Austria (all)

In the morning we headed back up the hill in a light drizzle that turned to snow just below Gletsch. But wait there's more. As we entered the high valley below the Rhone Glacier and Furka Pass (2431m), we saw snow blowing about in brilliant sunshine on the summit. It was so cold and dry our clothes were completely dry as was the road where the snow just blew to the gutter. The drifts of powdery snow on the summit were so deep that my bicycle would stand alone in it. It was an exhilarating climb with storybook weather.

I passed the closed Lingotto FIAT plant, with test track on the roof, that is being refurbished as an automotive trade center. The modern streetcars with antique trolley poles and bronze trolley wheels wend their way between ancient buildings on narrow streets paved with 0.5x1.0m red and tan granite plates set at a 45 degrees. The rushing sound of the trolley wheel on the wire is truly a sound from the past for me, reminiscent of four trolley tracks on San Francisco's Market Street in my youth.

The Iseran probably earns the ``highest pass in France'' title, being actually higher and because it is steep, spectacular, and is surrounded by glaciers and snow. When you're there you know there's a There there. This is truly the haute Savoie, whose red and white emblem was the inspiration for the emigrants who took their red flag with the white cross along as they founded Switzerland.

The Stelvio may not be the hardest, longest or anything else, but it has a special place in my heart for its magnificent and exquisitely orchestrated landscape. It seems to have its own Wagnerian accompaniment, magnificent and grand. I have ridden it in every weather and it is always an emotional moment at the top with the ice caps of the Ortler and snowfields of the Gran Zebru as a backdrop to the road that drops 1000m into the canyon in the Shadows of this deep ravine. Forty nine numbered hairpin turns and 2000m below lies the valley.

This is the story of Marcus Endicott's solo bicycle journey from Yugoslavia to the Soviet Union in 1990. The adventure really began the year before, in 1989, but really hasn't ended yet today; though, there have been perhaps more than a few bumps in the road along the way...

This is a travel journal, and was originally intended to become a book. But, two great historical events occurred virtually one after another and changed the course of not only my personal history but that of the world as well; the first was what became known as the ``Gulf War'' and the second was the ``August Coup'', essentially the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Dem Hitzschlag nahe erreichen wir nach rasanter Fahrt Passau. Der erste Eindruck ist hervorragend, eine alte. schön gelegene Stadt am Zusammenfluß von Donau, Inn und Ilz. Wir fahren durch die Altstadt, um erst einmal ein Getränk zu bekommen, denn heute ist Maria Himmelfahrt, ein Feiertag in Bayern. Ein großes Spezi rinnt die Kehle hinunter.

Wir fahren durch die ganze Stadt zurück zur Jugendherberge. Unten steht ein Schild: 22%ige Steigung, Autos kommen kaum hinauf, ich probiere etwa 10 Meter, Torsten vielleicht 30, dann geben wir auf.

Schieben, schieben in der Hitze bis ganz nach oben auf die Burg. Die Rezeption liegt nochmals 20 Meter höher und schließlich unser Zimmer im vierten Stock des Burgturmes - kann es schlimmer kommen? Wir schleppen alles hoch, das Zimmer hat zwanzig Betten und bietet als Entschädigung ein toll es Panorama.

Mountain pass pictures and information.

The Alps have long been a summer and winter playground for vacationers around the world. They ski, they hike, they ride bikes. What better venue for the Tour de France than the Alps? After many years of reading, seeing, and dreaming, I had an opportunity to see Europe by bike. As a free-lance writer working part-time at Palo Alto Bicycles, I had no commitments. It was 1985. Greg LeMond had nearly won the Tour de France and was competing in the World Championships in Italy. I decided to go see him race. A friend who was familiar with riding in Europe gave valuable advice.

These were our initial worries: the trip was too easy, it was too crowded, and the scenery would be monotonously the same for the length of the river.

As it turned out, there was some small truth in each of these worries, but none was nearly as bad as we had anticipated. [...] I had read that the Danube bike path is very crowded in the summer months, and that since all riders start from the same intermediary points (the same hotels) at about the same time, there are traffic jams on the path. As it turned out, this worry was greatly exaggerated. The path was reasonably crowded, particularly near the towns on the weekends, but there were other long stretches when we wouldn't see another cyclist for perhaps ten minutes. We did get in ``synch'' with certain other small groups that we would encounter from time to time, but we never saw any of our own tour group after the first morning. About once an hour we would be passed, or would pass, a ``peloton'' of perhaps 20 to 30 cyclists, and every fifteen minutes or so a solitary biker, looking like he was doing the Tour de France, would pass us at great speed. On balance, I wouldn't have called the path particularly crowded.

La pista ciclabile dei Tauri, dal nome della catena montuosa austriaca, si snoda lungo le valli dei fiumi Salzach e Inn partendo dalle cascate di Krimml, attraversando la città di Salisburgo fino a giungere a Passau (D), dove si congiunge con la pista del Danubio. L'itinerario di circa 400 km è stato da noi percorso in una settimana (AGOSTO 1999), dedicando un po' di tempo alla visita di cittadine e altri luoghi interessanti. Il materiale utilizzato per organizzare l'itinerario (in italiano) ci è stato fornito dall'Ente Austriaco per il Turismo.

Nice pictures but not a lot about bicyles: ``On this summer sunday, after months of travel, I was riding my bicycle through lush, green, central Austrian farm country. The narrow unmarked country roads carried little traffic and provided enough space and quiet for me to stop whenever I wished to play my penny whistle or take pictures of poppy fields. As I was riding along, letting my mind wander across open fields, the steady spinning of my legs and feet, the rotating wheels and the rhythm of my own breath all fused together into a meditative gestalt - with me at the center.''

This is the Pilsner tour, covering Germany, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The terrain is rolling hills and the routes traverse famous rivers and the towns and cities that formed along their banks.

Ogni descrizione, parola, aggettivo sulla bellezza dell' itinerario sarebbe superflua, essendo questi paesaggi alpini i più fotografati al mondo; mi limiterò solamente a consigliarlo ad un cicloturista allenato!

On these pages we will show you the cycling pursuits of John and Daniel Gould (from Australia) and our friend Peter (from Japan).Our challenge will be to ride from London to Istanbul through 12 countries in 2 months while having a great time and seeing the sights. Peter should be there to Italy and then its just 2 unless anyone else wants to join us. For father and son John and Daniel the quest will also try to raise money for Odyssey House.

Il giro è molto bello e non eccessivamente faticoso. Si trovano delle ottime cartine fino a Maribor (Da Dobbiaco è tutta ciclabile, la Drauweg), un po' meno in Slovenia e Croazia, dove ciclabili praticamente non ce ne sono, ma ci sono parecchie strade secondarie senza traffico. In Slovenia agli uffici turistici si possono trovare cartine della zona decenti (noi ci siamo accontentati di quelle, ma consigliamo caldamente di procurarvi una carta almeno al 200.000, possibilmente con le curve di livello?) e un paio di pubblicazioni interessanti, anche in Italiano, su ``Slovenia in bicicletta'' e ``Le strade secondarie sono più accattivanti di quelle principali''. Aiutano molto. Non fate troppo affidamento sui cartelli segnaletici delle presunte piste ciclabili (``kolesarska pot'', in sloveno) che a volte mancano. Sulla strada che abbiamo scelto noi abbiamo incontrato traffico solo in alcuni punti che non avevano alternative, andando a ficcarci in strade impossibili solo un paio di volte, evitabili.

Tabular data and altitude profiles of mountain passes all over Europe.

A photo album of mountain passes in the Alps

from Donauworth in Germany through Austria to Ostiglia and Altino in Italy includes cycling information

Several cycling travel stories and detailed descriptions with profiles of 17 of the most beautiful climbs in 7 different European countries.

A great photo archive. Each page includes no more than 3 photos, on average, 25,000 bytes. We hope you enjoy them. There is a help page if you are having difficulty viewing the images. The photos are not of printable quality - if you wish to use any of these pictures in a hardcopy publication, please contact us and we will supply a high-resolution file.

A huge collection of altitude profiles of cols and climbs.

Extensive data about Patrick's extensive tours in the Alps from 1991 to 2005: includes reports, maps, diagrams... a must-see for the Alpine cyclist. Contains a list of passes in the Alps and the Jura, true stories about cycling, and some pictures.

Jobst's 1960 tour started and ended in Tuscany. The Net was not in place yet, so the report had to wait...

Well, there's a first time for everybody, and Jobst too had to discover the Alps once. If you are looking for the inspiration to do it yourself, just go ahead and read this glorious report.

I had asked Mr Cinelli what the greatest road in the Alps was, to which he replied without hesitation, the Stelvio, but that I might not like it because it was unpaved. That especially caught my interest so here I was heading up the Valtellina at Tirano where the road to the foot of this great pass starts its climb.

I arrived in Bormio at 3:30 and decided to go to the top in beautiful afternoon sunshine. After a snack at the store I headed up the road that ran out of pavement at the city limit and became a coarse gravel and grey powdery road that, with a little rain, was pretty solid. I discovered that standing up easily caused wheel spin, so I pulled my straps tight and worked on a smooth stroke to keep traction.

Farther up the Braulio canyon the road went through several tunnels for avalanche and rockfall protection. These stone arch tunnels wind along the wall with ventilation holes near the floor that give a little light, and because they are not straight, I could only see where I was going from reflections from the wet floor. Everything was dripping and water rushed in drains under the walls. The amazing part is that these are one lane tunnels in which uphill traffic has the right of way, as is common here. Therefore, downhill drivers had to assess when to enter by watching what went in from below, something that is possible from the lay of the land.

I was discovering why Pirelli named their top racing car tire the Stelvio. This has a special meaning to people who know this road. At the end of the Braulio canyon the road goes up a wall in a series of traverses with tight hairpins to reach the upper Braulio Valley at Bocca di Braulio, that ends at a ridge over which the Umbrail pass from Switzerland joins the Stelvio, about three kilometers below the summit.

Alpencross Bericht einer Mountainbike-Extremtour von Oberstdorf zum Gardasee, 7 Tage (davon 4 Regentage)/440km/14000 Höhenmeter.

Photos and reports of transalp mountain bike tours from Bavaria to Italy. Alpine traverses between Oberstdorf and Lake Como and Tegernsee and Lake Garda.

An excellent report, also from a technical point of view.

an excellent collection of mountain bike routes by the Landesforstdirektion Tirol - Landschaftsdienst.

Jamtalhütte, Piz Puin, Inneres Bergle, Heilbronner Hütte, die Greitspitz, Silvretta-Skigebiet: six mountainbike tours with pictures.

The Bike \& Board site has the following goal: ``Das wollen wir mitteilen: in den Bergen gibt es viel mehr für die Seele als man denkt. Geht in die Berge und respektiert sie, seid wach und nehmt nach Hause ein Erlebnis mit, das dem Leben mehr Sinn geben kann.'' Among the mountain bike trail descriptions in Germany, Austria and Italy: Lagorai/Latemar (in German and in Italian), and Transalp 2000 (in German): an Alpine crossing from Germany to Italy.

A mountain bike ride from Mittenwald to Bolzano/Bozen in five days

This site has a number of excellent tour descriptions at all levels in Austria, with maps and useful practical information.

A massive travel site, this guy has been everywhere.

Hier finden sich einige deutschsprachige Reiseberichte von Fahrradtouren, die hoffentlich unterhaltsam und informativ sind, aber auch vielleicht die eine oder andere Anregung für Leute geben, die selber einmal so etwas machen wollen. Für englischsprachige Radtourenberichte habe ich hier auch einen Anfang gemacht, ebenso für schwedischsprachige Radtourenberichte, wobei noch ein bißchen auf norwegisch und dänisch dabei ist, aber diese drei skaninavischen Sprachen sind so ähnlich, daß man entweder alle drei ein bißchen lesen kann oder eben keine davon.

An enormous collection of bicycle tours all over the world.
Eine enorme Sammlung von Fahrradtouren in der ganzen Welt.

A large list of cycle tours, 30 at the last count. Most are in Germany, but others go all over central and northern Europe. See the overview page. English translations are available for all pages.

A Web site devoted to the challenges of getting you and your bicycle on a train and to your destination in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Specific ``how-tos,'' detailed photos, hints and tips, useful links, etc.