21 days European Tour Log: From Copenhagen to Palma

When the Velits brothers accepted, we all got very excited. The date was set: beginning of March. From that moment on, almost everything I did, was to prepare for this adventure. From the beginning, me and my partner, Henrik Cohen, we agreed only on just few rules of thumb:

1. Go in without planning ahead and face what’s coming, one thing at a time.

2. Let the GPS unit plan the route for us. We’ll just choose “allow gravel roads, prefer cycle routes, avoid main roads”.

3. Absorb the landscapes and the experiences. We’ll not ride like in a race, but will allow ourselves to seize the moments.

With this 3 rules to pedal by, we sat ourselves for the best adventure of 2016 yet to come:

Copenhagen to Palma de Mallorca

5 countries in 21 days, 140 hours in the saddle and 2500+ km

Day 1: Goodbye Denmark

What a day! Our long awaited journey didn’t start as expected. We had to face 3 punctures, 1 broken pedal, 2 degrees outside. Must have been the 200 km we did in 1 day.

Day 2: PUTTGARDEN – BAD OLDESLOE

We woke up to rain, started riding in rain, had the coffee in the rain and of course, finished the day in rain. This weather didn’t leave our sight even for a bit and all day the temperature was between -2 and +2 degrees Celsius. This, mixed with salty roads meant creaking cycles and chains. We had to come up with very creative ways on how to clean the chains before applying some oil. If you haven’t skipped the Chemistry classes you know what liquid neutralizes the salt. Or should I say human liquid?

Day 5 – We conquered Germany. Netherlands is up

We are looking now at 770 km done. We just left Germany behind us.

Day 8: CAUBERG – BASTOGNE

We set off in Cauberg. This is the highlight of our tour so far: Cauberg is the finish line for Amstel Gold Race. Actually, we did the final climb up to the finish line upon our arrival the night before. This is the first day where we do climbs, steeper and longer than anything I have ever came across in Denmark. We hit a few paves and started riding in a higher altitude partly covered in snow.

We got pretty cold and stopped at a bakery where they served coffee in the back room along with their homemade cakes. Nobody spoke any foreign language at all but our coffee thirst and cake hunger was written all over our faces.

Day 9: BASTOGNE (Belgium) – SAINT MAURICE (France)

We did another 165km and went down from Belgium via Luxembourg to arrive in France. We entered France through a small back road through a marsh area where we had to ride a narrow wooden bridge to cross over. It felt like entering France as an illegal fugitive.

Our plan was to spend the night in Jarny but were not able to find any hotel. We proceeded through a few other villages with no luck even though the Garmin was telling us a hotel was supposed to be there.

Mental note: Update the Garmin maps for the next adventure.

The night was creeping upon us and as we didn’t had anything to eat all day except breakfast, we were really anxious to find a hotel. We spoke to a local woman and she told us the hotel was demolished years ago. Finally, we found a place to stay. Everything fell into place again after we got to taste the French cuisine and wine and we immediately fell in love with it.

The prologue was won by Chevre Chaud and stage one by Boeuf Bourguignon. The 2nd stage was dominated by Assiette Fromage while the final sprint was won by Creme Brûlée.

Day 12: BOURGOGNE

This was a wonderful day for doing rouleur through the famous Bourgogne wine yards. The weather was amazing and the landscapes equally so. We did a stop at the Montrachet Castle and got us a tour through the cellars loaded with barrels full of the best Bourgogne wine there is.

Day 13: DIGION - THIERS

We rode the first 45km chatting and joking about how easily we left the kilometers behind. Then we did a left turn heading South and suddenly the mountains rose in front of us like trees in a forest. The route went straight South into the mountains in an area of which we had no prior knowledge about. We climbed from 100 to 1100 meters to observe that temperature is dropping 1 degree for every 100 meters, and finally stabilizing at -6 degrees.

Everything was covered in snow, it was freezing cold and the roads were slightly icy. It looked like a massive plateau that kept us riding at 900 - 1100 meters height. The area was completely deserted, covered only in forests and our destination, Thiers, was still 65km away.

After a special icy descent, we decided it’s time to stop for a short crisis meeting. I suggested using the Garmin to locate the nearest hotel which turned out to be 11km away. We headed for it only to find ourselves on a muddy slippery steep MTB-like track that took us down to a blind spot.

I was desperately looking for a teleporting app on my iPhone while Henrik wolfed down 5 fruit caramels. After he finished, he turned to me and said: “Sune, now shut up and let’s ride. We only need 31km more and 1000 altitude meters to reach Thiers”.

We set off and conquered the distance fueled only by coffee and cakes. We were lucky to get through only with mild frost bites on our toes. This is the kind of day and ride that puts your abilities into perspective.

At the end of the day, we called it “a disastrous blind date with the mountains”.

Day 17: CLERMONT – SIGEAN

Today we reached the shores of Mediterranean Sea with the feeling of full control. Once again our GPS turned out to be a nice surprise and took us through a beautiful nature park. The only downside was that the roads were gravel and wet and muddy and included some steep 250 altitude meters. We depressed the tires to a suitable level and fought our way over the pass. We kept our motivation by imagining the joy that will hit us when we’ll finally see the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

Day 18: SPAIN

The coastal road from southern France to Northern Spain was stunning. A curvy road took us up and down on a scenic route with the ocean on the left and the steep wine fields on the right. We entered Spain by an old closed border patrol station and stopped in the first village. Here we enjoyed a “menu del dia” together with a bottle of cold white wine in the sun. Life is good. Especially when we don’t forget to #stoppedaling

Day 20 – Mallorca is treating us good

After 20 days, 140 hours in the saddle and 2500+ km , we reached Palma de Mallorca. In return, we received a special welcome: social rides with friends, coffee stops, a lot of local wines (that resulted in hangovers) – Mallorca has been good to us