Well okay we're not strictly in the Alps just here, foothills maybe but the torrent outside probably doesn't care about geographical niceties. I clambered out of bed and padded over to the window where I swept the curtain back to reveal Armageddon. The room we're sharing certainly has views down to the mountains but not this morning. Okay, its still dark but that's not the issue, rather its the H²O that's not just slicing down but bouncing off any hard surface it hits, the dimly lit road already looks to be flooded.

“Shit.”
“I dunno how you were sleeping,” Ron mentioned as she joined my rain watching, “it woke me up about an hour ago.”

Oh yeah, the noise. It is absolutely hammering down, it sounds like a hoard of trolls are beating on the roof above us – I am really glad I'm not outside!

“I was tired, not gonna get to sleep again with this going on though.”
“No,” Ron agreed, “you want to see if we can get a drink?”
“Yeah, better than standing here watching it, let me get some clothes on.”

No I'm not naked, I'm just not dressed for public consumption. I quickly pulled my PJ bottoms on, dragged a t shirt over my cami and slid my feet into my trainers.

“Ready?”
“Yep, hang on, key.”
“Ahead of you,” Ron grinned waving the plastic card at me.

“Woke you too?” Anita suggested from a seat across the dimly lit lounge.
“Yeah, well it woke Ron first, there anything to drink?”
“Bars closed but there's a coffee machine behind you.”
“Got it,” Ron advised, “you still have it the same?”
“Yeah.”
“I'll bring it.”

I'd barely taken a sip of my frankly disgusting stewed coffee before pretty much the rest of the team joined us. I guess the rain woke everyone.

“Hmm.”
“Wake up Gab,” a voice suggested.
“Eh?” I cracked a window to the world and closed it again as what was there didn't make sense.
“Come on, we need to get back to our room so we can get showered and stuff before breakfast,” Ron's voice advised.

I tried looking outside my head again, moving slightly to make some sense of the view. It looked a bit like a sleepover except the bodies weren't the Angels and there was far too much in the line of leather furniture going on, where am I?

“Where are we?”
“Hotel lounge,” Ron supplied, “you got the key thing?”
Have I? I patted my self down, “here.”
She grabbed it from my hand, “I'll go up and get started.”
“I'm coming already,” I declared pushing myself upright.
“See you up there.”

Ron disappeared leaving me to find my trainers and a chance to take in the other bedroom refugees. Yep, there were bodies sprawled across most of the furniture, the Luchow's sharing an armchair, Maria laid out on a sofa, you get the picture. Not everyone was still here, I'm guessing Dad went back to his bedroom earlier, Tine was gone too.

Outside looked bright, certainly last nights crescendo was no longer in evidence. I found my second shoe and headed upstairs.

“Bit of a change of plan,” George advised.

Somehow all the late sleepers had made it to frühstück, mostly looking at least semi conscious.

“What's up boss man?” Maria enquired.
“Given last nights weather we're just going to push things back a bit, let the roads dry off a bit, especially those dirt roads through the forest.”
Dirt roads?
George went on, “the forecast is dry the rest of the day so we'll go down to Fussen this morning and ride out from there after lunch.”
“We have to wear our bike kit?” Anita asked.
“No, Dave is sorting out somewhere for lunch where you can change.”
“I am? Er yeah, just bring your stuff down to the buses.”
“So nine o'clock at the reception please ladies,” George concluded.

“Why are we going to this Fussen place?” I asked Dad as he helped supervise the loading of bags and bikes.
“Well it was supposed to be a bit of r & r after checking out tomorrows circuit.”
“'Kay, what's this about dirt roads though?”
“I'm sure I mentioned that.”
“I would've remembered.”
“There's a bit of unmade road on the circuit, should make it interesting eh?”
“Doesn't sound much fun,” I opined, “unless you ride cross.”
“You're quids in then eh kiddo?”

“Back here at half eleven, Dave's got us booked into some place just back up the road to eat and change.”
“Okay boss man, come on girls, I smell shops,” Maria enthused.

And so our motley group joined the other visitors heading into the town.

“Now I know why the name's familiar,” I told Ron a few minutes later as we paused outside a gift shop, “Neuschwanstein Castle.”
“Duh! Didn't you see the signs on the way in?”
“I was doing my nails.”
“Never thought you were so girly.”
“I can do girly,” I stated somewhat defensively.
“You know your mum calls you Princess?” she advised as we made our way through the displays of souvenirs.
“Tell me about it,” I moaned, “I should cut my hair and wear football gear all the time.”
“No good girl, you're too pretty to pull that off.”

At least Ron doesn't use the C word.

“You'd probably look quite cute.”
“Aargh!”
“What's up?”
“Nothing,” I sighed.
“Hey guys!” Gret called over the street, “come see this.”

“Where'd you guys get to?” Anita asked as we all waited to cross to the pickup up point.
“Here and there,” Tal suggested.

Fussen isn't the biggest town and is largely given over to being a tourist destination, and on a bright summer Saturday the place was pretty busy. Once the four of us had completed a sweep of the main street we ended up following signs for the Schloss in the hope of finding a quieter coffee shop than those in the shopping streets. We didn't find beverages but the castle is something else, the actually very utilitarian buildings decorated with ornate painting, the boards called it Trompe something. Anyway, the idea is that it looks flashier than it is, fancy windows and balconies, its quite convincing at first glance.

“Your dad'd like this,” Ron suggested.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “hang on, I'll take some pics for him.”
“You haven't got a camera,” Gret pointed out.
“Who says?” I returned flourishing my Handy.
“We'll meet you down at that shop, I'm sure I saw an Eis fridge in there,” Tal suggested.

George's 'just up the road' was actually best bit of fifteen minutes drive back towards Steingaden.

“We're not going up the cable car are we?” Tali asked.
We all craned to look out at the Tegelberg cable car just leaving the Talstation.
“Nope,” Dad advised as he pulled in beside the other team vehicles, “there's a restaurant up behind.”

I hopped out and joined my senior colleagues at the edge of the car park looking out at the view. And some view it is, of course you look into the distance first, lost as it is in the haze, I bet on a clear day you could see Munich, maybe Augsburg. Closer, nestling closer to the mountain we're stood on, several lakes glinted in the mid day sun, closer still, a bright white church drew the eye.

“That's where we turned yesterday,” Ron suggested, pointing away to our right.
“Really?”
“Looks like it,” Anja confirmed, “doesn't look half as hilly from here.”
“Come on you lot,” Dad chivvied, “we're booked in for twelve.”

Hmm, food, I know we had Eis in Fussen but its been four hours since breakfast.

It was hardly Cordon Bleu but the food was okay, Schweinfilet with rice and vegetables and the obligatory Bayerische bean salad. Our changing facilities amounted to an out of use room at the side of the restaurant, better than the ladies or the minibuses I guess. By the time we'd all used the facilities, the support team had our bikes unloaded ready for our sojourn into the Bavarian countryside.

“Right ladies, Dave, Mike and Petra will follow you as support, I'll see you back at the hotel.”
“Er where are we going?” I ventured.
“There's a map somewhere,” he paused.
“Here,” Maria waved a bit of paper.
“Dave? You okay with where the circuit is?”
“Think so, its fairly straight forward.”
“Okay, enjoy your ride.”

Thats easy for him to say, he's sat in a bus with air con, its quite warm already this afternoon.

Thirty minutes later we were on the circuit we'll be racing on tomorrow, by the tyre tracks out of the puddles still pocking the road, just the latest of many using today for reconnaissance. Todays ride isn't about fitness, killing ourselves to get around quickly, no its all about checking the surface out, looking for attack points, testing ourselves on the gradients.

“You've got to be kidding,” Gret muttered.
“Are you sure its this way Mar?” Tina queried.
“Hang on I'll check with Dave.”

The rest of us stood down and took the opportunity to refuel as Maria rode back to the bus.

“Its gonna be grim if there's much of this,” Ron opined.
“Even grimmer if it rains again,” I added looking down the lane. Lane, that's a laugh, the bit I could see wasn't much more than a wide dirt track without any attempt at a surface. “there's bike tracks.”
“Mountain bike,” Anja suggested as she chewed on an energy bar.
“Brought the wrong bikes then,” Anita put in.
“Its the right way,” Maria stated as she rode back up to us.
“How bad can it be?” I queried.
“Bad, very bad,” Tina intoned.

I pushed off and engaged my cleat before following Maria into the shade of the forest and the start of an interesting half an hour. Despite our misgivings it was all rideable with care, the surface varying from bare compressed earth through chippings to almost pure grass. Its gonna be interesting to say the least tomorrow.

We popped back out onto tarmac and breathed a collective sigh of relief, yeah apart from the usual hazards they've really thrown us a curve ball. By comparison the couple of short sharp climbs offer no challenge, no its gonna be a battle of attrition right enough, may the best women win.

Maddy Bell © 18.08.2017