• I did this yesterday and in the early hours of the morning today:

    http://www.bikemap.net/route/804330

    A friend of mine had decided to get married out there in the sticks. It was 'only' 50k but I'd never gone over a col like that of the Große Feldberg before. It pales in comparison to Alpine passes but it was a suitable introduction, especially as the climbing started from about 30k out. I got some cramps going up and lost a lot of time, with the result that I was late for the actual wedding, but still had a great party. It rained most of the time on the ride out, sometimes quite hard. I also got misdirected in Wiesbaden and ended up doing a few extra hills I needn't have done (detours not shown on ride map). Just to tag it, I briefly went up to the summit of the Feldberg--it was only a short climb from where I was passing, anyway.

    The roads dried out during the day, but just as I wanted to get going again after midnight, the rain resumed. This time, I didn't go over the summit but took a different route, which was slightly flatter, and which I should have taken on the way up, too, but the initial plan for the route didn't work out, as the last bit of the route through the forest that I'd chosen initially turned out to be impassable. The fairly steep descents in pitch blackness and with cars blinding me were just about manageable by going slowly and gingerly. It was a lot of up and down through the little villages on the way, and by this point I was pretty tired, with a lot of food and drink in me, so rode quite slowly. Almost no traffic around, although Wiesbaden was still busy at 3am, and I saw a few people riding bikes.

    A very interesting ride, with beautiful scenery around the Feldberg. Would do again, but hopefully a little fitter next time!

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