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70.3 Austria - Any advice / help with the logistics....

Hi everyone,

The ever accomodating wife has agreed to take a short break to Austria in May - which is both terrifying and exciting in about equal measures.

Any tips on getting there / where to stay / anything else.

Was thinking of going with Nirvana packages but on a budget so would probably book everything seperately if possible as probably cheaper!

Having said that - do you think it's worth spending the extra to fly by BA - less chance of delays and more importantly not losing a bike box...(which is a very scary thought!!)

Do you think there will be loads of people doing it on normal road bikes? Can't afford my own "Black Bomber" yet!!

Any help on anything would be great,

thanks Will

Comments

  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    will... I'm looking at this too, but I am lucky in that I have friends that live 30 Km away so can stay with them.

    Having had a look at flights etc already I think BA wins hands down, if only cos they don;t apear dramatically more expensive than any other flag carrier AND the bike carriage is free. Austria Air want 40 or 70 Euros EACH WAY (depending on who you ask there) for the bike. I havenlt checked out Easyjet or Ryanair cos I've heard a few stories about transporting bikes with them.

    cheers

    didds
  • gdh250467gdh250467 Posts: 237
    If you go Ryanair, there's a good chance that the ride from the airport to the venue will be longer that the race itself.
  • willtriwilltri Posts: 436
    AND the bike carriage is free
    that really seals it for me... BA it is.

    So costs that i can see so far are

    Flights (BA fri to Mon) £153.00
    Entry £160.00 ish
    Hotel £150.00 ish
    25mile taxi ????
    Food ????

    and probably lots of other costs....
  • gdh250467gdh250467 Posts: 237
    New bike
    Various racing wheels
    Training bike
    Pointy helmet
    Wetsuit
    Goggles
    Shoes
    Tri suit / other clothing
    Gels
    Food
    Physio
    Champagne

    and LD Traning day in April

    and that's without a 'sweetener' for the wife.

    With all of our planned expenditure for next season I think I can see 'green shoots'. Time to buy some shares I thnk.
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    and probably lots of other costs....
    I can heartily recommend the Wachau Gruener Veltliner .. (local white wine ;-)

    And a visit to a Huerigen (sort of cold food pub/restaurant directly run typically by a vintner).

    There's a HUGE indoor ice skating rink at St Poelten too if the family fancy a run out. I can probably find out other local interests as well from my chums of you're interested.

    Oh... there's an Oly in Krems (30K) from St Poelten later in the summer if you enjoy the region ... swimming for that one is in the Danube.

    didds
  • willtriwilltri Posts: 436
    I can probably find out other local interests as well from my chums of you're interested.
    There's nothing like a bit of local knowledge....
  • willtriwilltri Posts: 436
    New bike
    Various racing wheels
    I'd love to... come on 3,5,11,18,25,33
  • gdh250467gdh250467 Posts: 237
    Uncanny, if you win you'll be sharing!
  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    Local knowledge sounds useful didds! And errr... I didn't happen to see your name come up on another forum did I? Ssssssh I won't tell anyone.

    BA sounds good. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT FLY RYANAIR! The initial flights may be cheap but they charge everything as extra! Checking in... extra. Hand luggage? Extra... Stowed baggage? Errrr extra. Heaven knows what a bike would cost.

    They are a bunch of thieves. Rant over.
  • willtriwilltri Posts: 436
    Don't know it this is going to attach but don't much like the look of 60 odd k
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    Flavadave wrote:
    Local knowledge sounds useful didds! And errr... I didn't happen to see your name come up on another forum did I? Ssssssh I won't tell anyone.

    BA sounds good. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT FLY RYANAIR! The initial flights may be cheap but they charge everything as extra! Checking in... extra. Hand luggage? Extra... Stowed baggage? Errrr extra. Heaven knows what a bike would cost.

    They are a bunch of thieves. Rant over.
    Every time I see Michael O'Leary on TV I want to punch him in the face. Never flown Ryanair either, there's just something about him.
  • willtri wrote:
    Don't know it this is going to attach but don't much like the look of 60 odd k
    Look at it in scale tho, you climb 350m in 8700m, that is not that bad at all, it is an average slope of 1:25 (ok, so it is 8.7km long!!)
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    Yeah... that climb is an ascent of 347 metres in 8.86 km. That's about a 4% climb.
    Its long, yes, but its not a killer (says me that hasn;t done a 9 Km steady climb yet!)

    So, next question... who knows of similar climbs in the UK?

    i.e. 8K climbs at reasonable radients?

    Or at least (say) 5K climbs at 4%?

    didds
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    Do you think there will be loads of people doing it on normal road bikes?

    well, here's one that will be doing it on a road bike for similar reasons!

    didds
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    And errr... I didn't happen to see your name come up on another forum did I? Ssssssh I won't tell anyone
    so what were you doing there Dave ... ;-)

    Conehead hangs out there to now I've noticed...

    .. albeit as part of his global domination plans!

    didds
  • willtriwilltri Posts: 436
    So, next question... who knows of similar climbs in the UK?

    i.e. 8K climbs at reasonable radients?

    Or at least (say) 5K climbs at 4%?
    Was just thinking this whle i was having my lunch time nap. Don't think we've got too many of them around the M25!!
  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    Road bike for me too.

    And I clicked on the other forum by mistake. I immediately logged out... it ain't all that!

    Climbs? Never heard of them. Flat is good.
  • cammykcammyk Posts: 36
    That climb is about the same length and severity as 70.3 Switzerland climb, I did it on a twin front ring road bike and was rarely in lowest gear. Thing to remember is it won't all be uphill and look at the amount of downhill for recovery.....imagine how you'll feel at the top with all that stored potential energy
  • jonEjonE Posts: 1,113
    Did the race this year,some one did PM me and I gave them various bits of info.
    The climb is not as hard as it looks,I managed to stay on my aerobars for about 3/4's of the climb before jumping up and down on the pedals,so a TT bike is a good option,there are a number of flat stretches,it is all on closed roads even 10 miles of motorway.The descents likewise are not as fast as they look on the route profile,I got overtaken by a guy on a hand cycle on one of the descents,definately not a cautious rider.
    I flew out on KLM from my local airport,via Amsterdam,they charge for bike carriage,but it was cheaper than driving down south to LHR.
    At Vienna airport the security require you to open the bike case,to manually check it,so figure in some extra time for check-in.
    Car hire at the airport again got a cheap deal for the weekend,which worked out more convienient than the transport advertised on the race web site.
    Stayed in the town about 15 mins drive from the race venue.On race morning got stuck in a traffic jam due to the usual race bottlekneck trying to get to the venue,so figure in abit more time just incase,or you might end up running to the start line in a wetsuit,without making sure if your tyres have blown off the rims the night before.
    Hotel was the Metro pol,abit pricey but all the mod cons,quiet,even the race winner,Chris McCormack was stopping there,so it couldn't have been that bad.
    Excellent marshalling and race set up,a top race.
  • willtriwilltri Posts: 436
    Cheers jon.E

    Great tips.

    Amazed they shut the motorway!
  • jonEjonE Posts: 1,113
    Nothing seemed to be too much trouble for the Authorities or locals.
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