fairly straight, just a few twists and turns and you just know it's going to be a blast on the way down.

This year I wasn't going to beat my best time for the climb, I was riding up the climb into a headwind, quite strong too. I could see that the weather was closing in, the grey cloud was starting to cloak the visible summits around me. The air was cooler today too - just 27 on the climb and with the wind it was really making it a pleasure to ride.

Saying that, the end of the climb is steep, a couple of hairpins followed  by straight sections straight into the wind. I was on the drops low over the bike climbing a 15% gradient into a 15mph wind......it was a killer. I reached the top and was another sweating, heaving wreck. It was chilly here so I put on my helmet, zipped up my jersey and headed down......what a scream. 45mph max on the descent, overtaking cars and zipping through the curves as fast as I dared. I got up the climb in 1 hour 13 minss - down in 20mins......

The total was only 22 miles so I headed down to Zell am Ziller to bring the mileage up and then back to Mayrhofen - where I went, yep you guessed - to Mo's cafe. I sat outside for an hour people watching and tying to cool down.

Another great day and now I need a day off - but the weather forecast for tomorrow is bad anyway - so no hassles there.

Here is the Endomondo workout