Siebengebirge

I got a chance to ride somewhere else!
Being near Bonn regularly over the last years ,made look to those distant hills on the east side of the Rhein. The area is known as siebengebirge and loked steep! This time i could get a close look. Warming up along the Rhein and crossing it along the A555 gave some nice morning views already. Cities can also create nice views and the weather was 10 out of 10 today. Coming to the first climb i choosen beforehand using strava's segments it was clear i would see a lot of suburban area's. But the combination with the river and the backcountry halfway was a good one. So Vinxel climb was done, warmed up good and a nice long downhill as desert.
Soon after that, the hardest climb for today came up: Petersberg. The whole 4.3 km have a 6% average, but that only means a longer but easy start of 2.2 km up over the B42 and the last 2.1 km through the forest serpentining with a 8% average. This was something is didn't exprerience before. Climbing on this steepness and for so long made me gasping and a slight feeling of blacking out at the end. But failure is a no-go, so keep pushing to the top. i could keep my cadence to an good average (thanks to my new garmin GSC10 cadence meter)
I was rewarded with a stunning view at the restaurant at the top.

On the background you see the even more famous Drachenfels with an even steeper approach, but feeling the climb just done i decided to skip that one today. I still had some other climb to do and get home. so down it went and it was clear i am not a good climber but therefore i know how to handle the bike going down! 8th on strava with a first try is not bad. You have to know your qualities. ;-)

So, along the Rhein again and up climb 3 for today. The Aegidienberg is not a steep one, therefor a long one. This one was fun to do. Finding rythm and enjoying the forest. Only bad was the amount of traffic. But still a good easier climb.
At the top it was left and down along the north east side of the hill. Getting back on a more decent average and going through some backcountry villages i missed the turn for the detour i wanted to do towards Hennef. Ok, feeling a bit empty i decided to pick up the track ahead, and a suprising little climb to Hoholz made me feel in my legs i had something done already. Again a nice long downhill into the east side of Bonn (Beuel) and straight through the centre towards Bornheim.

It was good i didn't push it with Drachenfels, but maybe the extra wee little climbs near Hennef would have been fun. Anyway, a fresh new area to cycle and some amazing experiences gathered today!