I made it! The first of the two big passes. This one was 2341m. It was a good idea to wait one more day in Yeghegnadzor - I was cycling nearly all day in the sun, which made things much easier. I had heard terrible stories about the situation on the pass two days ago - cyclestrongman Chris got snowed and rained in up there and 3 US guys (working in Saudi-Arabia, I had met them in the hostel in Yerevan and today again on the road) could not return to Yerevan in their bus because of a snowstorm. Today even though there was snow everywhere around the road was nearly completely free. This still did not make it particularly easy but doable. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather in 3 days - then I will take on the highest pass at more than 2500m - if I manage to cross this one I will sail in saver waters again. To make things clear: it might sound kind of crazy to cycle at such altitudes with the risk if very bad weather. This is however the main (and only) road linking Armenia with Iran - there is at least one car per minute. So: even if weather or problems with the bicycle would not allow me to cycle on I could hitch a ride to a safe place.
Talking about issues with the bicycle: the front carrier again makes problems - now another screw broke and again the rest of it is stuck in the hole that I need to fasten the carrier to the fork. I will try to unscrew it with my leatherman in the morning. On the positive side yesterdays safety measures worked out perfectly - I could cycle on despite the broken screw. While checking that problem in the evening I also saw that one screw of the back carrier went missing - I am not sure if that happened today or I just did not realize it for a long time.
Despite this problems it was a beautiful ride - both landscape-wise and motivation-wise: I knew that the pass would be difficult but at some moment I realized that in todays weather and at my current physical condition I would certainly make it, yeah !
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