Melting In Mayrhofen

Melting In Mayrhofen - or M.I.M. as it's now known. If you hadn't guessed I'm no on holiday in Mayrhofen, a wonderful small town in the Zillertal Alps, Austria.

Now, as you should have guessed I'm a Brit - and us Brits simply aren't used to warm weather, never mind HOT. We got here from the UK and the temp there was around 18 degrees, here in Mayrhofen it was 28 when we arrived - and that was 6pm!

I've managed a few rides, I did a nice little warm up ride down the Zillertal, not a bad ride at all. Well, it was supposed to be just a leg stretch but I hooked up with some other guy and we were hitting 27mph on the flat roads. And it was hot, 32C. I got back to Mayrhofen and wilted at Mo's Cafe in the town.

Here is the Endomondo workouut

On Tuesday I decided to head to a place I've not visited before - Hochfugen. During the winter it's a ski centre and is up in the mountians. A climb.......

I hit the road at about 10am as the weather forecast was for hot weather again - I didn't realise just how hot it was about to get. The road to Fugen follows part of the route I did on Monday down the Zillertal then it heads into Fugen town and begins to climb.

Now, like I said I've never been here and didn't know what to expect. What I found was an inital slope at 9%, I thought that this would be as steep as it got but I was wrong. This overweight English cyclist began to chug up the mountian and I watched as the Gradient on the Garmin began to rise, up to 16%. Then it dropped to 12% and stayed there! And I mean it stayed there for 3 miles..........big fat old me was dying, I saw my speed drop to 3 or 4 mph at some points. Oh and did I forget to mention the heat? It was 34.5c on the Garmin. I had to stop twice in the shade near to a water source to soak my Bandana, that gave some Dutch tourists a laugh anyway. I thought I was going to die!

I was using High5 and was clagging my mouth with the sweet sticky stuff, I got a gel down my throat too and felt a bit better. The last 3 or 4 miles of the ride vary in gradient from about 2% to 11% but was much easier. A slight breeze was pushing me on and the altitude meant that it was cooler. I reached Hochfugen, out of fluid and a heaving sweating wreck. I bought 2ltr of mineral water and made my way back down the hill......it was a blast but I don't have my descending confidence yet and by the time I got back to Fugen my wheels were nearly melting and my hands were aching from all the breaking.

I arrived back in Mayrhofen and went straight to MO's cafe (there's a bit of a theme emerging here) for mineral water and some food. My Garmin registered 36c on the valley floor and I think I got a touch of heat exhaustion.

It was a great ride 48miles - here is the Endomondo workout.