Glaubenberg - Glaubenbielen

Mini heatwave in central Europe now, after the snow, the flooding, what next? Well, major thunderstorms on the way Wednesday and Thursday, so while its sunny and warm its time to take to the mountains. The high mountain passes are still closed by snow, but I've had these two mid mountain passes in mind for a long time now, so it was time to take an early train a very short distance to Sursee for the start of a really awesome ride.
I skirted the banks of Sursee by a few meters, but those few meters were enough for dense trees and hedging to only allow glimpses of the glorious early morning view across the lake to Pilatus. But this was merely the start, beyond this the scenery was astounding all the way to Thun.
The Glaubenberg is perhaps the easiest 1543m ascent I've made. A series of glacial steps, allowing rest and recovery made the north-south climb a joy. The pass is unremarkable, but once around the corner the views down to Sarnersee and the mountains beyond were breathtaking. The descent was clearly steeper and without breaks than the side I'd climbed, so for sure I will need to do this trip in reverse this summer. Down in Sarnen, yet another picturesque Swiss town, I stopped to refill water bottles at the town square which was being used for the day by some kind of eco-food market. One guy offered me many slices of banana and mango, which I took and tasted so sweet, but unfortunately not the kind of goods I want to carry with me today.
After enjoying the flats around Sarnersee, it was time for the major climb of the day, Glaubenbielen, or Glaubenbühl. At the foot of the climb, the red sign warned of the steep ascent over then next 12km - 1120m! Certainly the biggest climb of the year so far for me.
Great climb, great views and helped a local rider down the gentle northern slopes to Shüpfheim where I turned left and covered the never ending fantasy roads to Thun.

Certainly back for more on this route, highly recommend!

Les Trois Ballons

This was a completely new course to last year, new start and finish so no painful finish up to la Planche des Belles Filles, but 14km further and with 4300m ascent this was just as tough if not tougher than previous editions.
There seems to be a strong correlation between gradient of slopes and the distance west from the route des cretes. Although the Grand Ballon was painfully long on this day, it was the final section after Servance around "little Finland" which held the steepest and most painful climbs of the day. One was 18%, and there were certainly other long sections of what must be 14% or more, just enough to have me wondering if I should get off and rest. Somehow I crawled up them all, in the end swerving from side to side and longing for what was supposed to be a run in the finish.
Lost a few kilograms on this ride, seriously lacking any hot weather training so far this year.

8 h 15m 26s, 498 out of 2583.

Getting closer to the start

Rare sighting of a rider not from Belgium or Holland

Cyclotour du Léman

The cold weather certainly persists this year, amending and cancelling stages of the Giro so no surprise to see fresh snow on the hills from the train from just beyond Friborg and on the hills surrounding Lake Geneva, or Lac Leman as its known in French.
Staying at Lausanne Youth Hostel was a great choice, for cost and location as its only a couple of

If only I knew how many times this event has been staged

minutes by bike to the start/finish area. Today, a couple of minutes from the finish was the most important issue as I was beginning to shiver once outside the massage and food tents after a cold loop of the lake. We got a soaking twice, just after Montreux, then dried off by Geneva and almost feeling warm by the time we zipped through Nyon and even Morges, so close to the finish yet we got one more soaking. And it was heavy, cold rain.
After passing Villeneuve and back to the lakeside there was a real pileup of riders, maybe 12 or so at a level crossing which ran diagonally across the road. Riders slowed down, but as they may have had to turn to avoid the crash, more slipped on the tracks. This might have taken out several of the faster riders, as it was just ahead of me and I had to avoid the fallen in an almost Peter Sagan style. After the crash, real splits appeared at the front, and here I had to put in a real effort for 10-15mins to catch up, eventually managed to gain the help of 2 others to make contact. Here my calves really began to cramp up. I'd gone without leggings as a choice, due to the latest weather forecast saying it would be dry, with bright spells, so even with the cold the race should keep my legs warm. Alas, today I would be fighting cramp at any stage the pace was increased, yet luckily for me the pace dropped for much of the southern leg of the loop, allowing me to stick with the lead group all day.
Not so many were driving this train along, certainly no teams of riders trying to keep the pace high, so without this very few were willing to put a turn in at the front. That includes me, I was nursing my cramping calves all the way, but did find myself at the front after perhaps the only long climb of the circuit.
So more of a tour than a race today. At times I found myself sandwiched between tandems, following recumbants but mostly enjoying watching the kms fly by, often cruising along at 40kph.
I reckon the length of the course is 174km, others on Strava agree as does my Cateye computer so the 180km is a slight overestimate.
A nice idea, and sounds romantic when registering, but the reality of racing in cold rain chasing between cars etc meant this was more pain than enjoyment, but on a normally fine sunny day at the end of May, this must be a more enjoyable event.

Training in Ticino

With Thursday and Friday being holidays it made sense to take the full week off and pretend to have a training week based in Locarno, on the shore of Lake Maggiore in southern Switzerland.
The training each day turned out to be a hard ride up some ridiculous hairpinned ascent before breakfast, then go for a relaxed longer ride up the more gentle valleys with Satoko for the rest of the day. It was clear early on that the roads here are either up up and away from the lake, relentlessly steep which made for good ascents, but terrible descents. On top of that, the roads around the lake are narrow in places and mostly busy, fast roads with mostly Italian commuters speeding along so not relaxing or enjoyable riding to start with.
The dead end valleys leading north from Locarno are worth riding, Valle Verzasca with its distinctive bridge, colourful water and the dam made famous by James Bond bungee jump in Goldeneye. Valle Maggia is a much easier and longer journey with several options. We took it as far as Peccia where there is a fantastic polenta restaurant by an idyllic lagoon, the owner grinds the polenta every day which is served with local sausage and cheeses, not to be missed.
The cycling highlight for me would have to be the loop to Cannobrio, over the passo de Marco Pantani then follow Centovalli back to Locarno. Marco Pantani has ridden the pass in the 2003 Giro which started from Cannobio, but otherwise the pass seems to be named so by a local bike club, who have placed a stone at the top of the pass.

Corippa, a typical village in Valle Verzasca

Polenta will be ready soon

Pass de Marco Pantani

After riding to Luino via Lugano, its nice to take the boat home

Winter -> Summer

Finally, the temperatures have picked up together with clear blue skies - still needing overshoes and very glad I stuck with leggings and several body layers on Saturday, but today its shorts and short sleeved jersey, no need even for a wind breaker.
Saturday was the usual yardstick - 5 hrs 4min, but still to beat 5hrs will be very tough as I expect as usual I will get fitter and leaner, but not any faster this season. 

Above Wiedener Eck

Sunday was a Black Forest classic, I had the naive idea that I could ride out to the very top of Belchen and sample some Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte at the restaurant. As I climbed higher, the doubts that this would not be possible were confirmed at the gondola car park. For one, the gondola was closed, so that meant no visitors to be carried up to the top. But the road beyond the car park, which is closed to traffic, was utterly covered in snow and would still be very much skiable top to bottom. I guess the ski season has a closing date here, but theres still plenty of snow up here, Ive seen far far less snow on an open Glenshee with heather and rocks to contend with.
So, it was time to push on head for the most generous serving of Blackforest gateau at the top of the climb from Präg, above Todtmoos.

 

Paris Velib Marathon

It was Paris Marathon time again, not for me this time but Satoko was running despite recently being diagnosed as having zero ferritin - a protein important for absorbing iron and buffering excess iron, not ideal for endurance athletes.
A fine day for the run, but what should I do? Watch the start, get the metro to the Seine, then metro again to the finish? No, instead this time I thought I would retrack my steps (8 years ago now since I ran this race), or at least cycle around on one of the helpful Paris cycle hire machines.
You need a credit card to use them, which might be one reason so many of the bikes have been vandalised or stolen by those not able to attain a credit card. This is one bike scheme which has had far more vandalism and theft than expected, 3000 stolen in the first year, 80% of the bikes have had to be replaced since the launch in 2007.
I found the bikes to be far slicker than expected from their heavy appearance, and for €1.70 you could ride a bike all day long - as long as you return it and check out again within half an hour that is. The price escalates every half hour, which really means you want to go from A to B on these bikes.

Malheuresement, GPS signal lost at half way point

The main issue you would have with the bikes is due to the fact you can ride A to B, sometimes B is much more popular than C, and so the bike spots are all full up - meaning you cannot drop off the bike. I didn't need to check a map for the nearest station, there seemed to be many wherever I cycled.
In general, following a mrathon in full progress is a very difficult challenge. First, you want to go as close to the race as possible, but this means taking side streets which may or may not be dead ends, may or may not head in the right direction and this results in a forward progress equivalent to the average runner. Once out in the parks, some of the side tracks turned to sand to further slow me down. And on my final leg, the tree routes and general state of my cross bike style riding punctured the front tyre resulting in a final 2km limp to the final station. Its customary to leave a damaged bike in the bike station with the seat reversed so the maintenance guys can spot them quickly.
Next time I'll run the course.
 

Brief Interlude

A week long thaw and a warm weekend meant the tarmac was visible beneath the snow over the hills. Falk and I set off over the Aebi, Passwang, and Schelten pass. Surprisingly Aebi pass still had significant amounts of snow on the road, it has clearly been closed and abondoned all winter with no attempts to clear the snow. We had to cycle carefully down narrow tracks of tarmac where 4x4 or whatever vehicles had cleared cleared a path.
Passwang and Schelten are of course more important roads, so were perfectly clear of snow. There was, however much debris with many small sharp stones freshly broken off the embankments ready to pierce a tyre or two, and more than large rocks which could take out a car wheel. Schelten is kept clear of snow, but this winter they have had to keep the road clear of trees, so many have collapsed under the weight of snow! Exiting the gorge into Morvelier felt like leaving winter and entering spring today, but it is only today, cold weather is back again on Tuesday!

Schelten Pass