Cycling preparation for summertrip

broager

Hey you guys,

Last year I spent my summer holidays driving up the east coast of Australia on a cheap bike. At that time I had no experience at all and I did not prepare at all. Even though I have gained some experience by now I wonder if anyone in here knows how to prepare for a 2500 - 3000 km cycling trip around the Balkan countries.

How much do you recommend I train before I leave for my trip?

What do you recommend I eat during my training period and during the trip?

Since I'm in the early stages of planning the trip I dont know much of the cycling conditions in Balkan. Do anyone know any recommendable books or do anyone know the conditions of cycling in Balkan?

Other advices are welcome :-)

DomPro

The roads are brand new through Slovenia and Croatia from my vacation experience in the region. Further south of Croatia i'm not too sure about although I'm aware of extensive development on infrastructure so the roads should be very new.

( I'm no expert on nutrition and training unfortunantly. )

broager

DomPro wrote:

The roads are brand new through Slovenia and Croatia from my vacation experience in the region. Further south of Croatia i'm not too sure about although I'm aware of extensive development on infrastructure so the roads should be very new.

( I'm no expert on nutrition and training unfortunantly. )

that sounds great - though I planned to go further south through serbia, bosnia, albania, kosovo and greece. I reckon the roads in greece should be alright - though I doubt the quality of the roads in kosovo and albania :l

thanks for the advice anyway mate :-)

Zeveq

Hi,
I'm riding in the Balkans this summer, but also have no idea about training or food, sorry. Obviously training on long hills would be useful..

As for roads:
Montenegro - good
Albania - bad in many places (for example http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1742640.jpg). Don't go here with a racer..
Kosova - some good some rough
Serbia - some good some rough
Macedonia - again main stretches good but smaller roads can be just gravel tracks.

I'd be interested to see some decent up to date info on border crossings; any ideas?

broager

Hi Zeveq,

I've ordered the ECF EuroVelo Map which has a detailed description of the roads in all of Europe. I can def recommend it especially if u look at the price - I bought it for about 10 gbp. According to the map u should be able to find a decent road through Albania.

According to hill training - I unfortunatly live in a country which is totally flat, Denmark. Have you got any ideas?