Liam Yates

Liam Yates : West to East

Suddenly it’s the middle of 2022 and riding our bikes around Europe is normal again... But, the world being as it is, there’s no time to waste. Grateful to the cycling gods, I’m always looking at where to go on the next adventure. When I suggested cycling from north to south Germany to a few riding friends, the general consensus was: ‘maybe something shorter?’ I consulted the map again and thought: let’s just flip it 90º and travel across from west to east.

Fast forward a few months and a group of six of us are lubing chains and filling bidons in an Airbnb in Aachen on the western border. Ready or not we’re here to take on this next adventure. The route is 660km of mixed terrain, and we plan to do it in five days. Crossing the country, with a combination of camping and accommodation along the way, we all felt pretty excited.

Day 1: We set off without too much faffing, rolling out to the sound of church bells and it was a smooth introduction to the Rhineland. 160km on mostly paved roads and cycle paths as we began our journey eastwards. After some climbing at the start of the day, followed by that all important downhill, the final 50km was almost completely flat as we rode alongside the river Rhine to finish in the city of Koblenz; where the Rhine joins the river Moselle. The name Koblenz is in fact a derivative of the Latin for confluence.

Day 2: We started with breakfast in Koblenz at Canyon bikes’ showroom and café. It was super cool to see the HQ and check out some of their radical machines. Obviously, it’s great to be associated with the brand, and we probably wouldn’t be here without them. From here we continued along a mostly tarmac route with just a few surprise off-road sections to keep everyone on their toes. We finished the day with a five–star supermarket dinner, before rolling about until we found a suitable camping spot for the night.

Day 3: Wild camping meant we were up nice and early, the sunrise and birds made sure of it. We packed up and dropped down along the route until we found the next town. We came across a wonderful smelling bakery and stopped for breakfast and chatted about the day ahead. Whatever we might have expected, day three in fact turned out to be a pretty epic.
About midday the weather started to change as big rain clouds closed in on us, Alizée rain jackets at the ready we continued until the heavens opened completely and didn’t show any sign of stopping.

The group split as we all tried to stay warm and in brief moments of communication beneath the downpour we all decide to continue to the town of Eisenach. After three hours in the rain (thanks again to another of our sponsors) we made it, and decided that camping didn’t seem such a fun idea. It was a hotel and a bed for the night! We were resting our heads peacefully having made it to pretty much the centre of Germany. Schlaf gut!

Day 4: As you might agree, the fourth day is always a bit of a hump, and the legs are either singing or crying (or maybe a bit of both). We were now well into our adventure and climbing out from Eisenach on our way to join the Rennsteig ridge trail. This well-established route traverses the Thüringer Forest from Hörschel to Blankenstein.

This section would make up for a significant amount of our off-road kilometres, as well as most of the climbing on the trip. One of the best things about this trail is that every 5/10 km there refuge huts available for people to hangout in when bad weather hits, or indeed spend the night in. After a sublime day of riding forest trails followed by another stellar supermarket dinner, that’s just what we did. In Scotland they call them bothies, in Germany a schutzhütte. Whatever you call them they are a bike-packer’s dream. We slept well.

Day 5: It was the final day of our west to east bike-packing expedition; and we left our log cabin shelter and continued along the trail. Today featured more downhill and we made some good progress, with everyone hitting their stride. As we left the forest trails we joined an old tank service road, and it was one of the most amazing stretches I've ever ridden. It really made you think about the history of this great country and the worlds beyond us in the east.

We finished the trail at the town of Blankenstein and from here followed a more standard tarmac route to the border. The town of Cheb was our finish point, a welcoming place with plenty of accommodation and food options for the hungry cyclist. What a cool feeling seeing a spontaneous idea turn in to a real-life experience just a few months later. Prost!

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