Training Log Archive: Yak

Lovely easyish ride with M+ D.
Biel ...Ins ...Sugiez then a lap of Lac Morat passing thru small villages and vineyards on the hillsides. Out to Avenches and had lunch of lovely dark b read to.ato etc next to a big well prezerved Roman Colosseum which is used for plays etc.
Then onto Murten and a speccie walk around the rampants of an old walled town Tracked down some of the 14 velo golf holes. Back thru Kerzers and small tracks amidst the vegetable capital of Switz. Huge variety.
Saw heaps of groups cycling today ..2 school gps with most on tandems plus 2 groups of oldies. Plus met a Perth cycle tourist who all but propositioned me in front of the others. Also saw an all girls duathlon comp based on bikepath. Here the sexes are seperated for pe in secondary school.
Lovely evening meal with my host family again.
Time approximate.

C • Congratulations! 1

C • 900,000km 1

Got a rude intro to Swiss mts fom michelle and david.
Biel ...up past the zoo on a big climb of 10...15% then slight down and up to Plagne at 944m Saw some signs for an outdoor photography exhibition and found it deep in the nearby forest. Amazing collection of about 30 huge canvas Tibetian photos hanging in the trees over a 2 km circular walk.

Then down steeply having trouble hanging onto the brakes and across to picturesque town of Buren on the Aare river and with a covered bridge. Had some difficulty with davids mr garmin leading us astray on way back thru Schnottwil, Busswil and Studen.

C • Wow! 1

Morning walk to see the bielathlon 500 metres away at the lake.
Had events all day ...huge no involved. Kids duathlon. Individual, couples + teams athlon which consisted of a skate, swim, mt bike (30 km hilly) + run. Then a normal tri and a normal mt bike race. Wish id had my mt bike!
Rego was a gym building that had 4 bb courts all seprrated by change rooms etc. Really ex setup. On one court were teenagers made up to the nines doing rhymic gym throwing batons in the air and NOT catching them.

In the evening I had a stroll around the old town and on an impulse decided to eat there. Selected chickrn on menu but couldnt read the price but ordered anyway ....bad move as very pricey when I got the bill.

David was crook so I set off to do a lap of the lake that Biel is on.
Took me about 3 hrs to cover the first 15km! Many photographs as I rode on minor rds thru vineyards above the lake and dropped into 4 small old villages. Talked to a guy and he invited me in for cup of cold tea to which he added apple juice ..nice. His house had been in the family 500 yrs. In that village of 800 people there are 45 wine producing families.

Further on there was a celebration of 209 yrs of winemaking in a very old rathaus and I was invited in there also...

it had rained overnight and early morning but despite the by the hour predictions of rainstorms in the afternoon it held off until 9pm.
I rode on many cobbled streets but got upstaged by a penny farthing in one village. Did some of the official road bike routes but they often went on long dirt sections so dared to race home the last half on the road.

Moving location time.
Jumped on a train at Pffafikon at 8.19 and ended at Bern at 10.21.
Left 2 bags in left luggage locker and walked 2.5 kms out to Schaller bike shop to pick up my trek roadie rental. 51 cm fitted well but it had harder gears than I had requested ..28 on back. Annoying.

Then rode out to Koniz (about 7km) and met up with adelaide roadie friends michelle soar and david couche who are superfit after riding for weeks in europe. The Tour de Swiss was having its second last day here with 4 laps. After seeing them pass by we did a lap of the course stopping at a King of Mt banner in a tiny village. Got a BMC bottle from their car and army biscuits from the army! Other goodies incl Caffeine liquid for strengthening hair or preventing hair loss...
Got some gd shots incl Mark Cavendish struggling uphill.
There were roads full of swiss with cow bells and having big parties and they cheered us up every hill.
Rode back to train station and caught train to biel. Had to buy an extra ticket for bike... 30 min trip = 34 francs about $50.

Booked into an AirBnB room for 2 nights in middle if town.
Beautifully furnished 1st floor apartment run by a 30 yrs or so gd looking guy who parasails, bike rides and rides a vespa.

Walk to bike shop

Feeling tired and rain threatened so decided to stay off bike.
Caught train to near the next lake then a bus for 3 km and finally I was the sole person on a big boat that dropped me at Bellitis. Walked to longest waterfall in europe and then onto the next boat stop about 90 mins away. Boat ride to other end of lake and then a train home.
V did an 11 km run and won a big loaf of saturday bread for 3rd place.
Late to bed repacking stuff into 2 small backpacks and leaving excess here.

Morning ride with Vanessa. Rode towards Zurich gently undulating upwards thru Wilen, Wollerau towards Schonenberg past a biggish swimmable lake to Hutten. Back to Schondellegt and then quite a fast long rd descent thru Feusisberg. Past many houses with nice vegie gardens w
hich V inspected eagerly. Small tracks going everywhere and mostly open farmland on way out. Quite a horsy area too.
Nice to explore with someone else and we kept moving solidly with just the odd photo stop.
Gd riding temp and it started raining on our return.

C • Travels 4

Silly me ...took off without looking at radar or the sky. Thouhht the initial few drops were fine but for 90% of ride it bucketed down. Was doing a circumnavigation of the smaller half of the Zurichsee with a nautical map that had a vital land section covered by a compass. Was fairly exposed to the rain as one is supposed to look at the lake views.
Had a funny experience whrre I followed a track over a bridge only to be confronted with another canal. Had to ride illegally up the canal path. Later on I saw a police station and thou ght I should ask "who has stolen summer." The forecast for the next week is rain..

Walk around town. Amusingly there is a former old farmhouse right in middle of town.

It was a lovely sunny day so rather than a flat saunter I decided i needed to ride up another hill/ mt. Lacking energy after yesterday so delayed starting until after lunch.
Out 10 kms to Galgenen and then the climb began... was a solid 90 mins climb of 900 plus metres. After the first 10 mins I thought both - i wont make this in decent time and perhaps I will give up.
But I got into small gear rhythm and my bike gears behaved well, and i had a lot of company of other riders for the first half before the mostly roadies took another road. Continued up, stopping for awhile to watch some paragliders take off. You know that you are ascending high when you go beyond their launch places!
Got to Ruchweid (eatery only open at weekends) and then diverted to the look out point called Pfiffegg. Great though still a bit cloudy, and the barn there had an honesty system with some soft drinks and beer! Continued on up to Rinderweidhorn (1317m) where i met some ladies who had come up from the other side, aided by electric bikes.

Then a short descent to Sattelegg, which had a nice restaurant ..being in a saddle on a roadie and car rd. went illegally up the wanderweg to the saddle of Chi Aubrig (1642m).
Then took the roadie way down almost to the bottom to Sonne, going on some terrific S bends on the road, then went up to look at the dam.
Did a quiet contouring ride across the hills before descending into Galgenen again. There had been heaps of roadies ascending even though it was now 6pm (9pm darkness), with one every 200 metres or so, and on the contouring track too.

I was taking a photo of a sculpture and the owner came out and asked me into his house. Showed me the masks he makes for some of the regional dress up carnivals and other great wooden work. Look up www.deuter-art.ch .

Morning walk to loosen up stiff legs. To the nearby "farm" which sells farm produce, but it is only open from 4pm. It has a gd looking barn and dairy cows, which is strange to see right in suburbia. Claves have their own individual kennel type structures. One's herd size is limited by the capacity of one's barn as cattle must be sheltered from the snow for a goodly period.
The seeting up of a fun fair was happening for friday and the weekend with all types of rides. Beach here also, including 6 fluffy baby ducks.