Haute Route 19-25th August 2012

I'm in!

http://www.hauteroute.org/raceinfo/downloads

Big-mountain riding's for macho assholes with a death wish.
No, it's not. lt's the ultimate rush.
There's nothing that comes close to it.
Not even sex.
Maybe that's cos you're not doing it right, Roach.
Just cycling out in a big mountain pass is total commitment.
You can't just call time-out if you don't like the way things are going.
So, what's biggest? Alpe d'huez?
- Ridden?
- Yeah.
Galibier.
Stelvio.
Norikura, Japan.
Cime de la Bonette.
No way la Bonette is bigger than Norikura, bro.
It will be next year.
Bodhi believes the Haute-Route is coming next year.
Haute-Route. What's that?
That's kind of a legend.
No, it's real. lt's absolutely real.
Everything moves in cycles,...
...so twice a century the mountains let us know just how small we really are.
The route comes out of the plains of Geneva, tearing south towards the Med...
...it goes on and on for miles.
And when it hits the Alps it'll turn into the biggest cycle sportive this planet has ever seen.
And I will be there.
So will I.
(all whoop and yell)
If you want the ultimate, you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.
It's not tragic to die doing what you love.
It's how I want to go.
I ain't gonna live to see 40!


---In case this is too cryptic, you need to have seen Point Break to recogise the modified dialog

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv6kQrhhTPw after 10mins)

Internationales Radquer Frankendorf

Todays mtb mission was far more technical, and I paid for it in the end. An international cyclocross event was being held in Frenkendorf,  a small town nestled in the hills south of Prateln. The route to get there meant a deviation from the long climb to Gempen and heading east along some new and tasty singletrack, past an old ruined tower then descending through leaves to the town itself. It was easy enough to find the site of the event, however I was there well over an hour before the main event and so had to stand around, watch the juniors event then climb back partway up the hill to keep warm.
In practise, and in the junior event most riders were hopping over the barrier you see in the video below. But in the race, they were going too fast to hop, land and hop again so all were dismounting. This caused a small pileup on the first lap as there was a faller, but the second time round they were a little more spread out.
Impressive skills, but most impressive was their use of Easton and Lightweight wheels, I thought cyclocross riders used sturdier wheels, but this shows the strength of the deep rim wheels I suppose. I wouldn't want to ride this course on my cosmic carbones though.

It was a lovely ride home, climbing back up to the ruined tower then around to the usual tracks on a new route. But back on the familiar paths, I took a heavy tumble passing a horse and rider. I had slowed down, the rider  knew where I was and I cycled through the mass of leaves to the left of the firetrack. But the leaves were hiding a banked ditch, and the wet leaves which looked oh so nice last week were my downfall today as they slipped and took my front wheel right beneath me. There was a fair amount of blood from my knee down to socks, elbows grazed and heavily bruised wrist but I got home safely. The cute rider looked very concerned, as I was trapped in the wrecktangled bike for a while, and my knee didn't look good, I should have played for more sympathy before heading off down the hill.

Maybe I should stick to national bike route #3...

National MTB Route 3

Today I had no new ideas for new routes and so opted to try the National mountain bike route number 3, or the Jura bike route, which starts in Basel and eventually finishes in Nyon, on the banks of Lac Leman/Lake Geneva, not so far from Geneva itself. Its 357km in total so today I could only manage the first 60km as far as Delemont.
As expected, most of the route was firetrack and significant tarmac sections so technical skills were not needed today. In fact, a cyclocross bike would have been preferable today to cover the distance at a faster pace.
The start is definitely a great route out of Basel that I've not seen before. Between the parallel inhabited conurbations stretching south to Dornach in the east and Therwil in the west is a hilly area which gives great views towards Gempen, it really looks like a significant hill from here, I've always seen it close up from the road in the past so this route gave a new perspective on the land south of Basel.
On the road/track out of Laufen, I noticed a very obvious 2m diameter ball on a post, with the word "Sonne" below it and a lot of text which I didn't stop to read. Was this a sunlight recording device? Not so far up the track a smaller sphere with "Merkur", could this be a thermometer? I passed a few more objects which I didn't read, it was obviously some art in the countryside project. Not until I was a LONG way up the hill did I see a larger sphere named Jupiter. Only now did I realise this was a model of the solar system, set along this track in proportion to the distances between the planets! After that I didn't notice the other planets, thought Saturn would have been obvious but no.
There was one section beyond Grindel which was unrideable, but only about 1km, then its a nice plateau before a drop to Montsevelier. From Montsevelier to Delemont, the path could almost be called singletrack in places, here it is beyond the capabilities of a road bike so the final section made it feel like it was worth taking the mtb out today.

der Herbst

Although this is my first mountain bike blog entry, the stumpy has been out on the hills south west of Basel up to Gempen several times now, and I'm getting to know how to join the best singletrack sections together. Some of the best parts are now out of use as a group is about to prepare them for a manicured downhill bike trail, no signs of any tailbuilding so far just very obvious signs saying no mountain biking which even I can understand.

The best of the autumn views were last week, it really was absolutely stunning looking out from above the limestone cliffs close to Gempen turm.  Alas I didn't take my camera with me so today I could mostly take shots of the blanket of fallen leaves.

Also of note, as its my first winter here I don't know if we had a cold spell 3-4 weeks ago, or if now is unseasonably warm. So still out in shorts and fingerless gloves, but I would expect to have some nice snowy photos looking across Basel-Land very soon.