2ni’s Blog

Distance:   44.09km
Elevation:  683m
Duration:   2h46
Avg. Speed: 15.9km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

First cycling trip in South of France is a little more difficult to plan than in Switzerland. The roads are in much worse condition, as well as the maps. Google maps is quite less exact in this region.

As we met Max, a friend of us, I tried to find a trip not too long with not too much elevation. That’s almost impossible here. But I liked the tour a lot, with beautiful scenery, new kind of roads and smell and a lot of uncommon stuff!

Distance:   31.2km
Elevation:  951m
Duration:   3h36
Avg. Speed: 8.7km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

This time I took again a track from Vazifar (Reduce to the max) as original. Unfortunately his gpx looks like a complete mess, wrong starting/end point, wrong direction etc. So I tried to get a valuable trail from his by using my Swiss Topo V2 maps.

The trail is fantastic. Impressive views you would never imagine there, a lot of single trails of different difficulty, a big stone quarry, …
It was very wet and muddy which made the whole trail much more difficult and strenuous. The wet roots and very slippery stones needed our full attention the whole way long. But it was fun!

Unfortunately I took only 2 photos, because of wet conditions and at the beginning we had to fix a flat on Adrian’s bike.

Distance:   118.8km
Elevation:  1354m
Duration:   4h58
Avg. Speed: 23.8km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

To cycle to Chur I decided to avoid the direct way along the Zürichsee but instead to follow parts of the cycling path 32 from Veloland Schweiz. I was baff. It’s a very well chosen track away from large roads only minutes away from the city of Zurich! Awesome!

The part between Pfäffikon and Niederurnen has nothing very interesting but as it’s flat you can enhance your average speed on that part

The path along the Walensee is just great. Great sceneries, funny (very cold) tunnels, switching from side to side of the highway. Unfortunately you have to deal with some unpaved parts, there is no way to bypass it. But it’s worth it!

After Mels I started to get a horrible head wind (Föhn). The average speed enhancement was over! I decided to take the train not until Landquart (originally I wanted to cycle until Chur), to know the true promise of the region between Maienfeld, Jenins and Malans. Fantastic vineyards and very small villages. Great!!!

I really recommend that track. I loved it! Be sure not to go too fast using all your energy at the beginning though!

Distance:   43.4km
Elevation:  918m
Duration:   3h05
Avg. Speed: 13.3km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

I took the original track but did not followed it 1:1.

The trail is ok, there are some great but as well some very difficult (not really cyclable) parts. Perfect to train single trail cycling going up!
Sometimes I didn’t really find the path and a part at the end consists of endless steps. Not difficult to cycle, but tedious.

Distance:   92.41km
Elevation:  1242m
Duration:   4h08
Avg. Speed: 22.3km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

It’s an idea I had since some quite a while and as Röbi did something similar on his last trip, I decided to plan a trip where I see as much castles around Zurich as possible.

I used the castle descriptions where you also have the gps coordinates (just click on the castle, then on the coordinates on the top right of the page. You can copy the coordinates from the url).

I then put all the selected castles as a waypoint on the map. Now I just had to find a decent way to combine them.

You won’t imagine it, but some castles are not really obvious to see, I even missed more than one. Some castles are hidden in the wood, which is not really suitable with a racing bike. And the big problem was, that I did not save the exact position on my Edge 705 but instead worked with waypoints. Waypoints do only match the nearest defined point on the track!

I missed: Ruine Alt-Wülflingen, Ruine Moosburg, Ruine Dübelstein

So be sure to upload the real positions as well!

Two more things: My Garmin Edge had a crash (Garmin please fix at least the history file so it’s usable after a crash). I saved a blindworm from its evident death on the street.

Today I wanted to bike a track which I slightly adapted.

Unfortunately the track was mostly on paved roads and some forest tracks. Almost no single trails.

And then the military was shooting around and had therefore closed the whole Reppischtal. I decided to go back up to the Üetliberg to try out the downhill “Biketrail Triemli”. I somehow managed to miss a part of it…

But all in all a good training:

Distance:   53.35km
Elevation:  1439m
Duration:   3h33
Avg. Speed: 15.0km/h
Details:    trainingstagebuch

Some pictures:

Distance:   87.9km
Elevation:  1389m
Duration:   3h51
Avg. Speed: 22.8km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Very nice parts, especially the part after the Etzelpass until Sihlbrugg. There are actually 3 passes: Etzelpass, Ratenpass and one I don’t remember the name between Ägeri and Menzingen.

The Etzelpass is hard. It’s so steep you’ll not be able to cycle in your training pulse, but way above. And that will kill you for the further efforts needed on the trip.

I was surprised how well the Sihltal is working for cycling. When I pass there by car I always think “poor cyclist”. As I passed there by bike there was not a lot of traffic I must say, and I had strong wind from the back. But it was fun, for speed racing

The whole training was very hard. I still have to optimize my energy balance, but don’t know how…

No pics this time.

Distance:   41.62km
Elevation:  1557m
Duration:   3h57
Avg. Speed: 11.4km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

I took the original track and redrawed it from scratch with mapsource/topo schweiz v2. I also did some little changes on the track.

I did park my car on the parking lot of the little airport. The parking on the railway station might also work

The trail is just fantastic. It consists of everything a biker wants. Unfortunately there are not many single trails, but probably I’m just spoiled from the Volle Dosis Trails.

But: Fantastic views, challenging single trails… Just great!

Distance:   30.85km
Elevation:  933m
Duration:   2h38
Avg. Speed: 12.1km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Inspired by promising comments of the original track Adrian and me went up to the Rigi.

We choose the parking of the Golfclub of Küssnacht am Rigi as starting point. You can also use the parking on the lake of Küssnacht.

Uphill is primary on paved roads without traffic. The top track is mainly on forest tracks and the downhill is on a hiking trail (single trail). You’ll have a great view all along the whole trip! Fantastic view! The single trail downwards is great but not very technical. But you might still pay attention as at some points it just goes down beside the trail!

Distance:   40.8km
Elevation:  1366m
Duration:   3h231
Avg. Speed: 11.7km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Inspired by promising comments of the original track I decided to give it a try.

Awesome landscape!!! If you want to be in a hilly countryside and get the feeling you’re the only human being on earth, take that trip! Most of the trip consists of forest tracks and some paved roads. I was expecting much more single trails I think the difficulty given on the original description is not that meaningful. Most of the trip is very easy with some view tricky passages (serpentines going up and down, steep track going up with a lot of roots).

I’m wondering where the differences come in the altitude measuring:

gpsies.com: 1569m
garmin tc : 1366m
gps-tracks: 1199m
edge 705  : ~1200m