SchlossCross

The inaugural SchlossCross was a great success, well attended in categories for amateurs, masters, elite and the "Jederman" (for everyone who does not hold a license.)
For us, that meant an early 9am start, the ground cold and solid, not yet frozen but still enough to bounce the bike around whenever there was flat field to race over. I cycled out with Ruedy, getting there just in time to join a very long queue at the registration office. This took longer than expected, so by the time we had affixed our numbers, stowed away overcoats and remaining warm clothes, there was no time left for a practice lap. Jeremy and Murray clearly had the better idea here, take the very short train ride early, then warmup on the course. All I had time for was to take a peak down the "mud chute of death" which Frank had warned about, and one look was enough to know I'd be walking/sliding down this section each lap rather than make any attempt to ride it.
Heavy mud, bumps, cambered traverse and generally the steep gradient made the odds of beginners negotiating a successful roll down this chute very small. Around me, everyone was carrying/leaning/dragging their bikes, so tyre choice had nothing to do with this cop out.
Beyond the drop, the course was very straightforward, largely flat across the fields then push/carry the bike up a very steep muddy slope to another section of field before back to the cobbled roads among the brewery buildings. The steep sections of uphill pushing really got my heartbeat up and out of breath.
It was quickly over for us, 25 mins were all we were allowed and I managed 4 * 1.95km laps, I felt like I could have gone another 15mins or so. Instead, we saw the start of the amateurs/masters/U19 event which was a big step up in terms of skill or bravery as the leading riders rode the chute with great skill. Behind them, a mix of one foot walking, bouncing, sliding and then carrying of bikes followed, but all generally faster than our efforts.
Now we were getting cold, and with the elite race not starting until 3pm, I left the race with Jeremy to cycle up the Sunnenberg for the start of a mini tour of the area, discovering many new trails and roads before looping back beside the Rhine to Rheinfelden.
At the top of Sunnenberg is a friendly cafe/restaurant, full of walkers but also moutainbikers. Theres an open log fire for cooking sausages, so I had one of those and a coffee while we warmed up. Nice stop, good views today though the distant alps were not visible.
After a break Jeremy headed east to meet family in Liestal, whilst I discovered new trails to the west. The trails are endless in these parts, I emerged from the forest in Buus and Zuzgen then more forests to Mumpf where I followed the Rhine all the way round to Rheinfelden. I'd taken this Rhine cyclepath before by mistake on my roadbike, its on the map and signed as a bike path but today I was very glad to have a cyclocross bike on this stony route. Not recommended for road tyres. Having said that, I got another pinch flat just when I was very close to Rheinfelden. This was a quick enough change of tyre, but meant that I arrived at the Feldschlossen arena only 2minutes before the elite race started, but thats enough to get one more video with my camera. Was very impressive to see them ride the mud chute, no fear and very few incidents.
So yes, riding bikes in mud and pushing them up and down steep slopes is very silly indeed but also a huge amount of fun. I'm sure this event will strengthen in coming years, it was fun to be part of the very first SchlossCross!

FUQRS #1 - Neuenburg

"Freiburger Umland Querfeldein Renn-Serie" - translates as the Countryside around Freiburg crosscountry race series, but the acronym FUQRS is a catchy title. This weekend saw the first event of the 2014/15 series near Neuenburg, a small town half way between Basel and Freiburg. 
Its only 36km to the north, so I decided to cycle to the start by way of the Rhine island. From just north of Basel to beyond Freiburg is the Rhine canal, shipping passes along the canal and the original river flows in parallel, in between the two is a largely disused thin strip of land. Theres a golf course north of Neuenburg, and hydroelectric stations along the way. Not much else to see, and unless you're wanting to cycle offroad to Neuenurg, it would be a boring route on another day. 
As it was I arrived in plenty of time to check out the course. The series is free and put together by a bike shop in Lorrach called FollowMe and Wolfis bike shop in Heitersheim. Its free, and considered more a practice event for some of the competitors here, but this makes it a relaxed atmosphere and a fun place to test the cross country skills. Of course, when the whistle goes, everyone is riding as fast as they can, so its a fair race in the end. The start requires everyone to place their bikes on the ground, then walk approximately 50m away, from where the real start line is. Then a mad dash to pick up the bikes ensues, and we cycled 40mins plus one lap. The course looped a fishing pond, and was fairly technical which I liked. Some stairs and fallen trees required dismounts as did two short sharp ascents. When the pros lapped me, I was amazed to see the leader jump over the fallen trees, no dismount required!
In the end, I had no idea how many laps I had done, or how far behind the leader I was, and so far have seen no results but it really doesn't matter, it was a fun first cross country race for me. 
Oh, and no mud of course! The long hot October surely must end now, this was one final day of warmth. So after the fantastic cakes and coffee post race, I couldn't possibly cycle back along the Rhine canal. The Blauen was calling, possibly for one final ascent of 2014.
The route was direct as possible from the CX race, through the Badischer vineyards which are in various stages of autumnal colours. Once up the Blauen, I was treated to the best views I've ever had from the Blackforest or the Vosges. The Swiss Alps to the south were remarkably clear with the sun glistening off the glaciers, it was well worth the struggle up! (It still is a struggle on the Boardman CX, as the gearing is far too high.) Of note, the new Roche tower is now visible in the distance, a huge new addition to the Basel landscape.
This seems the best way to tackle Blauen offroad, the last mountain bike attempt took endlessly undulating forest tracks out and back. So the fast route out, quick ascent then enjoying the route to Lipple (with magical spring waterwater) and mainly descent to Endenburg and the Hohe Strasse back home make a great day out. But maybe I couldn't have done it without those homemade cakes.

Flims / Laax

AlpenBrevet Gold

Its been 3 years since my last AlpenBrevet, 2 years ago it was cancelled due to heavy snow and last year I was riding the Haute Route Pyrenees. So I had to take this opportunity and raise the route from silver to gold, (4 Passes, 172 km, 5294 m ascent)

Grimselpass, just before entering the clouds

The forecast looked promising, but it turned out that the weather changed with each canton. Climbing the Grimsel, with the usual early start of 6:45 is expected to be cold, but this time we ascended into the cloud with ~500m still to climb, ~8 degrees at the top. Crossing into Valais, (well slightly around the corner and down a bit) the clouds cleared dramatically rewarding us with views up the Furka and more importantly the descent below us. Here I had a problem with my rear wheel, large noise turned out to be piece of rim catching on the brake block. It had to be scraped off, but reduced my confidence in the wheels and braking for the Grimsel and Nufenen descents. 

Nufenen pass

Into Ticino, the temperatures rose and with 24 degrees it was time to take off jackets, arm warmers and hats. In Airolo I even thought about the Platinum route, but not for long. But it was lonely as I took the left turn, it seemed most riders around me were making the long descent to Biasca for the ultimate AlpenBrevet challenge.

la Tremola - brief respite
from the cobblestones

Then climbing ever closer to the border with Uri (back to the Tremola!) , the arm warmers were pulled up, then the gilet was put on, then once at the top all remaining garments had to be worn for a chilly ride down to Wassen. Also, here my freewheel started to stick in the familiar way - very loud buzzing sound, the only temporary cure is to continue pedalling!





With roadworks, the race was neutralised between Andermat and Wassen, but in my opinion this should always be neutralised - its a steep, winding section of road with heavy traffic, so not having folk overtaking cars down this stretch was a good thing today. 

Cold, wet, 10m visibility and traffic

So cold in Wassen, and looking up, noone would choose to climb the Sustenpass on a day like this, with the rain approaching and obviously low cloud level. Climbing up was not hampered too far, but once at the top visibility was down to 10m or so. People seemed to be trying to warm up at the pass with soup or shelter, but at some point they would all face the ride through the fog, now about 6 degrees. I followed some motorbikers down, as I could see their lights and very little else. Braking all the way, it seemed a long time to get below 1700m, and a very long time before we could see and pedal again to cycle the remaining km back to Meiringen.

Alpe d'Huez Triathlon 2014

From Villard Reculas, Col d'Ornon straight ahead

The summer in Europe continues to be punctuated with cold fronts, bringing rain and cooler than normal temperatures for several days. We drove to Alpe d'Huez in the rain on Tuesday, torrential in places and really wondering if the swim could go ahead, or at least a reduced version of the 2.2km.
We knew the temperature of Lac Verney would be colder than normal this year, noone knew how cold until just before the start - 13.8 degrees was the official announcement. Normally swimmers would warm up in the water, but today most (including me) who tested the water ended up immediately jumping out the other side and sitting on the rocks waiting for the start.
A helicopter hovered very close to the lake to film the start, which was impressive to watch from my vantage point, then once the waters had cleared of the usual frenzy I faced the task of swimming the chilly waters, 2 laps in clear water. It was cold, I could feel my hands cooling all the time, and to feel the chill on my teeth was an unusual sensation. Still, the aim is to survive the swim and I managed to push on and swam with few problems apart from verging towards cramp in my calves on the final straight.
Many did not make it this far, some refusing to swim in the cold waters and others being helped out.
I stumbled around on the banks into transition, feeling quite dizzy at this stage whilst trying to dry and clothe myself. Here I met Rod, friend from Les Randommeurs, Haute Route 2013 - he's doing his first ever triathlon and he chose this one!
Glad I had full gloves, hat, arm warmers and gilet at this point, all necessary as the first 25km of the ride is downhill. Col du Grand Serre was its usual heavy mist/fog up to the top, then blue skies on the over side of the ridge when the temperatures finally rose to feel more like summer. I was feeling tired on the Col d'Ornon, and talking to another Englishman (so many brits in this race) wondered if I had enough for the 21 hairpins.
Don't think I had, as this felt like the toughest climb up to Huez I had ever faced. Etape du Tour, La Vaujany, Haute Route, in all these I felt stronger. Maybe it was the cold swim taking a chunk out of me, or just less training this year? Best time for me was the time trial in Haute Route of course, 59 mins. That of course would be the limit, so today 10-15 mins more would be acceptable. Ended up 1hr 17 for the climb, so slower than hoped. I was of course saving something for the run - cycling up here knowing you have to run for 2 hours at high altitude meant you really had to leave something in the tank.
The 3 laps of the run turned out to be a neat solution, and mentally easy to plan where you were, how far you had to go. Each lap seemed to pass by quickly. The course is undulating, not steep enough to have you hiking, and mostly road or solid path so nothing like the Xterra offroad runs. Very nice to still have the arm warmers with me as a cool breeze meant that it felt cold running into the wind, but warm with the breeze, so easy to adjust. I went faster each lap, probably gaining in confidence as I discovered the course, but by the end running at the limit after one severe calf twinge.

A few days have passed now, and this event still feels massive, the big tri event of the year for me for sure. Already think this could be done again, its a real challenge in tremendous scenery and I still have to spend a few days mountain biking on the lift network up here one summer.

TEMPS COURSE : 08:05:53.45
CLASSEMENT SCRATCH 288 HOMME 269
CATEGORIE MV1 44
GRIMPEE DE L'ALPE : TPS.01:17:18.43 RG.280 CAT.39

Swim
51:35.58 RG. 818 CAT. 147

T1
09:04.90 RG.677 CAT. 120

Bike
05:03:57.69 RG.218 CAT. 28

T2
02:32.68 RG.281 CAT. 48

Run
01:58:42.60 RG.330 CAT. 58


892 finishers. 60 DNF, 3 DQ. Winner Todd Skipworth, 5hr 51m 33s. Fastest female Catriona Morrison 6hr 19min 37s.

Bastille day - Mulhouse -> Planche des Belles Filles

XTERRA France

Another week, another XTERRA - 1,500 m swim, 34 km bike and 10 km run so only 7km different in the mtb section, should be an easy day right?
Well, this proved to be a completely different setup to la Vallee du Joux one week ago. From the parking in the big meadow leading down to Lac de Longemer to the sound system playing music to the spectators watching the triathlon for kids and mini kids, it was clear this would be a bigger and noisier event.
With the larger number of starters, the swim was a more hectic place to be and there was no escape to the left or right, just a very wide bunch of seemingly slow swimmers around me. Again, the lake was not cold, but with my fear of people grabbing my legs from behind, it still sends me into hectic breathing and so breast stroke was required for a while before I could find any space in the water to swim freely. Even one guy doing back stroke to my left, must have been trying to stay afloat, or lost his goggles.
Nice out and back, so the navigation was quite simple for this one, but the target for the lake exit was very difficult to spot from the water as it was dark and buried in the trees.

So onto the bike, and after possibly 500m of road, we were offroad, the final time to see tarmac till the next lap. The trails were heavy mud/rock tracks, mostly beyond your normal firetrack. For the first lap, the problem was the sheer number of riders blocking the trails, resulting in a large amount of hiking as inevitably someone would slip/fall then others would have to stop. Very little flat, if any, and it felt like a long ride to the feeding station where I was very much in need of water/gels.

The most impressive part of the ride was a large wooden construction at the end of the lap in the spectator arena, don't know if this can be called "north shore" as its wide and straightforward to ride, but it looks big and must have taken a fair amount of work to put together.

The run was real trail work, my shoes are standard asics road shoes yet today they did not slip - I recommend trail shoes for this course though. Its up and up, narrow to the point of not being able to pass runners ahead, then the only flat section beside the lake to the finish is covered in roots and boulders. One of these sent me flying, luckily I landed on soft ground but certainly woke me up to concentrate on every foot step on this tricky terrain.

At the finish we were rewarded with a nice medal, tasty Kronenberg and then it was an attempt to shower, wash bikes and pack up between some immense storms which rapidly passed overhead.     

Swim : 33m 37s 715th
Bike : 3hr 16m 06s (After bike, 405th)
Run : 1hr 5min 2s
Total : 5hr 1min 12s
360th, +1hr 46m 32s behind winner.

So, only 7 km mtb more than Xterra Suisse, yet more than 2 hours extra in total!

XTERRA Switzerland

All quiet in tranistion, only 1.5hr before the start!!

I've always wanted to try an offroad triathlon, and today I got the chance at Xterra Switzerland, in the Vallee du Joux. Just beyond Vallorbe, this area certainly feels far more like France than Switzerland, being only a couple of km from the border. Luckily the heavy rain passed by to the north as I drove past Bern and we had great conditions with a lake at 18 degrees and dry dusty trails for the bike and run.
I still find it annoying that we pay a large entry fee for such events, then end up having to pay another 35CHF for a day racing license, but thats the way it is.
It was nice to race again on the mountain bike, its been too long without racing the single trails and rocky descents. I was very relieved that the course was changed from previous editions, so no river crossings - the photos of this just looks annoying, wading through a river and carrying the bike should not be part of any race. So instead we had fast single track and open fields, with minimal connecting sections of road. Towards the end of the lap was a rocky section that had many walking, but the whole course was rideable up and down.
Two laps of the small lake for the run, included a small hill climb up and back down to the finish area.
In all, it was a very relaxed atmosphere in a great location and great practise for next weeks Xterra France in the Vosges. However, this is Switzerland and mountain biking and trail running should involve big mountains, running beside glaciers, no? Not complaining, its lovely scenery, good racing conditions, just think that an Xterra event in Suisse could be much more impressive in the high mountains.
 

Pos.								Temps total		Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
88								2:54:02		31:29 (148)	1:58 (118)	1:31:20 (86)	1:32 (128)	47:41 (65)

Tour de Suisse Stage 5 - AKA Tour du Valais Part Deux

First refill of the day

Crans Montana

Valais - descent from Crans Montana to Sion via Lens is outstanding

Sion

In Verbier, I was trapped at the 50m to go line as the riders finished!
They arrived faster than predicted, so I could not get back down the
hill to a decent viewpoint.

Tour de Suisse Stage 2

Breakaway of 6, 3 made it to the finish ahead
of main group with Cameron Meyer(OGE) taking the win

Sagan clipping a wheel, but skills keep him upright

Spartacus

Cavendish going too fast for me to photo

Nice to head down warm sunny Valais