White gravel and gorgeous peaks: a bike adventure through the Austrian alps

On a long weekend in July, a friend and me hopped on a train direction Austrian Alps, yearning for a much needed dose of mountains, alpine lake swimming, and adventure. With us our trusted gravelbikes, equipped with granny gears and all our belongings for the weekend strapped to the frame. The whole plan was forged rather last-minute, but I didn't want to leave anything to chance and meticulously pieced the 400k route from Selzthal to Garmisch-Partenkirchen together and checked every kilometer with Komoot's trailview. Since it was our first multi-day trip together and I was trusted with the routing, I planned to impress - a plentitude of epic views, waterfalls and rivers to cool down tired legs, dreamy gravel ascents and no hike-a-bikes (I had, after all, promised this would be a chill trip). While my friend has remarked jokingly that my definition of 'chill' might have become a bit distorted by the increasing amount of tough races I have been doing lately, this route very much overdelivered with respect to all the other criteria. We were absolutely smitten by the wonderfully smooth gravel roads we found ourselves on from the first meters on this route, flanked by jaw-dropping rock faces, very different to how we know them from the western Alps. Despite the dreamy scenery (even 'just' riding in the valleys is an absolute pleasure), we soon found out the steepness of the climbs in this part of the Alps is not to be underestimated. Although we thought 100k/day would be feasible, we didn't hit more than 80k a day and some of the big climbs in this route pack up to 1000 height meters in 10 kilometres. I would strongly advice to fit as small of a chainring and as large of a cassette as you can. Despite the smoothness of the surface, a hardtail mountainbike would not be out of place here, if only for the lower gearing potential. Or do like us and stick with the gravelbike... it surely will earn you a lot of respectful nods from local mountainbikers.Since the route turned out to be somewhat ambitious for the limited time we had, we cut it short and opted to take a train home from St Johann in Tirol (good connections to Germany from there, or even better from Worgl, 10km further on the route). We enjoyed every single meter of the route so far, and have no doubt that the remainder of the route will be equally brilliant. Therefore, if you would like to go ride this route yourself, please find the complete and improved 400k route on Komoot:
komoot.com/tour/1255017471We will surely be back to ride the second soon, since we are very much looking forward to the part of the route crossing the Karwendel. I will update this collection with our experiences once that happened.Have fun riding!