For the inaugural ride of both 2023 and my new home region I chose the Tegernsee round-trip. Including the loop around the lake it amounts to a decent (for this time of the year anyways!) 113 km with just over 700 m of elevation gain. Surprisingly flat considering I was heading deep into the Bavarian Pre-Alps, but more than appropriate for a New Year’s Day ride.

With temperatures ranging from eight and sixteen degrees it did not feel like winter at all, more like early springtime. Yey, global warming! Naturally I wasn’t the only one to appreciate the sunny weather. While the roads leading up to the lake were quiet and mostly empty, down in the lake area they were teeming with cars, creating traffic jams at the main junctions. Reaching the lake turned out vastly more fun than riding the loop around it. The takeaway seems to be that traffic in the Alps is the same mess all year round, and is advisable to avoid the main roads. Lesson no. 1 of the year learned, I suppose.

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