On the first leg of the European trip, my friends in Heidelberg managed to arrange a bike and a couple of group rides for me.  Whilst I was initially excited about this, the realisation that I would be riding an unfamiliar bike on the opposite side of the ride in built up areas, with tram tracks included for good measure, filled me with trepidation.  We had enough English and German between us to survive and to say I was nervous on the first few kms of the Tuesday ride was an understatement.

Both rides started in Heidelberg and went out onto the Odenwald Nature Park.  The Tuesday ride covered 60 km with about 500 m of climbing.  Once out of the urban area, and with directions of where to regroup, I was able to stretch out a bit and enjoy the climbs.  They were a bit longer than our usual Sunday climbs and about the gradient of Welshpool Rd.  Riding through the villages in the hills was spectacular with children waving as I went past and cars leaving you plenty of room or happy to sit behind.  By this stage I was comfortable with being on the right hand side of the road and enjoying the evening sun and we pushed onward and upward.  At the end of the climb we did a quick regroup and enjoyed the sun going down over the Neckar River valley.  It was then time for the downhill, about 15 km dropping 400 m back to the valley.  There were a few switchbacks in the initial descent, which were much more interesting than the zig-zag  and the last 5 km were spent riding along the river back to the flat we were staying.  At the end of the ride we decided another ride on Thursday would be organised and this ride would involve more climbing, since I had handled myself OK on the smaller hills.

The start of the Thursday ride involved another challenge – negotiating a roundabout.  It felt very strange looking left for traffic and then turning to the right.  We then worked our way into the countryside and onto the start of the climb – this involved an 18 km ascent up to 650 m.  I took this pretty steadily at first owing to a large lunch enjoyed earlier in the day.  Nearing half way it got a bit steeper with a 2 km section at 12% but the great forest scenery took the mind off the effort required to get through.  Approaching the final climb one of the other riders yelled out that this was the last climb so a big push was required.  The reward at the top was a spectacular early evening view over Heidelberg and Mannheim and the Rhein valley.  The BASF chemical plant (largest in the world) and a nuclear power plant in the background didn’t even spoil the view.  Also at the top of the hill was a vending machine for tubes.  Apparently these are fairly common and are used a backup if your spare tube has been used.  There are about 20 different tube sizes to cater for all sorts of tyres.

With the views enjoyed it was time to head home – the short way.  This involved a 550 m drop in 8 km and was the hardest section of the two rides.  I was on brakes a fair bit of the way down due the unfamiliar road and the tight corners and was relieved to reach to flatter section back in Heidelberg and a final section of getting through traffic and trams.  With bike and helmet handed back to their owners, I thanked all the riders for getting me through.  Their final comment was how good the SPR team uniform looked and they would expect a good ride in Perth if they were to visit!