The Road to the Schwarzwald Giro: Freiburg
Photos and Words by Kevin Sparrow

Freiburg is a quaint little town nestled on the edge of the Black Forest near the French/Swiss border. The city is rich in historic buildings and churches. The streets are covered in cobbles, train tracks and tiny canals on the sides of the streets. Bike lanes are everywhere, cyclists and tourists fill the streets for most of the day. The food is cheap the beers are tall…

Sammy, Frank and I had plans to meet up and stay with Josh, Boban, and John from Austria at a campsite just outside the city centre. For 30 Euro a night you got a RV trailer with running water, a refrigerator, a hot shower and three beds. Best of all it was 2 min ride from the centre for groceries and Biosk for some of the best coffee in the city.

We all got up pretty early to explore Freiburg in search of some local food. Last year we discovered a daily market that sold fresh produce and had food vendors galore. We had a pretty diverse group of eaters, so this was the perfect place to fuel up before the prologue ride.

The ride started in the early afternoon and we were all able to have a relaxing day hanging out near the stream where we met up Jon and his family. We all were just enjoying the nice weather and catching up.

We kitted up, made a few adjustments to our bikes and went to Biosk where all the riders where meeting up. Biosk was sponsoring the ride and it acted as the meeting point all weekend. The rules for the weekend were simple. Leave no one behind. This isn’t a race. If you want to race then the first one to the top has to ride down and keep the caboose company. The prologue ride was planned to be an easy one. 59k and only a few climbs (1,500m total). Coming from the midwest, that was more climbing than I was use to.

The first climb everyone attacked… The rest of the story is in the Gallery!

See the pre-ride route at Strava.

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