My Biking Blog: 100 Cols Day 1 Obernai to Abreshviller

This first week is a “warm up” for what’s to come on the remaining stages. In total there are 34 days of riding and about 8 rest days. After a long trip from Sydney involving 2 international flights, two regional flights and a short train hop from the Strasbourg AP to Obernai, I arrived in at Hotel de Colombiere in a pretty tired state. A quick shower to freshen up and I was off to the hotel underground carpark to unpack my bike and re-assemble it for tomorrows departure. Once the bike was assembled and checked I headed into town to eat. The local speciality here is “Tarte Flambe” which is a flat round bread covered with local cheese and diced bacon along with champignons and your choice of other ingredients. This is baked and it is delicious. It is not recommended to refer to it as a “pizza style dish” as the locals will be most offended. They see it as an authentic and original dish with no connection at all to the Italian dish.

At 8am on the following day the group of 45 riders posed for photos in the town square and then headed west toward the hills. There were a couple of “off-course” moments which saw me heading off in the wrong direction but fortunately my riding partner for today Mark Robertson managed to call the errors and get us back on track. The route was scenic and through several ridges covered with dense pine forest. Although nowhere near as tough as what is yet to come this day was a preview of the level of difficulty for the days ahead.

A navigation problem on my GPS on the last 5 kms on my journey took me off into a gravel road on through plantation timber forests. Once I reached the end of the gravel road I was able to find my way back to the campgrounds at Abreschviller without losing too much time. An added bonus from this detour was passing a military cemetery high on the ridge. I took a photo there at a road sign with a planter box attached to it. Dinner at camp was a local variation on meat and vege stew. Three meats (pork lamb beef) were included along with carrots potatoes onions and broccoli. The campsite was very basic, however we were all able to get showered and enjoy a very filling meal served up by Jaap and Aneke.

After a brief walk through the town of Abreschviller I returned to camp for a well-earned rest. Click below for the Garmin Connect activity link which includes map of the route.
Obernai Cycling by peterjkemp at Garmin Connect - Details