Prologue
About two weeks before we left for Austria in mid June, I received an email from Volker saying he was participating in a mountain bike ride across the Alps in September. There had been talk about doing this for his 50th birthday, over three years ago. The ride finished a few days before we were due to come back. I had no excuse, I was signing up. However, the reason why we were leaving mid June and not later was to be in Vienna for Niki's 60th. Niki is the partner of one Susanna's best friends. Niki had just received a new mountain bike and we had nothing to give him . . . so our present was signing him up.
The ride was put on by Go Crazy an adventure outfit based in Frankfurt. They provided a guide, Steffen, sorted accommodation, breakfast and evening meals along the way and also transported bags.
Day 0, Getting there,
Saturday 3/09/2022
The main train station in Vienna is closer to Niki's place than ours, so we rode down the hill and caught a train there for lunch. Note that the trip was fully supported, but given the remote nature of the trails, particularly the passes, we were expected to carry some gear. To go with the lightweight backpack, I had a larger heavier backpack - wet weather gear, very cold weather gear, spares, tools etc. To get to and from train stations, I rode with the smaller strapped to the larger. We caught a local train to the main station in plenty of time for the 5 hour trip. Volker's train joined ours at Innsbruck and we met shortly before St Anton. He had had a particularly tough time of it, having to dismantle for a bike bag and then rebuild on the train. We just had to get our bikes and bags on board before departure. We arrived on time with the Go Crazy guys waiting there to pick our stuff up. We were then able simply ride the bikes up the hill (up, always up) to the resturant where we met the others; 12 mountain bikers including our guide, Steffen and 6 ebikers including their guide. An observation about the two groups, the biobikers are around 10 to 20 years older, on average, than the ebikers. And 10 to 20 kilograms lighter. All were German, except for myself, Niki and a couple of Tyrolians. Accommodation that evening was even further up the side of the mountain, on the edge of town. We walked our bikes there in the dark with the others.
Waiting for the train to St Anton at the Vienna main station