Wednesday 23 August 2017
Tour de DrupAlps - Cycling the Alps to DrupalCon Vienna
As per the extreme version of Tour de Drupal, my plan is to cycle from Switzerland to DrupalCon Vienna by crossing the Alps 6 times. The tour will take me over some of the most challenging Alp passes using my road cycle. I’ll visit 5 different countries, including: Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Austria. Overcoming the Alps with the bicycle has been one of my long term dreams... Inspired by the sport achievements of my uncle, I am taking this challenge to see if I can make it from Switzerland to DrupalCon Vienna by taking some scenic and challenging detours over the Alps. The final destination is DrupalCon Vienna which serves as the perfect goal because it’s my favorite conference and my hometown at the same time. #DrupAlps in numbers
- Days: 31
- Distance: 2361 km
- Total elevation gain: 57864 meters
Route
Here is how I planned out the route so far
Depending on weather and physical conditions, I will adapt the route along the way while riding.
Preparations Over the last months, I have been riding various passes to get ready for the tour. Longer rides included St. Moritz - Splügenpass - Chur, Erstfeld - Oberalppass - Chur, and Zurich - Vierwaldstättersee - Lucerne. In 2015, we cycled the Pyrenees as part of #TourDeDrupal Barcelona(1, 2, 3), early 2016 we cycled Sierra Nevada(1, 2) and later summer 2016 I cycled the biggest mountain of Austria on the Großglocknerstrasse. Until now, I have no experience in cycling more than 3 consecutive days, so I am really looking forward to seeing how it will go while being in the saddle for so many days in a row.
For DrupalCon Barcelona we cycled along the Pyrenees. Amazee Extreme Challenge “After three years of fulltime employment, our employees get one month off to free their mind and do something really extreme.” I would like to thank Amazee for giving me this unique chance. Find out about what my colleagues are planning or have already accomplished at the Amazee Labs Extreme page. DrupalCon Vienna DrupalCon is the biggest Drupal conference, organized by the Drupal Association and will take place in Vienna from 26-29 September this year. I am especially looking forward to this one in my home town! On Monday, there will be sprints, training sessions & summits organized by Drupal Austria.
Tuesday to Friday is packed with the official conference program and I am particularly excited about the site-building track, which I am a track chairing this year. Check out my blog post about what to expect from this week at DrupalCon. Join Tour de Drupal If you’d like to join my for the last few days of cycling, the last days are planned to be flat along the Danube river. For example, we plan to cycle from Linz to Krems on Saturday, 22nd of September. On Sunday, 23rd of September we go from Krems to Tulln where we will have a lunch break at the webshapers office. After that, we’ll cycle towards Vienna to arrive on Sunday afternoon. Sign-up here and see my blog post for further details.
Follow me Along the route, I will post regular updates about the ups and downs of the Tour de DrupAlps. To stay tuned, you can follow me here:
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