As we all know: Riding a bike is among the best things to do to clear one’s head. Whatever (electro-) chemical reactions you trigger and sustain inside yourself while on the bike … the good outweigh the bad by a huge margin. It’s also (almost) free and comes with loads of other benign side effects.*
That’s why I left my desk in a hurry, to make it out into the Odenwald and ride a parcours I had wanted to do for a while. And if you like climbing over rolling hills and one or two steep ascents, I recommend you take the route below and follow along: You will accumulate the roughly 1 km of vertical ascent and the equivalent metres of descent over a distance of about 40 kms — the route is hilly, not flat.
But if you start from Mannheim or somewhere with a similar distance (20 kms either way) to the entry and exit points in Dossenheim and Schriesheim, respectively, then those flat stretches make for perfect warm-up and cool-down.
*=Sore muscles, and contact points are a different story. Only training, stretching, foam rolling and other complementary exercise will help. Yes. Recovery is key!
Just look at that one photo below, from the road between Kohlhof and Lampenhain (and on towards Hilsenhain)! You will pass absolutely stunning hills and valleys, ride along meadows and through woodland … the typical Odenwald quality of cycling.
I’ll try to add some more pictures via follow-up posts, whenever I return here.
