Gasteiner Ache

Our apartment for the night was situated in Lend, not directly on the Alpe Adria Cycle Path but on the bottom of the valley - so we had to give up a good portion of our elevation gains. There, just a few kilometers short of reaching our destination, we found an unpleasant surprise: because of construction work, the only road in the valley leading to the village was blocked! (Marked red in the image)
Although we kindly asked, the road workers wouldn't let us pass, so our only option was to get up to the main road again and come to Lend from the other side, from "behind" (the west), so to speak. Hence, we had another grueling climb and more kilometers before us until we could have dinner and retire to bed - worst of all, this exertion was not planned, so it threw us off balance, as we expected just a couple more "easy" (level) kilometers to the apartment.
I was already struggling with cramps at this point (despite taking a substantial amount of magnesium) but this final and steep ascent finished me off and I had to push my bike up, while it was already getting dark - we wished for nothing more than to get off the road and to our accommodation. Still, there was no point in lamenting, so we pushed on with fairly good spirit.Read more