Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
A Karpacz Quickie Quickie! (Sunday August 9th, 2020)
On Sunday, we needed to leave our Jelenia Góra hotel (early) and the parking lot (as soon as possible) to return to our Mazovia at reasonable hour. So I told Jacek: "We need to do a quickie, quickie to Karpacz, single battery, minimal load on the bikes!" to which he gladly agreed. We had the car packed and our bikes ready by 9:04 am.
Karpacz is a spa in Karkonosze Mts (German: Riesengebirge or, Giant Mountains). The great attraction of the town is the highest peak, Śnieżka (Snowy White Mt) up there. (The number of tourist attractions would be good for a week's stay, and no cycling would be required...)
That short part of our quick ascent belonged to the Poland's Road-Cycling Championships! Average 6% grade, with occasional steeper segments. I was in no mood for joking: the full Turbo mode on and was riding uphill as fast as possible. Jacek (exceptionally) switched to more serious pedalling assistance than the day before. We both were zooming uphill to overtake some young road-cyclist. The guy was decidedly faster on occasional descents. As he was very friendly, we started talking during the ride. He explained the importance and hardness of that segment, about the Championships, on how the poor road quality made it even harder for road cyclists. Everything at crazy speed if you can call any ascent speed "crazy"
"Still 4.5 km of ascents?!" -- I was panting -- "Let us make a short break here!" -- I requested. The road-cyclist disappeared uphill (he was a young competing racer on a workout). We spotted a lady on a US$1200 e-bike there. Well, well, well, e-bikes are really becoming popular here (we could see more e-bikes there, too). It has to be noted all other cyclists seen were taking the easier route.
Jacek spurted uphill again. I discovered I was trying to pedal an unpowered Vado...
At the famous Vang Stave Church (more about it later). On the approach to Karpacz, we had two options to ride up the church: Jacek chose the hiking path! That was funny! We bypassed a barrier and took a dramatic, steep climb, only asking pedestrians to step aside People were staring at us in disbelief! Nobody would dare to ride a bike up there so steep the path was! What took a healthy pedestrian 6 minute walk, we covered the climb in 2 minutes and only so slowly because we respected the hikers
Some history. The wooden stave church seen here was built in the village of Vang in Norway ca. year 1200. No single nail was used! In 1839, the church was in decline and it was too small as well. A German traveller addressed the King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm IV that perhaps the King would be interested to buy the church. The King agreed and paid small money to relieve the Vang citizens from their trouble. The church was precisely documented first, with precise technical drawings. Then it was dismantled apiece and shipped to Prussia in 1841. The King wanted to re-erect the church in Berlin. He was, however convinced by Countess Friederike von Reden (living in Riesengebirge) that people of Brückenberg (now: Upper Karpacz) needed an Evangelic church. So the church was thoroughly reconstructed there in 1842. It is said only one-fifteenth of the original could be re-used, with the majority of the components made anew. The church was richly equipped and a stone bell-tower was built to protect the structure against winds blowing from the Snowy White Mt.
The Vang Stave Church is not only a major tourist attraction: It is an Evangelic church until this day.
The other access road was so steep that the driver of the car seen there panicked and was incapable to ride uphill from the stand-still! We had an adrenalin-packed descent on the main road from there!
We rode downhill back to Jelenia Góra at high speed. I was maintaining 45 km/h (28 mph) on the flat road segments while Jacek was even faster We could be back at the hotel very fast if not the traffic jam throughout whole Karpacz...
Jacek sunglasses: The victim of the Bend of Death.
Note our average speed (taking into account the uphill ride).
On Sunday, we needed to leave our Jelenia Góra hotel (early) and the parking lot (as soon as possible) to return to our Mazovia at reasonable hour. So I told Jacek: "We need to do a quickie, quickie to Karpacz, single battery, minimal load on the bikes!" to which he gladly agreed. We had the car packed and our bikes ready by 9:04 am.
Karpacz is a spa in Karkonosze Mts (German: Riesengebirge or, Giant Mountains). The great attraction of the town is the highest peak, Śnieżka (Snowy White Mt) up there. (The number of tourist attractions would be good for a week's stay, and no cycling would be required...)
That short part of our quick ascent belonged to the Poland's Road-Cycling Championships! Average 6% grade, with occasional steeper segments. I was in no mood for joking: the full Turbo mode on and was riding uphill as fast as possible. Jacek (exceptionally) switched to more serious pedalling assistance than the day before. We both were zooming uphill to overtake some young road-cyclist. The guy was decidedly faster on occasional descents. As he was very friendly, we started talking during the ride. He explained the importance and hardness of that segment, about the Championships, on how the poor road quality made it even harder for road cyclists. Everything at crazy speed if you can call any ascent speed "crazy"
"Still 4.5 km of ascents?!" -- I was panting -- "Let us make a short break here!" -- I requested. The road-cyclist disappeared uphill (he was a young competing racer on a workout). We spotted a lady on a US$1200 e-bike there. Well, well, well, e-bikes are really becoming popular here (we could see more e-bikes there, too). It has to be noted all other cyclists seen were taking the easier route.
Jacek spurted uphill again. I discovered I was trying to pedal an unpowered Vado...
At the famous Vang Stave Church (more about it later). On the approach to Karpacz, we had two options to ride up the church: Jacek chose the hiking path! That was funny! We bypassed a barrier and took a dramatic, steep climb, only asking pedestrians to step aside
People were staring at us in disbelief! Nobody would dare to ride a bike up there so steep the path was! What took a healthy pedestrian 6 minute walk, we covered the climb in 2 minutes and only so slowly because we respected the hikers Some history. The wooden stave church seen here was built in the village of Vang in Norway ca. year 1200. No single nail was used! In 1839, the church was in decline and it was too small as well. A German traveller addressed the King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm IV that perhaps the King would be interested to buy the church. The King agreed and paid small money to relieve the Vang citizens from their trouble. The church was precisely documented first, with precise technical drawings. Then it was dismantled apiece and shipped to Prussia in 1841. The King wanted to re-erect the church in Berlin. He was, however convinced by Countess Friederike von Reden (living in Riesengebirge) that people of Brückenberg (now: Upper Karpacz) needed an Evangelic church. So the church was thoroughly reconstructed there in 1842. It is said only one-fifteenth of the original could be re-used, with the majority of the components made anew. The church was richly equipped and a stone bell-tower was built to protect the structure against winds blowing from the Snowy White Mt.
The Vang Stave Church is not only a major tourist attraction: It is an Evangelic church until this day.
The other access road was so steep that the driver of the car seen there panicked and was incapable to ride uphill from the stand-still! We had an adrenalin-packed descent on the main road from there!
We rode downhill back to Jelenia Góra at high speed. I was maintaining 45 km/h (28 mph) on the flat road segments while Jacek was even faster
We could be back at the hotel very fast if not the traffic jam throughout whole Karpacz...Jacek sunglasses: The victim of the Bend of Death.
Note our average speed (taking into account the uphill ride).
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