Last night I had to decide how far to cycle today. Vilnius was 170 km away, and taking accommodation into consideration, I could either ride 70 or 100 km today. I chose to ride 100 km today, because it would mean a short ride into Vilnius tomorrow.
The known problem with that plan was that part of the route likely included unpaved roads. On the bright side, I had almost no traffic today except for the first few in last few kilometers. The scenery was lovely.
Several times today I passed local cyclists on old single-speed bicycles, pushing them up a hill. I’ll admit I felt smug as I rode them. Yesterday my average speed was 17.8 km/hr. Today my average speed was 14.3 km/hr, prompted primarily from the amount of time I spent walking up hills.
All told I rode about 20 km on unpaved road. Unpaved road that was often corrugated, with many spots of loose sand or gravel. With periodic 8% to 10% steep climbs.
While cycling on loose gravel and sand is difficult in the best of times, I can usually control the bicycle when it slides. But doing so requires a lot of power from my core and my knees. And my left knee, while it works fine to cycle normally, can’t handle that torque.
At one point I risked rerouting myself onto a small packed-earth road because it was better than the loose gravel roads I was on. It worked out, and decreased the amount of time I spent on the other road by about 4 km.
In the end I left two hours earlier today than yesterday, and finished and hour later than yesterday. I ache, with my knee being particularly twingy. I’m rerouting myself to larger roads tomorrow.
I’m also reaching the end of the trip. I have the hostel booked in Warsaw, and the train ticket to take me from Mockawa to Warsaw. All trains from Lithuania to Poland go through Mockava. The rail gauges different between the two countries, and Mockawa serves as the transition. And I have two days available to make the 170 km ride from Vilnius to Mockawa. Unless I can’t find roads.