With a firm grip on the handlebars, I take a quick look behind me. Shit, the material has no reserves, the chain is on the largest sprocket. So I pull on the handlebars for all I'm worth and lurch from one side of the road to the other. The computer shows 20 per cent. The tourism experts in south-west Styria have entitled their cycling guide "Pleasure Cycling". Are they crazy? Pleasure cycling? If you have a masochistic disposition or were born a mountain flea. Then perhaps ...
The steep ramp soon leans back. The legs loosen up, only the sweat stings a little longer in the eyes. Also because the sun is burning down from the sky. That's what they like to do in Styria. Well, they're not crazy, the tourism experts. Because the various routes in south-west Styria result in a perfectly composed multi-course menu for cycling gourmets.
Sometimes it goes "obi", as they say here, sometimes "aufi", then again "aussi" and finally "ummi". "You have an incredible number of options and breathtaking views. You'll never get bored," says Bernhard Eisel, a Team Columbia pro who was born and raised near Voitsberg in Styria. "A fantastic training area to get me in shape for the classics." And the Alps are close by. At the pass on the Weinebene, on the border with Carinthia, you can get a whiff of mountain air just above the tree line, even if the mostly moderately ascending serpentines here lead up to "only" 1,668 metres.
The view down over the foothills of the Koralpe reveals a painting of shades of green. The darkness of the dense mixed forests dominates, interspersed here and there with the lush green of the willows. Further down, the vineyards glow, and in the distance the silhouettes of the Slovenian mountain peaks shimmer pale green. What did Archduke Johann, the patron saint of Styria, once say? "Every thought of the big world, every sorrow disappears here. Your breath is free and you can think freely." Agreed, as long as you don't have to cycle up the ramps.
You can download the entire article as a PDF and these routes as GPS data below:
- TOUR 1: On the oil slick
(64 kilometres, 850 vertical metres, maximum gradient of 20 percent)
- Tour 2: To the wine plain
(112 kilometres, 2,700 vertical metres, maximum gradient 17 percent)
- Tour 3: A visit to the neighbour
(128 kilometres, 1,700 metres in altitude, maximum gradient 18 percent)
- Tour 4: About the Lipizzaners
(109 kilometres, 1,400 metres in altitude, maximum gradient 12 percent)
GPS DATA: TOUR offers the tour data for free download. You can download the tracks in GPX format directly onto a GPS device or view them on your computer in Google Earth or Google Maps.
