Day 5 Swiss Alpes Tour

Rode from Andermatt to Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The first climb was the Oberalpass and then 40km of descending. It was really fast. This first photo is my buddy Mick from Australia.

I didn't take too many photos today as we were really ripping down the road. There were only 5 of us in the A group including the guide Eric. We flew through little town after little town and the locals all would stop and watch us whiz by.

We then climbed up to Obersaxen. Beautiful little climb that puts you on top of a ridge. We followed the ridge rolling through more picturesque towns. THere were a fair number of little donkeys all ove up there. We then ate in Chur (pronounced "Her") and climbed the last climb up to Lenzerheide. That one hurt alot. The hotel is pretty cool. Old features and new all mixed together. Just got to talk with Bre and the girls on Skype. It is great to see them.

I just looked for a massage place here in town. Found this add for a place near by

Naturopathic treatments such as herbal medicine, nutritional counseling, moxibustion, ear acupuncture, massage therapy and detoxifying processes (leeches are charged separately)

holy cow! I know it's extra but I'm sure you should kick in for the leeches.

Day 4 Tour de Swiss

Woke up at 6am and had a big breakfast of swiss oatmeal (what else?) and bread/cheese. On the menu for the day were 3 big passes, the Furka Pass, the Nuffenpass, and the cobbled St Goddardpass. I felt pretty poor on the first two but they were all beautiful.

View in Andermatt from my hotel room

The Furka pass started in a cloud and we climbed out of it into the sun.

The second climb of the day was the Nuffenpass. Super steep, super long. I had had E-Nuffen of this climb by the end.








After the second descent we got lunch in a town that is in the Italian part of Switzerland. It saved me.


Then the St Goddard Pass. 8miles of cobbles and 3000ft of climbing. I stayed with the 2 leaders and sprintedout for the finish. Got second to a cat 1 from San Diego.





Back to Andermatt. I was able to Skype Kate before she went to school. I then went to a nearby bakery and had a tomato and mozzarella sandwich. For dinner ( a couple hours later) we went to a restaurant down the street from our hotel. I had a pizza and asked him to put 2 eggs on it. Then for dessert we had a hot apple strudel with vanilla cream all over it. It was amazing.


This is the guy that is on the Swiss' 10 dollar bill

It is the oddest picture. i wonder if the guy proofed the photo before agreeing that this was the one to put on. "Oh yes, this is just the look I was going for".

Day 3 Tour of the Swiss Alpes

Big day today. 2900meters of vertical (12000ft?) and 145km. 6 hours or so. Including the 27km Sustenpass.

Our hotel last night that we left from this morning. This place was really nice in a dead-end canyon with super steep cliffs on both sides. (this is me on the top of the first climb)


Todd (cat 1 from San Diego) at the top of the Glaubenbielen Pass.
Panorama of the top


The descent of this climb was intense. I'm flying along at some speedy pace and there's this HUGE cow, its shoulders were over my head, lumbering across the road. I gave a "hey cow!" and was able to by enough time to fly down the left side of the road.

At the bottom and on the way to lunch





Climbing the Sustenpass









At the top was a restaurant. I went in to warm up (it was cold up there) and had this (some manner of hot chocolate)


We are now in Andermatt, Switzerland. It is a great ski town. (Small). I took the town sign sprint in a dramatic fashion, jumping off the curb after leaving the tunnel and hauling to victory:). Gonna have dinner here in a bit.

Day 2 Tour of Switzerland Alpes

Didn't need an alarm clock to wake up as my roommate clicked the light on at 6am. Breakfast of...everything at the hotel in Charmey. Headed out and over the Gernigal


Beautiful day of riding. 125km and 2500m of clibing, avg speed 28km/hr.
I found out that the Swiss do not need any more cowbell:




Had lunch in a little town and had a coke. It was just what I needed.

As we pulled into the hotel there were a sea of cars parked and tons of people. It is in the high mountains and there were all these people who came to an OctoberFest type celebration but there were big wrestling matches going on on these huge piles of sawdust. All the wrestlers were big local farmers. There was a ton of brats and strudels.


Lively atmosphere.
Tomorrow's climbing profile:

65km of climbing tomorrow. Gonna be great!

This was dinner and dessert