The wind, the wind, the heavenly child

After not being able to sleep very well last night - I was sweating, possibly from the spicy food - I took it easy this morning. But I set off shortly after 9am, which was certainly a good thing considering the relatively long stage.

After just 18 kilometres, I left Hungary and crossed the border into Croatia. I was a little worried that another road might be closed and I would have to take a diversion, because according to the map the road to the border was quite isolated in the countryside and a diversion would have been a long way. But nothing of the sort. Where the cycle path formed the border, I cycled past barrier wire for about 3 kilometres and then I was already in Croatia. Not a soul far and wide, so I took a few pictures and continued on. On the few kilometres before the border, however, I noticed that there were surveillance cameras pointing at the road/cycle path. I guess my border crossing didn't go completely unnoticed after all. But I assume that checks are mainly carried out in the opposite direction. But I'm not sure.

The weather was at its best again today and it was screaming spring everywhere. Thousands of little flowers lined the path, several fruit tree plantations were in full bloom and the temperatures were pleasantly mild.

But the weather also includes the wind. And it was quite something today: I had a headwind for an estimated 100 kilometres. Luckily, I was now somewhat practised at relaxing in a headwind. So I cycled stoically towards the east, making sure my heart rate wasn't too high and taking note of how low the speed was. I made myself as small as possible and was once again glad of my aero handlebars - I'd used them a lot in the last few days. But it was still a bit annoying, and at some point the constant noise of the wind was no longer pleasant for my ears.

Last but not least - as a dessert, so to speak - four short but nevertheless crisp climbs awaited me. And as soon as I reached the top, I felt the full force of the wind again. Only the descents in between were a pleasant, brief change. And when a large lorry came towards me on the open road in full wind, I almost thought I was going to fly off my bike.

Incidentally, the roads here in Croatia were super good, no comparison with the last few days. There weren't really any gravel sections either - apart from a small connecting road and a roadworks site, but that was less than 5 minutes in total. I had read in advance that the roads to the east get worse the longer they go, but I can't agree with that at all, at least for Croatia. Of course, a lot of the roads were normal, but the traffic was very limited. And I much prefer driving like this to standing on an obstacle course. Only towards the end did the traffic pick up a little and I encountered more of the aforementioned lorries. So I was glad to reach my accommodation shortly after 6pm. The host was already waiting for me, including two girls who acted as translators with good English. The stage was the longest so far in terms of cycling time - even though I had travelled 14 km further from Vienna to Komárno, I was on the road for almost a quarter of an hour longer today. This was probably mainly due to the wind.