Pedal Power

01 June 2015

Any of you who have met Doherty's Chairman, Patrick, will know that he is a man who is always ready for a challenge - whether business or personal.  After successfully cycling the width of the UK last year along Hadrian's Wall, Patrick decided to go further afield this year.

He has just completed a cycling tour around Lake Constance. This is Central Europe's 3rd largest lake and is the only place in the world where you can wake up in Germany, cycle across to Switzerland for lunch and make it to Austria in time for tea and strudel.

 The circumference of the lake is 273km in total, with the southern 72km in Switzerland, 28km in Austria and the north western 173km belonging to Germany.

 To give you a flavor of Patrick's journey, here are some extracts from his cycling diary:

18th May: arrived in Konstanz, which is a University town and full of bicycles, skateboards, roller-skates, e-bikes and even e-scooters for children. Walked and cycled around Konstanz for the rest of the day trying to sort out how the signposting worked, which path I should get on and how to get out of the town the next day.

19th May: 12˚C, cold and wet. Found the route into Switzerland and took the pathway to Ermatingen, Berlingen, Steckborn and eventually Stein am Theim.  Loose gravel and field paths made for difficult and slow travel. Much of the path was along the local railway line and as the trains run every 10 minutes and the path kept crossing the railway line I was forever getting off to wait for a train. 22 miles completed.

20th May: 30 miles done today cycling to Gundholzen.

 21st May: Traveled through many villages along the lake to a small village called Wallhausen where a ferry was to take me across the lake to Uberlingen. The ferry had left 15 minutes before I found the departure point, the next ferry was not for 2.5 hours and it had started to pour with rain again.  32 miles today.

 22nd:  Uberlingen to Kressbronn.  A long ride, some 30/32 miles.

 23rd May: Kressbronn to Hashst. Another 32 mile ride today, but all close to the lake. Quickly into Austria, through the nature reserve of the Rhein delta, where I got well and truly lost.

 24th May: Final run back to Konstanz - 35 miles. As it was Sunday the "Rad weg" was full, with families and dogs, great grand-mothers and their tricycles. For the first time in the week I managed an average of 12 mph!

Any suggestions for his next challenge are welcome……..