This should have been a straightforward descent of the Drau valley. It started ok, and the 20 miles to Spital am der Drau went ok, with a good coffee stop en route.

Then Helen’s chain broke again. We had offers of help from the 6 young women from the day before (we had been leapfrogging each other) but I had the link extracor out and went to work. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the link to close properly, because the tool is too broad. And I suspect the same happened when I mended it two days ago. We needed a new chain, professionally fitted. We were just on the edge of town but Google maps showed no bike shops. Worse still, it was 12:10 on Saturday, and Saturday pm closing is the norm, as well as Sunday. In an inspired moment Helen asked some young kids who were passing, and one very confidently pulled out his phone and showed us where it was. We pedalled there as furiously as we dared on a dodgy chain, arrived just as it was closing at 12:30 and talked the mechanic into fitting a new chain – very quickly! Phew! That was close.
Bike shop staff are the salt of the earth.

The rest of the ride to Villach was fairly gentle, and now we’re in a huge old 4* hotel in the centre of town.