September 27th
As we departed Strasbourg we stopped at a Lidl to buy our breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day in one go. Prepared for anything.
We found the waterside path and headed south, for pastures new.
We found the EuroVelo 15, our new route that would take us down to Basel in Switzerland. EuroVelo 5 had been good to us, we could only hope 15 would also be.
The path pleasantly surprised us by being tarmac and not gravel and even a sprinkling on sunshine through the trees. However being autumn, it was covered in twigs, branches, logs, conquers, and all kinds of detritus. With 3 wheels it’s tough to pick a line through road debris, so we have to plough through a lot of it. The lovely tree lined path also meant tree roots growing up through the path, for a bumpy ride. This would be fine except, non-linear bumps are a real spoke and wheel killer for the trike. It was therefore with anxiousness that we pedalled on through.
The going was good until we got a front wheel puncture. The second in 2 days. The culprit this time was a stone. Although we’re close to the end, a new front tyre might be added if we get the opportunity. Luckily we still have many a spare tube and changed it pronto. EuroVelo 15 seems to be a much more popular route, with a lot of cyclists and touring cyclist passing us while we were stopped. Compared to the ghost town of route 5.
With the wheel sorted we pedalled on and within 500 meters, going up an innocuous hill, we broke a spoke on the troublesome child, the right-rear wheel of the trike. Luckily it was on the side we could fix, and we had some spare spokes from Luxembourg. We set about sorting it. Passed by more cyclists and tourists, a few who stopped for a chat. Then with the new spoke installed, tyre back on, wheel back on, Louis was doing a final once over before we set off, and just then the spoke-nipple broke. After some disbelief and big groans all round, we set about again taking the wheel off, tyre off, replacing the nippel and tightening the spoke. We decided to take an early lunch now, as they do in cricket, seeing as we were stopped for so long.
After forever it was all back on and we were ready to go. 500 meters covered in the last 1.5 hours. It’s day 13 of the trip and it’s a Friday, unlucky for some and it was proving unlucky for us.
We cycled on, and thankfully, third time of asking, we were again making progress. The going wasn’t too bad, until we hit a gravel patch and had to slow to a crawl for a little bit. Then the forecasted afternoon showers came.
The path then led off the canal and onto quiet farm roads. Not bad except we seemed to be zig-zagging left and right a hell of a lot. Either some tiny villages had paid big money to get the route to go through them, or, the developer was drunk while designing this part. For some reason the zig-zagging is morale draining. With the head wind increasing, it was becoming a slog. We stopped for snacks and shelter from the wind from time to time.
Our last stop was at about 44 miles, and when we restarted the head wind was howling. We pedalled on, feeling like we were barely moving at points. We cruised off the path to a little town called Fessenheim, to sample their public toilets. From there we took some side roads to find a camp spot. Sandwiched between a few trees and a corn field we were protected from the wind and in for the night.
Tonight we had gnocchi and 500g of gnocchi is disappointingly a lot less than 500g of pasta. The two hungry riders will be going back to pasta tomorrow. Luckily our snack pannier is still full so we had many a desert. Louis hung the solar charger on a corn plant for some evening charging before we called it a night.
Despite the mechanical setbacks and hard cycling we still got it done. We passed 1,000km for the trip. We stayed mostly dry. On track for Switzerland tomorrow, before heading East towards Munich.
Daily stats
84 km. 326 m elevation gain. 4 hrs 57 mins moving time.
Cumulative trip stats
1,049 km. 8,750 m elevation gain. 62 hours, 5 mins moving time.
