Matt's Bike For Blood

Gidday Team A quick update from Gerardmer in the Vosges Mountains. The trip has been fantastic thus far, despite some rather ordinary weather. The first section along the Moselle was awesome and probably the highlight. Cycling along dedicated cycle paths through age old towns and hillside vineyards. Great food, beer and wine kept me company as I acted tourist exploring a number of the small towns, Cochem in particular was very cool. Onwards through Koblenz and down the Rhine was very similar to the Moselle, stopping into awesome little towns like Boppard and Bacharach. Once I got beyond Mainz, industrial Germany took over. Instead of small towns it was massive nuclear powerplants and river side ports. Heidleberg was a welcome relief as the weather turned for the worst. Although the 7-1 German win helped fire things up a little. From Heidleberg it was down into Strasbourg and on towards Colmar, the latter which would probably take the cake in terms of the best town I had passed. A 1139m mountain pass (which the tour passes over today) was all that stood between me and a three day break in Gerardmer watching three stages of the Tour de France pass through the Vosges. Not being used to 2hrs of going uphill it was a tough days cycling but the nice 15km downhill stretch that proceeded made it all worth it. Well thats it from me, if you do stay up and watch the cycling tonight I will be standing waving a NZ flag just beyond the first mountain pass of todays stage, somewhere around Station du Lac Blanc at the 20km mark. So keep your eyes peeled! PS, the kilometre total is up to 672.6km, though I do think those mountain pass kms should count as double!! MA