Day 4: Cres pt. 2; Istria – CP4 and CP5
Time for the north loop of the island of Cres. With barely any food left I needed to go shopping before embarking on the 50 km route to the ferry but the supermarkets only opened at 7 a.m. – which left me with a tight margin on four hours before the 11 a.m. sailing of the Porozina ferry. A tall order given the over 1000 m elevation gain on that segment.
With some intense effort I did reach the ferry in time after all, not least thanks to the actually rideable gravel roads – I'm sure on Krk I wouldn't have gotten there in time. Plus the scenery was really nice with lush green vegetation covering the ground, and a mythical karst rock field that featured wild stone formations. At the ferry terminal a few riders were already waiting for the boat but not everyone from last day had made it in time; the tracker confirmed that two of them had only just missed the sailing.
After landing at Uvala Brestova we immediately started climbing again. Since I needed no refueling thanks to my stop in the supermarket earlier I soon had a lead over the other guys from the ferry. Also the Učka and Vojak climbs turned out to be magnificent. The weather was playing along too, it was dry and overcast most of the day, ideal conditions for a day on the bike. From those past two days in Croatia I had expected the worst but this part of the route was actually quite rideable. Only once did I get out of the saddle when my rear wheel slipped on 15 % gravel gradient. That aside, the Seven Serpents finally felt like a bike race again!
The euphoria didn't last, however. Near the top of the Vojak mountain, site of the fifth checkpoint, my front brake started making clicking noises. That's never a good sign. Turns out I'd already worn through the replacement set of brakepads! I suspect either the pads were faulty or counterfeit to begin with, or the dust and debris on Krk caused insane wear on the brakes.
Regardless of what caused the issue, I desperately needed new brake pads! The rear pads still had some grip in them left so I wasn't completely immanoeverable; together with a Swiss guy who had caught up to me while I was evaluating my options I continued to the checkpoint at 1401 m. Since above 1000 m the climb is a dead-end I asked every rider I passed on my way down from there what model brakes they were riding but none had matching TRP / Deore type pads. Just my luck; I don't think I'd have accepted replacements from another rider though, this being an unsupported event and all.
Back at the pass at 935 m altitude I weighed my options again and concluded my best shot was a bike shop at Matulji, about 16 km in the wrong direction near the coast. A woman working in the cafe in Poklon too referred me to that bike shop. There just weren't any shops anywhere near the track for the next half a day or so, and at least this downhill was on tarmac, not on rough gravel. Thus I started my long hike downhill to Matulji; I walked most of it as the gradient was just too steep most of the time and my remaining rear brake lacked the force to stop me when it exceeded 5 %.
It wasn't clear if I would reach the bike shop in time so I already booked a room on my way in case I needed to wait for the shop to open the next day. Turns out it was open till 8 p.m. and when I finally reached it around 7 the owner was idly hanging out behind the counter – and to my relief he did have the right pads for me! I bought four pairs, headed to the apartment and called it a day.
Day 5: Istria, Coast to Coast – CP6
I changed brake pads first thing in the morning and then backtracked up the mountain. Matulji being near sea level had the unfortunate consequence that I had to climb back all the way to the pass again. Not only did I ride 32 extra kilometers on top of the Seven Serpents route, I also did a bonus of about 800 m of elevation. Still, having dealt with the brake problem I was in a good mood which improved even more when I reached the track again.
I stopped by the Poklon cafe where the woman from yesterday was just beginning her shift and thanked her for the tip with the bike shop. Then I continued en route to central Istria.
A series of three medium sized climbs stood between me and the west coast of the peninsula, the first two steep and tough, the last one more gentle. Gradients exceeded 15 % on the first two so but they remained ridable at all times. Plenty of tarmac too so I could focus on the physical aspect for once. A muddy single track next to a river near Buzet threatened to ruin the mood for a while but luckily it wasn't too long. Somewhere on the day's itinerary was Hum, one of the smallest towns of the world famous for its Glagolithic epigraphic texts.
The final climb turned out to be an old railway track that leads up a hill with a smooth gradient and then back down on the other side until it almost reaches the sea. The road surface was crumbling at times but overall it allowed for comfy riding; I spent most of it in the aero bars. This afternoon went excellent, I hadn't made that much progress in a few hours in a long while. There was another motivation to go fast: the forecast models agreed that we could expect plenty of rain around 6 p.m. so I wanted to reach Novigrad before it hit me. Cycling without looking up I actually passed right through the town without realizing it as the track only passes the part that is at the shore and I was expecting a some kind of main square, anything resembling an actual town instead of a beach resort.
Rolling back towards Novigrad I managed to do the shopping for the final day before I had to take cover in a nice pizzeria. I timed it perfectly. Just seconds after I had ordered a pizza prosciutto with extra eggs the skies opened and it started pouring relentlessly. Watching the rain from the dry pizzeria I scrolled through the race chat to read other riders' similar experiences.
Day 6: Grand Finale – CP7
The rain hadn't stopped all night so I was prepared for some mud but I couldn't imagine the state that some of the trails were in. The worst of it by far was a trail near a grass field that had recently been dug up by a farmer. There wasn't much left of the original trail: we had to navigate piles of brushwood, boggy wet grass, and the plowed field which was properly soaked over night. As were the trails that followed it. Best peanut butter mud covered the wheels and locked them so riding was impossible. Forget MTBs, you'd need a fat bike to ride this! Not to mention the bike got so heavy from the accreted mut it weighed twice as much.
That mud section took maybe an hour to complete and cost me a lot of my remaining sanity. Luckily towards the end in Buje there was a car wash next to the road. While I was trying to figure out which option on the panel would activate the pressure cleaner, a Croatian guy stopped cleaning his car and walked up; he spoke no English but he was laughing as he dialed in the correct setting for me and handed me another token for the cleaner.
With a shiny clean bike I went into Slovenia to tackle the final challenge of the race: reaching checkpoint 7 on the iconic Slavnik mountain. The major obstacle on the way there was a smaller gravel ascent to a grass plateau that was harder than it should be, mainly due to the wind that approached storm levels of intensity. Surprising how I managed to stay upright regardless. The Slavnik itself however shielded the south side from the wind which was where we approached it from so it proved unproblematic until the very top. During the ascent a number of guys that I overtook earlier during the day closed up on me – better gearing beats everything on these slopes.
What seemed an eternity later I finally rolled out of the woods and onto a high plateau with multiple summits, letting the Garmin guide to the right one where five riders met for an impromptu photo op before diving down towards Trieste. The descent was fast and rather bumpy. So much my hands had gone numb halfway down. The final kilometers took place on an old railway track once more which with its steady but not too steep gradient allowed enjoying every meter of it. The wind had subsided and the sun was squinting through the clouds, though it was still chilly until the city.
Rolling into Trieste in style after six hard days out there, I was feeling like I was put through a meat grinder but I also knew I had accomplished something. At least I was in one piece. And the bike as well.
gps tracks
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