What a brilliant days cycling. I had another long day planned and wanted to make use of the YH breakfast. In the old days they used cut up a load of baguettes and then give you some jam and coffee. Of course it’s got a lot more commercial nowadays and to compete with their rivals, they now offer a buffet breakfast which was excellent and just what I needed.

Getting out of Duisburg was a bit tricky (having to piece the route together from signs, the book and Google maps), and quite urban (this is what cycle Superhighways should look like, Boris / Sadiq).

However, after reaching Dusseldorf the route virtually followed the river in and out of woodland for @70 miles all the way to my evening stop in Bad Breisig. Over this time fertile floodplains became interspersed with huge petrochem sites until Bonn, after which the river started to cut through rolling hills with castles, churches and riverside villages.

The quality of the cycles paths was mixed and varied from smooth tarmac to block paving (similar to driveways), cobbles and gravel surfaces. While the woodland sections are pleasant and cool, the tarmac and block paving is often lifted from tree roots, making smooth cycling impossible, whatever bike you’re on. For reference I’m on a road bike with 25mm Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres.
And I’m starting to like sportif riders, or even electric bikes, passing me, as I’ve learnt to catch their wheel and draft them for a while which gave me 10 easy miles before lunch.

The afternoon section from Cologne to Bonn and then on to Bad Breisig, was great with fantastic scenery. So many cyclists of various shapes and speeds on an easy to navigate route. I stopped in Cologne to listen to busker, where a cruise liner was disembarking passengers, always knowing that I had made the right choice despite tired legs and ‘saddle ache’. At 85 miles I remembered an ultra running trick and grabbed a coke which helped see me through.

I made it to Bad Breisig for @ 7pm, 99 miles (and no I didn’t feel the need to make it up to 100) in 11 hours. It’s a bit slower than my 10mph (all-in touring speed) KPI, but not bad after three hard days and considering the amount of time I have spent patiently waiting at ‘cyclists’ traffic lights. There was also an increasing headwind in the last 30 miles and of course I’m going uphill. Bad Breisig is actually at an altitude of 60m, 424km from the sea, making an uphill gradient of 1 in 7,066 so far…