Bicycle Tour Czech Republic and Poland – Crossing the border and some real climbing!

Join me on this 4th day of my bicycle tour thru the Czech Republic and Poland!

This day I ride last (or first, depending on where you are starting) part of the Elbe Radweg / Elbe Cycling route.
From Vrchlabi a steady climb leads me towards the CZ -PL border, passing the resort town of Špindleruv Mlýn.

Reaching the border was a highlight for me as it was my first time in Poland!
The descent into Poland was crazy steep which resulted in some overheated disk brakes 🔥.

After riding thru some nice Polish country side and 1 last pretty steep climb I reached my destination for the day. That was the SPA /. resort town of Świeradów-Zdrój.

Total ride today was 78km long, with 1252m of elevation.

Enjoy the video!!

Bicycle: 2015 Specialized AWOL

Music:
Dobro Mash – Audionautix
Paseo – House of the Gipsies

For the first time in my life, I’m in Poland and I climbed this uh this nice mountain. [Music] Woohoo. Nobody should check [Music] in. Good morning. Welcome to my here in uh Kalabi. So, this really was a perfect room. I really had a good night’s sleep. Nice and quiet. Yeah, and the breakfast also was really good. Um yeah, I have to get my bicycle downstairs. I don’t think anyone knows that I have it here, so hope nobody gets angry. Um yeah, and then let’s go. Oh, there’s one more thing. Um, I normally use a very small tripod which I can attach to my handlebars for my GoPro, but yeah, the tripod is now broken. I can no longer attach it to my handlebars. So, the filming will be a little bit different than normally. For instance, yeah, on on steep descents, I have to have uh both hands on the handlebars and I cannot operate the camera. So, that’s a little bit of different style of videoing, but uh I hope you don’t mind. Okay, see you on the road onto Poland. So, got the clothing out to dry here. Let’s flip it in an hour so the other side dries as well. And I’d say uh let’s go. So while leaving Vlabi here uh we’re at uh 480 m and the highest point for today is 1,400 m. So 900 m of climbing. But yeah, the first stop is the Czech village of Spintler Molen. And that’s a real uh touristy winter sports ski resort. So that’s the final uh finish before the border and I think it’s about 15 km 10 to 15 but uh yeah already a major part of the climb and then the final climb to the border is I think within uh within the woods. legs are feeling uh okayish. Ah, and I think this is the brewery I had a beer uh of yesterday evening. Medvet was a really nice uh mit kind of uh beer. Zukonos that is something with the the mountain range behind me and then the beer itself it’s called Gabasta Medvet Medvi understood. Okay, thanks. Ski slopes and ski lifts. In the meantime, I think this is still the Ela River at Spintla Min. That’s where that’s where I will depart from the Ela River and go towards the border. If you want to go all the way to the actual spring, I don’t think you can come there by bike. But I’ve seen videos on YouTube of bikers, bicyclists that they need walk up to that point if they start there and then uh start riding their bicycle in Splinter Minoski National Park, I think. I think it’s a bit narrow over there. So, let’s wait until we get until we have the green light. Okay. So, after the bridge is getting a bit steeper, but I have about uh three steps to go still to go lighter. So, But I’m, as you might hear, I’m gasping at the moment, but it feels good. And another traffic light. [Applause] [Music] Man, it feels good to do some real climbing again. It’s been a while. Also, we’re climbing in this nice moderate temperature. I think it’s about uh 19°, so it’s really amazing. I love it. The zipline There the hill gets transforms into a mountain and there you have the river Elba. It’s a pretty touristy town here. Uh tourism booms. I do actually have a mission and that is to get a fridge magnet for back home. Let’s see if there’s some stores that might have it. So, all kinds of fancy hotels, but not really uh the typical tourist shop I’m looking for with souvenirs and fridge magnets. Mission accomplished for getting the uh fridge magnets onto Poland. Yeah, I think this is one of our final views at the Ela River and it’s a nice one. But yeah, it will not be long before we part. It’s a 9 km climb in which we totally climb 458 m. Doesn’t sound so bad. And yeah, it never goes into the red zone. So I think yellow is between 4 and 8%. So that’s okay. So, this looks like a a good campsite. There’s the OB River in the distance down below. And I think looking at the map, this is the last time we see it. Bye-bye. So, five six% climbing rate at the moment. Not too bad. [Applause] Over 1,000 m of height now. Still going strong. So, the wind’s picking up here. Seems that I’m getting close to the top, but still at 119 m. I might have been wrong about the altitude. Exaggerated a little bit. Let’s see. There’s the top over there in 660 m. So, uh, little bit less high than I thought. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I think we’re getting close. We had a nice last minute headwind. I think that building is over in Poland. For the first time in my life, I’m in Poland and I climbed this uh this nice mountain. In the end, it’s 1,00 1194 m in the end. Hello, Poland. Let’s have a short rest. Jessica Republica Pska. I made it. Banana sandwich and on top of the world. Okay. So, I need to get used to the new uh the new language again. Yeah, I knew five words to check uh up front. I know zero words Polish up front. So, I think we need to go to Pa. So, uh that name place I think I recognize. Okay, let’s go into this direction. And yeah, what I’ve told you about uh what I told you about filming, that’s going to happen right now because yeah, we’re going to go into a descent. So, I cannot uh film that much. Uh I do see this sign now that says something about a cycle that it’s not allowed. I think it means it. But of course, I don’t speak Polish, so let’s go there anyhow. So, I just checked Google Translate. What I think it means is that it’s yeah no traffic allowed except for bicycles. So let’s go slow down that I understand. Okay, let’s uh take this route. Oh wow, really nice valley. I think that’s where we that’s where I will be going to. Okay, I got to put you away now and uh go down this hill a few hundred meters in now. And yeah, I have to be full on the brakes uh 100% of the time. So I think they are already really hot. So they will get even more hot, I think. And yeah, the surface of the road is really bad. So uh seriously, I just touched this part and I almost burned my fingers. This is really hot. Let alone the disc itself. I can feel it radiate the heat. Let’s see if we can make some fish noise. Can you believe that? I think I’m going to let them cool down for a bit more. Never experienced this before. Let’s see how much we descended already. Yeah. So, we descended already 200 m. Okay, another stop. Yeah, it’s it’s a little bit less steep now. Uh the road surface is still really bad. So, you cannot let the speed go up at all. Yeah, I even saw some cyclists now going up. The first one was with an ebike, but after that also some uh yeah, some uh roadies. So, they patch you off a shoo. Yeah. and have to to wait for a few minutes uh for the brakes to cool down a little bit. Again, the trick one more time. We’re at a more normal road just now. Uh feeling hot, hot, hot. Just wondering how much we descended now. We’re at 770. Yeah, 430 m of descent. Okay, let’s uh descend now a little bit more relaxed. I do. Welcome to Poland. So, we’re now at Pin. We need to cycle a little bit further to Soish and then we’re going to go to over there and then over there. I don’t know how to pronounce all these names. Zaklarsa Porba. But first, my rear brake is not functioning. If I activate it, it doesn’t come back fully. And also, it stopped uh having brake power. Since I will have some hills ahead still today, I’ll try to fix it now by uh tightening it a bit. I think I hope that just the pads are not wore down completely. Uh cuz I don’t have any spare pads. [Music] Yeah, I could make it a little bit tighter, but I think the brake pads are just completely gone. At least it does spring back now. So, let’s tighten this as fast as possible and uh see if I can get some brake somewhere. It does seem to have some braking power back again. So, that’s it. Looks promising. Oh, another thing I need to do still today is book my accommodation for tonight. And well, I’m uh yeah, out here and I know my uh my rear brake works again. I’ll better uh book that accommodation right now. The plan is to go to a place and now I have to look it up. Oh, I’m back on the or I’m on the Polish network now. The plan is to stay in Virroy and I think it’s about 35 km from here. Yeah. By the way, the rear brake is is really functioning again. So, really happy with that. When I’m home, I think I’ll replace the pads as well because they look uh quite on the worn out side, but they still for their function. [Applause] quite busy roads here in Poland. I do need to get used to the all the signs and the rules here because everything is a little bit different from the Czech Republic. And my first cycle path in Poland. That’s better. And there’s uh the end already of the cycling path. So I think this is where uh my new root section starts. I’m uh deviating from an earlier plan. So, and I think this is the right one. It looks so so continue ahead and then a Uturn. So, I was circling around this village a bit to see if there was an ATM, but I was not able to find it because I still need Polish looties. Let’s try in the next village then. I think we’ll be climbing again shortly. Just checked this section of the route, the final section for today. I think it’s about another 28 km. But uh the 28 km includes 460 m of climbing. So that’s still quite substantial from somebody somebody from the Netherlands. Let’s check the time. Yeah. So now it’s uh half 2. So at uh 4 I will uh arrive at my destination is my estimation at the moment. Different types of churches here and also more I guess because it’s a really Catholic country. Yeah. The river Camina. Okay. No. This looks like an ATM. So, I went through an amount of 120 slotty just to have some cash. That is I think about 23 + 5. Yeah. About €28. And they charged me €18 for that. That’s about €4 on an amount of €28 offset. Ridiculous. Okay. The town of Po Viet, I think. SA. Okay, some bad news coming up. A nice climb. That’s not the bad news, but there are red sections within the climb. And uh those I have not had before yet. So wondering uh if I can keep on pedaling or start walking. Let’s see. So steep climb ahead now. But luckily I’m off this road because that was really busy and cars were going really fast. But ooh that is a pretty steep looking climb. Steep climb. Wow. Holy moly. I was getting hot on that uh hot overheated on this climb in my uh long sleeved shirt. So, uh, got the short sleeves now and, uh, give me the, uh, ali having another break in this climb. But let’s continue. I see the red zone coming up. Pretty heavy. Vo stroy. I reached the top for now. Man, that is some good oldfashioned climbing which has been a while like I said, but uh yeah, the part in Czech Republic was really steady, but this one uh has really steep sections and it alternates between not so steep and really steep. So, let’s go downhill. So yeah, the climb was much more tougher than uh this morning, but also the descent is much much better than this morning because this is really smooth descending. This can take a while at this rate. Just uh yeah, I can pedal a little bit, but uh so much more relaxed than uh overheated brakes from this morning. Yehoo Jimna Mirusk. We’re riding this road at the moment. We’re staying somewhere over here, but um cannot find where we actually are. So this was the the tough climbing part and then from here it it went better. But wow [Music] to this is my village. Quite touristy and very spread out. Well, I have to look where my hotel is. The last part is always the hardest, especially if you climb at 10% plus. [Music] [Music] Okay, bringing down the average age here, I think. Let’s uh check in and see if they have a room for my bike. [Music]