We hit the snow at what I thought was the summit at around 1400m. However 3km later when we were still dragging the bikes across the long pass I realised how wrong I had been. And this was supposed to be a simple day. Up and over a pass, then another lower one before we hit the tarmac and put in some distance before finding a bar to watch the football in.
There was no easy way to get through the snow. It was fairly old and had melted and frozen again and we could see that no vehicle had passed this way for some time. It was a remote spot. Riding on the flat or uphill sections was impossible and pushing the bikes involved either finding a ridge to avoid the front wheel slipping sideways on the frozen sections, or where the snow was softer, trudging through ankle deep. The slightly downhill sections I did develop a technique for which involved keeping the front wheel absolutely straight which is not as easy as it sounds.
Eventually the snow ended and we decided against the second pass and were rewarded with 10s of kms of tailwind which zoomed us towards Livno in time for kickoff and gave us a record mileage of 118km.
There was no easy way to get through the snow. It was fairly old and had melted and frozen again and we could see that no vehicle had passed this way for some time. It was a remote spot. Riding on the flat or uphill sections was impossible and pushing the bikes involved either finding a ridge to avoid the front wheel slipping sideways on the frozen sections, or where the snow was softer, trudging through ankle deep. The slightly downhill sections I did develop a technique for which involved keeping the front wheel absolutely straight which is not as easy as it sounds.
Eventually the snow ended and we decided against the second pass and were rewarded with 10s of kms of tailwind which zoomed us towards Livno in time for kickoff and gave us a record mileage of 118km.
1 comment:
Total admiration! Snow on 30th April (not 30/5?) sounds pretty daunting, let alone the scars of war you report from Bosnia/Croatia. A good reminder, as you say, that what is really happening in Iraq is not as pretty as Fox etc. try to make it sound.
Sunshine and champagne can't be too far away at the rate you're pedalling!
Hugz David & Sandy
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