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.
