This has been a beautiful day’s cycling – one of the best of the trip. The Tauernradweg is highly recommended (and offered by many cycle tour companies). But we are pretty tired, and the 40 miles down valley turned out to include well over 1000ft of uphill. And there was a fairly hefty Jim’s wind in our faces.

[Jim is a Canadian raftsman who first explained this phenomenon to us on Vancouver Island. Sunny weather in the mountains sucks air up the valley – particularly as things warm up in the afternoon. I don’t know the proper name for it – but we had a Jim’s wind on our tail on the ride up the valley from Trento last week and were cruising at 18mph. I’d be happy with that on my road bike! But it’s not so good when, as today, you have to pedal to go downhill.]

And now we are in Kaprun, a ski village near Zell am See at the foot of the Grosglocknerstrasse – one of the most spectacular passes over the main spine of the Alps. No thank you. Twice over the Alps was quite enough for one holiday. And, since yesterday’s train journey put us a day ahead of schedule, tomorrow is a day off in this beautiful spot.

Track of the day
Love me again by John Newman
Another track from spinning class and one I heard at breakfast time in the very comfy Spar cafe. It stayed with me on the descent, going whizz down hill at 30 mph with a bit of braking was great, and the tune stayed with me for about 10 miles which is when it started to get harder. Made it to the end of the ride, but only just. Damn that head wind.
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