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70.3 Austria - Any advice / help with the logistics....
willtri
Posts: 436
in General Chat
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
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
0
Comments
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
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....
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.
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
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.
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
didds
Conehead hangs out there to now I've noticed...
.. albeit as part of his global domination plans!
didds
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.
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.
Great tips.
Amazed they shut the motorway!