Saturday, 24 June, Prologue
OBERAMMERGAU
Next time I'll give her a pair of socks. Who could have guessed that my joking suggestion to my friend Sandra to ride the Jeantex-TOUR-Transalp would become her birthday wish for me? And that I would be crazy enough to fulfil it? What neither of us have is any racing experience - and then we set off on one of the biggest challenges: seven days from Oberammergau to Riva; 830 kilometres, 23 mountain passes, 21,000 metres in altitude. We ride in teams of two. With just over 500 registered teams, that makes more than 1,000 cyclists.
At the start in "O'gau", everyone looks much faster than us. Carbon everywhere, shiny spokes and toned calves. We pick up our accreditation, which identifies us as participants for the coming week - from now on we are called 36A and 36B - and are each given a bag with a race number printed on it, in which our luggage will be transported from one stage location to the next every day. At least our clothes will cross the Alps.
Further information at www.tourtransalp.de
You can find the entire Transalp diary as a PDF download below.
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