How did I get started with cycling? Maybe you know me a little longer. If you had said to me a year ago, I would voluntarily move my ass on a hard saddle at minus degrees, whiz down a hill at 60 km/h on the side of an Italian autostrada or conquer just over 1300 height meters in one day, I would have at most, laugh and take a sip of my vodka soda. For the one or other drink I was always to have and the weekend was great for me only in that I could sleep. As I worked in a club, the weekend was of course often work, but the pleasure was never too short: after all, I did not have to do anything the next day.

Well – I still enjoy going out! But always a bit guilty conscience. And I certainly would not have that if I did not do something that gave me so much joy! Before that one could not have called me a particularly sporty person. Although I had a running cut of 5:30 per KM to 5 kilometers and also liked to spend a few hours in the fitness center, however, never came that moment where you say to yourself: “I could go on forever!” What So it happened that instead of laying the 3 km from the flat into the office and back with the classic steel steed, I prefer to put back a few hundred meters on the full carbon road bike?

First of, my partner: of course he has always taken a lot of time for us. But my curiosity did not leave me in peace and so I just wanted to know what he is doing on his tours. That’s why I just wanted to come with me: on my city bike from Dusika. Not a bad bike: with 5 gears and 13 kilograms next to his sleek canyon 6.8 KG UCI limit racer. At 35 degrees we gyrated up and down the Danube island until he spoke the redeeming words: “Come, we drink a cyclist in front there.” In retrospect, this moment comes close to the 1st “I love you!” Approach – at our rest We talked about the fact that I might not only have a slight handicap due to my lack of condition, but also the material plays a significant role. That’s why I decided that it was not time to hang up the topic of “sporty cycling”! Luckily I got the opportunity to put my Popsch on a real road bike saddle by a stay abroad of my partner’s best friend shortly thereafter: I was actually allowed to borrow his insanely great Ridley road bike. Practically, we were almost the same size, so we only had to change the pedals. For a long time I did not dare approach the SPD-SL cleats with which road bike riders literally connect their “feet with the bike”.

The goal of our first tour I was allowed to select: megalomaniac, as I am, it should go directly to the Lake Neusiedl. Nearly 100 KM in fantastic weather awaited us and I also held out in the opinion of my expert very well. For the Leitha “Mountains” I needed a break or two and the last few meters to get home, I also learned why the slipstream can be a paradise. But after my ride, I still had the energy left to go to a huge open air concert!

The bike should not be given back so quickly: in the absence of my own bike, I used every free minute in the weeks that followed to get out of the stuffy August air in the center of Vienna. One of my tours I was even allowed to contest on the Specialized Venge: it was a unique feeling!

 

The road bike fever had seized me.

I bought my own bike, a BMC, and got started with Clipless-Pedals – but I’ll tell you more about it in another blogpost. As far as I can tell, many women start with their partner. It’s great to have such an amount of advice at the beginning. But it is not absolutely necessary: ​​in Vienna, for example, there are great groups like Mitzi, the Radsporttreff or the VICC, who patiently help all beginner questions.