Europe Day 18: 80 Miles

Basel, Switzerland to Strasbourg, France

Today was a great day of riding after my day off yesterday. It was a lot of mileage but didn’t take as much effort as some of the shorter rides because the route was completely flat. I actually finished 80 miles today faster than the 69 mile ride from Lucerne to Basel. The only real obstacle was the heat, but with enough water and some shade I made it through the day without any problems.

I started the day with a trip to the grocery store with Brice to pick up some food for breakfast and lunch. Brice made bacon and egg sandwiches which is exactly what I’ve been looking for before the start of a long ride. I also picked up a premade sandwich, an apple, and a chocolate bar so I had some calories on hand while I was riding. I knew today’s ride would keep me close to farms and a canal, but far away from places to pick up food. It was easier to have food with me to start the day, instead of going off route to find it.

The first few miles of the day took me out of Basel and across the French border. I immediately found myself traveling alongside a canal and then headed onto a bike path through some very flat farmland. For the rest of the day I went back and forth between the canal and riding through farms. I followed the Eurovelo 15 route all day, so I at least had signs to direct me which made things easy. The scenery didn’t change much over the 80 miles, so I just enjoyed pedaling along without having to deal with hills or anything challenging.

My first stop of the day occurred around mile 28. I was starting to get hungry and it was approaching 1:00 PM. I found a bench along the path and stopped there to eat the sandwich I had picked up earlier. Unfortunately, when I went to eat a piece of my chocolate bar, I realized it was completely melted. I haven’t had this problem before, so I knew it was a hot day. I was able to put the chocolate in the freezer when I finished my ride, so I did enjoy it eventually.

There was a grocery store not far off route at mile 38 and I stopped in to fill up on liquids. Today was the first day that I’ve gone through more than the 2 bottles of water I carry on my bike. This was somewhat expected because today was the longest ride I’ve done, but I was almost completely out of water before the halfway mark of the day. I grabbed a large water, a bottle of coke and a carton of juice and finished off the coke before leaving the store. The bottle of water was enough to refill both of my bottles and the juice was a nice way to get in some calories quickly. I ended up finishing off every drop of juice and water by the end of the ride. Tomorrow I will plan ahead and fill up the extra 2 liter water bladder that I have with me but haven’t be filling.

The last 40 miles of the day followed the canal all the way into Strasbourg. This was right at the point where I would have had issues with the heat, but the trees around the canal kept me mostly in the shade. I was feeling great and passed a lot of other cyclists during this stretch. I’m not used to passing people on my touring bike because it is usually weighing me down so much that I am the slow person on the road. I was feeling great and got into a good rhythm, riding long stretches at 15 to 16 miles per hour which felt great. I was able to easily navigate to my hotel and checked in quickly. Thankfully the person working at the front desk spoke English, because I was not prepared to speak to anyone in French. I’ve gone so quickly from Italian to German to French that I haven’t really had time to pick up any new vocabulary.

After taking a shower and relaxing for a little bit I walked to the tram stop right next to the hotel and headed into the center of Strasbourg. I hadn’t expected much of Strasbourg, but it has a great feel to it for a small town. It was probably the perfect time to be walking around because every restaurant had tables set up outside for people to enjoy their dinner in the great weather. I found a small microbrasserie where I enjoyed a couple of beers and a tarte flambee, which I guess is French pizza. I then got back on the tram and headed back to the hotel to end the night.

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Musings:

• Cold water is hard to find. The grocery store I went into today was one of the largest I’ve been to in Europe. They probably had 15 different brands of water to choose from, but there wasn’t a single cold bottle of water in the whole store. This isn’t the first time I’ve run into this problem. There’s nothing nicer when it gets hot while riding a bike than reaching down and having water that is still nice and cold. I settled for a cold soda and juice instead.
• Somehow this is my 100th blog post. I can’t believe I’ve spent enough days on my bike to post 100 times. I hope those of you who have stuck with me throughout haven’t gotten bored of me yet.