Gruyere Cycling Tour

Freshly returned from Wales, I was up at 5:00 am to pick up Martin and Barry and head to Gruyere, Switzerland for the 125 km Gruyere Cycling Tour. A challenging but fantastic route through the Alps across three medium cols. Final count showed over 2000 participants and the first hour or so was great fun riding along little mountain roads in a sea of riders. A truly stunning route.

Luckily the three climbs were ordered hardest to easiest, with the last third of the ride being pretty much downhill. the legs were a little weary after Wales but otherwise I felt pretty good. As usual the entire world passed me on the descents and the challenge was to find a good little group to cross the windy lower sections. I almost died of exhaustion spending 3 kilometres catching a little group near the end, but it allowed me to happily wheel-suck the last 25 kms home. Great fun.

Of course the adventures don’t always stop when the ride ends. The clutch on my car died as we entered the highway – after being rescued by TCS – we were unceremoniously dropped at the smallest train station ever built – a little hut with a button to flag down a train – and a long train ride home .