Renn­steig Bicy­cle Path

Report - Renn­steig bicy­cle path in one day

Con­tents

Note: This is tem­po­r­a­ri­ly only an auto­ma­tic trans­la­ti­on.

Renn­steig bicy­cle path - in one day

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The rou­te - 199 km Renn­steig Bicy­cle Path about Thu­rin­gia mon­tain ran­ge (Click to enlar­ge)

14 June 2012 - the “histo­ry of suf­fe­ring” Tour de Renn­steig behind me. Fun asi­de - I was well pre­pared, went opti­mi­sti­cal­ly to the start and loo­ked for­ward to the pro­ject for a long time.

My goal, → the Renn­steig bicy­cle path over the Thu­rin­gia mon­tain ran­ge with a trek­king bike on its enti­re rou­te in a sin­gle day - over 199 km and about 3000 alti­me­ters - from Blan­ken­stein at the River Saa­le to Hör­schel at the River Wer­ra.

What hard­ly anyo­ne thought pos­si­ble, I had the pro­ject imple­men­ted - and was in the end ama­zed mys­elf to have done it.

The rou­te is the goal …

On the way I was with my well stea­m­ed trek­king wheel brand “Dia­mant” with → Speedhub-Rohloff bicy­cle cir­cuit, with the pro­ject of just tires, repla­ce­ment hoses and the neces­sa­ry tools, careful nut­ri­ti­on, ple­nty of water and appro­pria­te clot­hing.

At night 2:30 clock I star­ted at the Renn­steig start in Blan­ken­stein on the Saa­le. I crossed the enti­re Renn­steig about Thu­rin­gia mon­tain ran­ge with most­ly Moun­tain­bike cla­im on its approx. 200 km long bike rou­te (with total ascents of appro­xi­m­ate­ly 3000 height meters). On the same day in the evening, around 22:30, I rea­ched the vil­la­ge Hör­schel by the litt­le river Wer­ra. Health care - Ever­y­thing o.K. - except for hea­vi­ly brui­sed hips, bro­ken kne­es and a tear in the calf from which still my thin blood ran.

At least two dozen times I was just befo­re towel thro­wing. But I am coin­ed: “Sol­diers do not die, they go.” The first six hours of con­ti­nuous rain at about seven degrees. The second half was “cob­ble­s­tone” with hea­vi­ly tra­ve­led heights. The real chall­enge - per­se­ver­ance. My expe­ri­ence from histo­ry for­mu­la­ted some­what jokin­gly: “Stay a good man, in order not to expe­ri­ence the hell in the here­af­ter.” 😉

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Pro­fi­le of the Renn­steig Bicy­cle Path about Thu­rin­gia mon­tain ran­ge (Click to enlar­ge)

To make it straight for­ward: Untrai­ned, I advi­se against this cycle path to absol­ve. Various Inter­net spe­cia­list pages on the sub­ject of bicy­cle tra­vels indi­ca­te that this rou­te can also be met by a few trai­ners in seve­ral stages. But this has pro­ba­b­ly more pro­mo­tio­nal reasons, but may be so - depen­ding on the ang­le of view. Howe­ver, a lar­ge part of the way is mark­ed by a con­stant up and down, steep, long ascents and dif­fi­cult forest paths.

Anyo­ne who has alre­a­dy won a few hundred heights a day with a bike knows the cla­im. Howe­ver, the Renn­steig cycle path has a total climb of almost three thousand meters. The road has always been trod­den by miles of forestry machi­nes or straigh­ten­ed in other sec­tions with coar­se gra­vel. Thus, on long sec­tions, the­re is always a regu­lar balan­cing act that is time-consuming and effec­ti­ve.

The Prä­di­kat “Bicy­cle Trail” is pro­ba­b­ly mis­lea­ding and should rather get the name “moun­tain bike test track”.

For almost two years I have trai­ned to meet the requi­re­ments of such a rou­te. Every weekend two cycling trips - each dri­ven bet­ween thir­ty and eigh­ty kilo­me­ters tight and non-stop - even in win­ter at minus ten degrees. The way to the finish was some­what unu­su­al - espe­ci­al­ly the fact that I owe this life to my life.

How all began …

A few months befo­re my fif­tieth, I took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to think more than usu­al about the past deca­des, but also to lis­ten to my body. Actual­ly, I had no reason to com­plain. Only - I wan­ted to set mys­elf new tar­gets. At the same time, I noti­ced that the phy­si­cal fit­ness was “on the des­cen­ding branch”. In my youth in regu­lar per­for­mance trai­ning, I had work­ed the fol­lo­wing deca­des, as well as to rege­ne­ra­te mys­elf. The time pro­blem was always the decisi­ve argu­ment to reject a sport­ing com­pen­sa­ti­on.

So I said to mys­elf, let you check times and start at the same time a regu­lar sport­ing balan­ce. That was almost two years ago. The result: My new bike show­ed me just in time under chro­nic load a bur­ning in the chest area. My house­kee­per advi­sed me to beco­me a car­dio­lo­gist. As a result I took a heart stent 12 months befo­re the Renn­steig­tour on vaca­ti­on, in order to reopen an almost clo­sed heart main coro­na­ry ves­sel.

While the car­dio­lo­gist pushed the stent into my heart, I won­de­red about my future, other pro­jects, and the Ener­gy Web. On the second day, I rewound again a thirty-kilometer-kilometer track. I was freed again. On the ope­ra­ting table I deci­ded, among other things, to com­ple­te the enti­re Renn­steig­rad­weg in June 2012 in one day.

And so it went on uphill. But that was not all. 4 months befo­re the Rennsteig-Tour was a heart-follow-up. The doc­tor was enthu­si­a­stic about my above-average good values under the per­for­mance ECG. My guar­di­an angel told her, howe­ver, to exami­ne some­thing more than just the heart. So, by chan­ce, a drought-drowning was also hap­pe­ning. In my head, the caro­tid artery was almost com­ple­te­ly blo­cked, and next to it threa­ten­ed a bois­te­rous aneu­rysm to burst at any time.

Now it was not a short tre­at­ment. On 27 Febru­ary the­re was a new, third bir­th­day for me. Three weeks later, my trai­ning went on.

But actual­ly the pre­histo­ry is not yet at an end. Any­way - my mot­to: “Curio­si­ty is your gui­de in the jungle of igno­rance.” Expe­ri­en­ces, new ide­as and ways go hand in hand with tho­se who shape their lives. My basic atti­tu­de always - I do not have to pro­ve any­thing to anyo­ne - only mys­elf.

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Logo or mar­king of the Renn­steig bicy­cle path
A quar­ter of a year later …

... in June 2012 - did I con­sider ever­y­thing orga­niza­tio­nal­ly? Phy­si­cal­ly, I feel well pre­pared. The nights are short. In a pen­si­on at the Renn­steig start (or end?) I slept a few hours. Still, it’s still dark when I start. It is around 1:45 in the mor­ning - only 5 degrees and it rains.

Right at the begin­ning I tra­vel a few kilo­me­ters and so must go back to the start­ing point. Somehow the GPS did not play along. Again at 2:30 a restart.

In the lug­ga­ge I have a stone from the Saa­le near Blan­ken­stein. “I want to do it - on this day.” This is the pre-eminent thing that is going on my way all the way from the Saa­le to the Wer­ra over the Renn­steig­ö­hen.

Oh yes - the pre­scrip­ti­on of the car­dio­lo­gist should I adhe­re - the pul­se is not over 160. This moni­tor my out­door navi and bike com­pu­ter. By the way, the Renn­steig runs fif­teen kilo­me­ters through the Fran­ken­wald in the adjoi­ning fede­ral sta­te.

Bet­ween some pho­tos. The plan­ned breaks I have long sin­ce no lon­ger respec­ted. Every now and then I think of a short reco­very pha­se - if it fits. Along the way, I find only half a dozen Renn­steig hikers apart from forestry workers. Is the wea­ther or the Euro­pean Cham­pi­on­ship match of the Ger­mans the day befo­re?

In the end I find it hard to get down. Falls do not stop - get up, move on. For­t­u­na­te­ly, the tires careful­ly sel­ec­ted in the pre­pa­ra­ti­on. They actual­ly held what the manu­fac­tu­rer pro­mi­sed: “Uncl­a­da­ble.” The exci­te­ment, cold, exas­pe­ra­ti­on and fati­gue are extre­me­ly important to me. Cold wet­ness in the first third made me doubt in the begin­ning.

In the second part, howe­ver, the sec­tion bet­ween Ober­hof and Brot­ter­ode over the Insel­s­berg beco­mes an unfor­gettable tor­tu­re - espe­ci­al­ly becau­se of the very poor navi­ga­bili­ty. “Just do not go again,” I think. I will not belie­ve it. A Chi­ne­se pro­verb says: “The way is the goal”. I add, “Bewa­re of the chall­enge and go your cho­sen way.”

On the last fif­teen kilo­me­ters, I can unfold again mira­cu­lous­ly power reser­ves.

Late in the evening around 10:30 pm on the four­te­enth of June 2012 after twen­ty hours of tour I have imple­men­ted the pro­ject. My daugh­ter knew I could do it. The stone from the Saa­le lands with a lit­ter in the Wer­ra near Hör­schel.

What will be my next goal bey­ond fifty-two?

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Renn­steig Bicyk­le Trail - Tou­ring and trek­king details, high pro­fi­le

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Links about the Renn­steig cycle path

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