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After yesterday's snowstorm and Boban's brake issues we decided to take things more serious and actually start pushing towards the 500km goal. 3 days in we only got to a meagre 145k so today we decided to visit the world famous Königssee (the cleanest lake in Europe!) and it's lesser known brother Hintersee near Ramsau, which with a detour or two should amount to about a 100k

Yesterday's snowstorm didn't only change the scenery but also intimidated the rest of the Salzburg Bike Club into
roller-rides. So, we started the ride in high spirits talking shit about everybody chickening out while rolling out of the city on some snow covered gravel roads. 5k in we make a wide left turn onto an icy road road and right when John is yelling about how it's totally ridable - ...he gets his Austrian crashing cherry popped (yes 2 years without a crash!) and we both get layed out synchronously. Before we go to check bikes and bodies we start laughing about the irony of the situation and between laughs and groans we find bikes unharmed while already feeling hour hips swelling up. After walking out the pain we jump back on the bikes and creep along the rest of the way our of the city. 

Soon after Boban realizes he lost his spare tube, so we change plans to get tubes at a bike shop in Hallein city and then ride over the 650m Dürrnberg to Berchtesgaden and resume our initial plans. By the time we reached the bikeshop the cold is already getting to us. Also Boban forgets his debit card PIN which only helps grow the owner's concerns after telling him our plans.

Unphased we start making our way up and quickly start to overheat (staying dry in the extreme cold is #1 priority!). Having shed two layers and about 40 minutes later we reach the top and get a glimpse of the cloud covered almost monochromatic scenery.

Boban picks the worst place possible to have a blowout, starts to replace it immediately and fixes the big gash on the side of the tyre with a 5 euro bill. However when John, who had the honour of carrying the pump since he has a toptube bag, hands him the pump, the valve holding nozzle just falls out. It took about 20 minutes, a team effort and several failed attempts but finally we got enough air into the tube to start the descend.

Already freezing the descent was a crescendo of screeching brakes, hand numbness, and toe pain. Having reached the bottom, we with out question decided to race to the nearest cafe we could find in Berchtesgaden. Half an hour, a few pissed off old people (apparently we smelt bad), and a cappuccino later we settle on just riding to Königssee, since we are already wet and without a pump, heading to the remote Hintersee might prove treacherous.

It turned out to be a wise move as halfway to Königsee we found ourselves standing at the side of the road again. This time a frozen and grimey link started to give John bad chain skips and our attempts to fix it by jerky hand movements and lubricating it help no reward. Riding to Königgsee John's attempts at fixing the chain continued failing even as he tried to convince it to stop skipping by pouring his now frozen tea over it. John wasn't fussed by neither snow nor cold, however nothing get's the bikesexual more riled up than random bike noises - and so after a quick glimpse of the lake we turned back north.

With another snowstorm approaching we bite the bullet and race back home as quickly as possible,spraying each other and getting sprayed by cars with ice cold mucky water. Dirty and numb we finally reach Salzburg. With only 75k towards the goal, busted bikes and broken bodies, the ever worsening weather forecast, and our own lack of commonsense make just finishing the Festive500 a harder challenge than anticipated.