Cologne 5km then Mainz to Würzburg 160km

Actually, I waited all day today for the little man with the hammer to knock my bell out from behind. No wonder, with the sun and partly 38°C and the route profile, especially the last 60 km. But he didn't come, that much in advance. It started well in the morning, ICE caught in Cologne, 3 bicycle parking spaces, wow. No delay until Koblenz, then 3 men with bikes got on. 1 parking space was free, the conductors came and pointed out the lack of space, allegedly the ICE of the 3 men was cancelled, they only had to go to Mainz. The conductors asked the men to get off (safety), they did not move (note, the RE to Mainz does not take much longer). At some point a conductor said he had an idea, the men should come with him, one could stay here. Two got off, the conductor jumped in, the doors closed and the train set off. So that's how it works. In Mainz, the train was 10 minutes late, others didn't make their connections, great guys. So that's how trains get their delays. OK, so I started a bit late in Mainz, I thought about taking the RE to Darmstadt or Aschaffenburg, but I wanted to know today, to test the limits. Also because I chose a route I didn't know yet, or only in a north-south direction and not west-east, I set off. I knew points, sections too, but not everything. Again, I closed gaps in my map. At 10 o'clock it was already hot as hell, then the phone rang, once, twice, three times, today I was important. "Really important" great. Email here, call back there, but I didn't really get going until 11am, when it was already really hot with 35°C. I went to Rüsselsheim. After Rüsselsheim I cycled around Langen, Dreieich, Rodgau and Babenhausen until I reached Aschaffenburg at 2 pm. Just under 80 - 90 km. It was a good run today (not only the sweat), but I knew that the worst was still ahead of me. Into the Spessart, my provisions (4 litres of water, bananas, apples) were already used up, I looked around for a shop/filling station and found one in a small village. The door was open, better not locked, dark inside "Close the door, you're letting the heat in" it hissed from the darkness as I entered, in a Franconian accent. Reflexively I closed the door, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I made out a red-haired woman. Shopping in the dark in an old corner shop, voice-controlled, great. It was fun, we understood each other right away. For 3.5 litres of water, 3 bananas and 2 apples I had to pay 4.20€, I already got 0.33 litres of water for that during the week. A bit of palaver and then i continued, finally uphill. Along the motorway, a well-maintained path, partly gravel, partly in the forest, partly in the sun, 300 metres of altitude difference in a few kilometres, 38 degrees, sweat was running, I love it. I stepped on the gas, the little man with the hammer didn't come. At the top I put on my helmet and took it off, what followed was great, about 30 km downhill. On 20 km of paved road, 2 cars, 2 motorbikes and 4 bicycles came towards me, no one overtook me. That was phenomenally cool. Then Markheidenfeld, rain, short, good cooling and then the horror began. I counted a total of 9 points of the sawtooth profile, up, down, up, down, always 100 metres up, 70 down and again, in the heat. At the 5th jag or so I put the last gear in and wanted to struggle up, but today? Today it worked, I still had juice, so I got out of the saddle and attacked. But with a very light pack, so that's something, there's still something left to attack on the hill. Somehow I was glad when I finally arrived in Würzburg, at the same time as my wife who left after work. We had a quick meal together. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a café with Bruno and then back. From Wednesday, it's appointments and appointments and now the little man is standing in front of me, swinging his hammer and grinning at me, at least from the front, in this sense, good night!

More pics on the german version