For day 9 click here.
Forecast for today was poor with a front coming through from the Southwest. On the plan was crossing the black forest. Compared to the previous day it was going to be short at under 120km but matching the biggest amount of climbing for the trip. Due to the shorter distance I could have gone with a relaxed start and had planned to have a potter round the centre of Freiburg first, a city I had lived in for 2 years around 25 years ago. With the forecast though I decided a swift get away was the way to go. The worst weather was due from late morning so I was hoping to get over the high point of the day before that weather came in. Recalling how cold the top of the Grand Ballon felt on the previous day I felt I needed get over the highest point as soon as I could. So another 8am departure it was. Sven kindly went into work a bit late to see me off.
Having completed the 180+km day the day before I felt that I had got over the crux of the ride. Physically the only things that were bothering me were my hands and by bum but both were manageable. My legs were in very good shape and really from day 5 onwards just started to feel like they could do this forever. Main nutrition was dinner, during the day it was snacks and lunch if I could find some and breakfast sometimes or what I could find en route. There was very little scientific about what I was doing
The bike also behaved very well. I was, for the first time, riding tubeless tyres and still a bit worried about them. In the early part of day 9 (big day), I did get a puncture but the tubeless set up did what it is meant to do and resealed the tyre with no loss of tyre pressure. I lubed the chain a couple of times on route as well as my pedals that had started squeaking at one point.





The Black Forest route starts off with a climb that was longer and steeper than the Grand Ballon. It was a bit of a bastard of a climb but rather satisfying to complete. The main part of the climb was 6km of climbing with 600m of ascent so an average gradient of 10 % with a load of ramps in the 12-15 % gradients. Having mentioned my bike doing great, the cranks/bottom bracket got very creaky on the climbs (worryingly tbh). I threw I ton of lube at it on the summit and that was the end of that problem.
The rain started earlier than forecast but was showery early on and quite pleasant on the climb. When I topped out on the summit of the Rinkensattel (1195m) it felt much warmer than it had been at the top of the Grand Ballon. The rain did start coming down heavier so waterproofs went on. Once over the big climb of the day it was up and down for the rest of the day with the route staying pretty high for a while. Weatherwise it felt that was it for the day but it eased and I sat on a bench for a snack before moving on.
I came through the towns of Hinterzarten and Titisee in drizzle and had mapped myself onto a German B road for a bit (B in German is a Bundesstrasse which is an A road in the UK; I may not have thought that through). It was busy with HGVs and having already been shouted at by a German driver earlier that day (only time on this trip), I replanned my route onto a nice forest gravel route which was actually a bit shorter.
The rest of the day I was on quiet country roads and later on found myself on a lovely disused railway path called the Baehnle Radweg which had been upgraded fantastically well. Another break in the weather meant I picked another bench for another break. Even though I came past a few places where I could have stopped for drink or food, I wanted to crack on and not sit in while the weather is OK only to step out into torrential rain. The rain started to be really heavy with 2 hours to go to my final destination so I was pleased, I hadn’t messed about earlier in the day. Once it got heavy, I just got on with it.
Having crossed several borders on my way to get here, most of which I never noticed I was a bit surprised when I rounded the corner at Stuehlingen and found actual border infrastructure. Oh yes, Switzerland isn’t in the EU but then there were no actual controls.
One of the main plans for the day was to see the Rhine Falls at Neuhausen which is just down the road from my finish destination of Schaffhausen. The weather on the approach was so poor though that I was considering just heading off to the Airbnb and checking out the Rhine Falls the following morning. It’s just 2k, but then I was pretty much upon them on the way there that I in the end decided to head to the view point, get the photo and then off to the Airbnb.
At this point my Garmin decides to have a breakdown and pretty much just switched off. That was rather annoying as it meant I had to navigate in the rain with my phone to get to the Airbnb. It worked but was more faff than I needed in those conditions.
Anyway got there, bike parked in the garage, had a nice shower and then enough time for a chilled wander into town. Unfortunately, after a brief spell of lighter rain and the hope of a bit of an explore of Schaffhausen, the rain came down heavy again and I just pretty much jumped into the first restaurant I could find. It ended up being a US-Mex restaurant instead of something local. Chatting with the Airbnb owner later (I should have asked for recommendations before), he felt that my chosen restaurant isn’t great value for money. It have to agree.





The other story that developed that evening was what would happen with my final 2 days of the trip. For a while it was looking likely that some very bad weather was brewing over Austria for the weekend with the bad weather likely to start on Thursday or Friday. I was in chats with my sister about the weather – she was hoping for some better weather for the Saturday for a potential outdoor party for the christening of her child Levi. On this evening we both agreed that the weather wasn’t going to change from what was forecast. I was due to arrive at my parents on the Saturday afternoon (I’d have missed the christening but made the christening party). The forecast basically was suggesting snow down to 1000m with up to 2m of snow at higher ground. Any of my routes to get from Vorarlberg to Tirol would take me over either 1500m, 1600m or 2000m. None of these were feasible in that forecast.
So I took the decision that when I made it to Vorarlberg (which is in Austria), I’d take the train on the Friday from Dornbirn to Innsbruck to avoid going over the high ground. I did have accommodation booked for the Friday night on that route which I cancelled at this point, sadly too late to get my money back, but I was prepared to take the risk).
This would mean arriving at my parents a day early and to the delight of my sister I’d make Levi’s christening. Karma in there maybe. More on that when we get to day 12. First onto Day 11.
Planned Distance: 110 km
Actual Distance: 110.5 km
Trip Distance: 1305.23 km
Ascent for the day: 1834 m
Ascent for the trip: 11564 m
Riding time: 7:10 hrs
Riding time for the trip: 67:14 hrs
