I have read many cycling blogs that tell about what roads the writer has cycled and how the cycling itself was and although very interesting for a cyclist who plan to follow that route, it can be rather boring for a non-cyclist. We know we have more friends who are non-cyclist than cyclists who follow us on this blog and therefore we try to tell tales from the road rather than tales about the road.

In this post I will allow myself to make an exception and tell the hard facts about yesterday’s cycling. I am now sitting comfortably in a guesthouse in Krakow and yesterday there was simply no strength left to pull myself together and write a post about day 15.

Yesterday was the toughest day so far. Wej’s problem with her bike the day before yesterday (Day 14) made us stop 25 km short of plan so the distance to Krakow had all of a sudden grown with another 25 km. We wanted to make it to Krakow and we thought it could be achieved by starting earlier.

We woke up at 6.45, had breakfast at the bakery below the hotel at 7 and started to cycle at 8.10. About 15 minutes later we got the first drops of rain. We didn’t worry about the rain though since the forecast promised only very small amounts. Apparently the forecast was wrong and it continued to rain. Once we reached the village where we had intended to stay the day before, we had to stop to look at the map and decide if we should go for the smaller or bigger roads.

Since it was raining we thought we would miss no nice views if we took the big roads and besides this we have a well founded distrust for what sort of roads our map can bring us to.

When we reached the town of Jedrzejow we were quite wet and decided to change to our rain clothes at a gas station. It felt like a relief and after a cup of coffee and with dry clothes we pedalled on. The road was good with the same wide shoulder as the good old E75.

After a while I felt my power was deterioating and we stopped at a bus stop to have our sandwiches. With new strength we went on, but only a short while later we discovered what the local cyclists in Piotrkow had described to us as ”a little hilly”.

Altitude profile of Day 15

The hills were not steep, but very long. When climbing up the hills, the shoulder of the road was gone to make room for a climbing lane for the trucks. Once on top of a hill, it soon turned into to a downhill slope. Unfortunately there seemed to be no flat section between the hill topss or in the valleys between and since the downhill parts took so short time we had little time to recover betwen the uphill climbs. We only used two gears, our lowest and our highest. Up the hills the speed was about 7-9 km/h and downhill it was often +50 km/h.

The kilometers went by far too slow and for a while I seriously doubted that we would make it to Krakow. None of us wanted to stay at a motel some 20-30  km from Krakow so we kept going. We rode 3 hours non-stop and Wej was mostly behind me. When I was tired I thought she might be so too and evertime I asked her ”are you OK?” I only got the answer ”keep going and don’t stop”. I must say that she might be a tiny little lady, but she really has a strong mind and strong legs to be able to keep going up and down that rollercoaster in the rain hour after hour.

Finally in Krakow

When we finally reached Krakow we went to a wellknown hostel that was full. We then continued to the hostel where I and Araya (thai sister) stayed when we visited Krakow last summer and we even got the same room.

Araya and I went to a restaurant nearby the hostel and they served traditional dishes in huge portions. We then ordered a ”huge meat selection” for two and couldn’t finish even half of it. I thought that maybe after cycling 122 km up and down hills in the rain  would make it possible to finish that dish, so we went there to order it.

Wej and the monster dish

As mentioned, Wej is not the biggest person on the planet, but when it comes to cycling and eating she possesses more resources than anyone would expect. She can cycle and eat for ages. Today’s cycling was no problem, but she failed to finish that monster dish. If two hungry cyclists can’t finish it, then I think it is time for the restaurant management to reconsider the size of that dish.

Size do matter after a long day in the saddle 🙂

If somebody had too many of those giant beers, or if somebody some day would be able to finish the monster dish, then this device in the men’s restroom maybe would come in handy.

Instructive sign on the wall