Hello there,
I am 17 years old and in my last year of highschool. In the time between final exams and the results it is typical to go on a vacation. Me and my friend were thinkingof going on a cycling tour. Problem is we are completely unfamiliar with long distance cycling. Our current plan is to cycle from Nijkerk Netherlands to Zugspitze Germany, climb the mountain and take the train back home. We have a total of 12 days for this all. I used [cycle.travel](https://cycle.travel) to make a quick route and it should be around 900 kilometres. We both cycle just about everywhere at about 10km average per day. We work out 4-5 times a week and run. We also ran a marathon without training once so we are confident we can push trough.
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Do you think this is achievable?
How should we plan it?
Any tips on the type of bike / sadle / packing.
Anything else you think might help feel free to share.
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Thanks in advance
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by lythumm
2 Comments
Have fun, good luck on your exams.
In my opinion, it’s quite a challenge if the 12 days include the climbing of the mountain and the train ride back home. Make sure you book the train ride well in advance. It once took me 2 days to get from Freiburg back to The Netherlands by train (including an expensive overnight stay in a Dusseldorf hotel) because I had not made a reservation. Will never make that mistake again 🙂
The straightforward [cycle.travel](https://cycle.travel) route is indeed about 900kms and is relatively flat. However, if you have 9 or 10 cycling days, 90-100kms per day is imho pushing it if you have never biked long distance before. Espcially if you camp, you alo need time for showers, groceries, cooking, dishes, washing clothes, bike maintenance etc etc. Therefore I would suggest to aim for a 80-85km daily average. Personally I plan my own bike tours for a 65 km average, which gives me plenty of time to have a good lunch, enjoy some views, visit some sights, arrive early on a campsite or depart late, have a swim, a chat, visit the town, enjoy the sun etc. Shorter distances simply offer a lot of flexibility which, for me at least, make my bike tours more enjoyable. However, I’m not quite 17 anymore 🙂
Physical condition is one thing but good condition does not prevent saddle pain. You should definitely get used to riding long days in the saddle, otherwise you are going to regret the long distances you have to ride each day. So do some training weekends (also to test out your bike and gear), and I suggest you do at least 3 training days that come close to your intended daily average, and at least 1 training day that is 150% of your intended daily average. If your bottom is able to manage that, you will be fine.
If you want to stay on campsites, you might want to check out the campsites along the route beforehand, and flag the ones (in Google Maps for example) that are cheap. [cycle.travel](https://cycle.travel) has a good “near route” option to quickly find campsites. Some campsites have a cheap tent meadow, others don’t and you would have to stay on an expensive family spot. And these might be fully booked in the pre- or high season.
In terms of bike, since the route is quite flat a road bike (racefiets) would be very suitable. Don’t take your oude barrel omafiets. Gear-wise (panniers, bags, sleeping pads, cooking gear etc), try to borrow stuff as much as possible for your first bike tour. Ask around among family, friends, classmates. Once you have had your first proper trip, you know what you like and dislike about the gear you had, which allows you to make better decisions once you decide to purchase stuff for yourselves.