Across the Border Into Switzerland

Champagnole to Lyss

Rolling Through the Jura Mountains

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We woke today with the promise of little or no rain, a welcome relief after enduring some very wet weather - people were saying it was the heaviest rainfall in northern France for over a century. With all our bikes looking a bit sad and sorry after two days of constant rain, our support crew did a massive job of prepping our bikes before we set off, with Richie, Bruno and Sam setting up an assembly line of washing, tuning shifters and lubing. Brilliant work, guys! In the meantime, Federica was left with the job of packing  all our bags into the trailer and the second support vehicle, with a little help from we punters.

With the wet weather many of us have picked up sniffles. Unfortunately, Ian has the worst case and looked pretty bad at breakfast so a non-starter for today's ride. Hopefully he will be well enough to resume tomorrow.

The profile for today's ride showed that we would have the biggest climbing day on tour so far: somewhere around 1900 metres. Most of that would involve long gradual ascending over the first seventy kilometres or so, but a short nasty-looking climb after lunch loomed large in the minds of most riders.

After the first long climb we were greeted by this charming sight, which Richie paused to record ...

Shortly thereafter we started a gradual descent and I decided to shoot a video. Hopefully you will be able to see the raptor I was trying to capture ...

Although we all started out as one this morning, the climbing broke the peloton up relatively early. With a big climbing day ahead, I tacked onto the front bunch while Di found a more comfortable pace further back. Our first coffee stop came at about the 45 kilometre mark, and I was pleased to see Di come rolling in with the second group, happy with her progress. Sam was riding with us up until this point but he and Richie swapped places for the next section so Richie could stretch his thin and wiry mountain-climbing legs.

Into Switzerland: and the Mountains Begin!

Straight out of the coffee shop a steeper bit of climbing confronted us and broke up our leading group. Richie and Aaron - the young whippersnapper of our cavalcade - began the battle for KOM honours, Richie from Mooloolaba and I battled on behind. Sarah and Harold - our American contingent - dropped a little further back. On this first skirmish Aaron conceded initial honours by pulling over for a photograph while Richie sped away to the top of the climb, as it turned out to take pictures of us passing by. Soon after we found ourselves descending towards the Swiss border and a photo stop. While we were hanging around Sarah and Harold rejoined our group and  José also caught up to us. For some reason my camera didn't like the conditions and the best I could do for a photo is this very grainy effort (which perhaps you could generously view as looking "historic") ...

Doug, Harold, Richie, Aaron, José, Sarah (Richie #2 in background talking to hiker)

More climbing, now a bit more gradual again but at a fairly hot pace, which again broke up the bunch, brought us to expansive views of Lake Neuchâtel. What followed next was a stunning descent of perhaps 15 kilometres towards the lake. Aaron took off like a scalded cat with the two Richies and yours truly in hot pursuit. The four of us reunited at the bottom of the hill and made our way to lunch, with Sarah and Harold arriving shortly afterwards. 

Bruno had chosen an excellent spot at about 88 kilometres for our feeding station ...

A Hard Grind; Through Neuchâtel and on to Lyss

For those of you who like graphics, this extract from Strava will show the lovely descent we had into lunch, and you will also be able to see the steep ascent a few kilometres after lunch ...

Our lunches have been pretty sumptuous and it's hard not to eat too much. This certainly was the case for me today as I struggled up the hill, which just happened to be the steepest of the day. I hope I have finally learned my lesson, with the long steep climbs of the Dolomites ahead of us next week! Here is a graphic showing our overall route for the day and the profile ...

It was a pretty hard day but rewarding day in the saddle, with 147 kilometres of riding. The amount of ascent for the day was notionally 1882 metres, but a couple of unwanted detours (basically not slowing down enough to allow Mr Garmin to catch up when coming to a turn) I actually got just over 2000 metres. We were very pleased to have a dry day, otherwise there would have been more people riding in the van again. Finally, here's a shot of most of our group enjoying some early evening sunshine before we went in for dinner ...

We've now been in four countries since setting out from London 11 days ago. It's been very interesting seeing change in culture from England, through the Ardennes region of northern France and Belgium, into Champagne and Burgundy, then the Jura mountains and German-speaking Switzerland.

Lyss to Lucerne

Rain Greets Us Once Again

The mood was just a little gloomy over breakfast this morning with rain falling, and the likelihood if it doing so all day. Nonetheless, almost everybody suited up for riding at least as far as the coffee stop scheduled at about 40 kilometres. Once out in the open and dressed for battle spirits seemed to lift. Here's a couple of shots of Sharon and Di getting ready to set off ...

They both look pretty chirpy, don't they? 

The likelihood of rain all day and a shorter stage led Sam to decide that we would have two coffee stops and then lunch at the hotel.  Here's an image showing the route for today and the elevation profile (right click for more detail) ...

With rain falling steadily we made a careful start to get out of Lyss. José set a sedate pace and we were cruising along. A couple of complex bits of navigation and then a set of hills broke the group up at about 20 kilometres into the ride. A little while after that we stopped so I could take a photo of Di in front of a classic old Swiss chalet (again, get a larger view for more detail) ...

It was still raining steadily and the temperature was quite cool by the time we arrived at the first coffee stop. We were all intending to have a reasonably short stop. Bruno and Harold were the first back on the road. Di arrived and I shared a coffee with her and we each had a delicious nut-filled pastry before I got back on the bike as I was getting chilly sitting around. 

Climbs were popping up regularly and before too long I came up to Bruno and Harold climbing a steep pinch. Bruno was waiting for Harold but I decided to press on at my own pace. Before I know it Bruno shot past me. 

Eventually I caught back up to him on a long descent and he pulled over to wait for Harold at the bottom.  The three of us were through the town of Willisau before the support vehicle arrived so we all just kept moving.

The rest of the ride was a very pleasant rollercoaster, with nothing too long or steep. The weather even improved for the last 30 or so kilometres. When we got here we were greeted by Aaron, who had had a great solo day. He hadn't bothered to stop for any breaks and arrived nice and early. In fact, with a relatively short 104 kilometre day it wasn't long before others started drifting in. Here's a shot of London Richie, Sharon and José, with Richie showing someone on the other side of the table where he set up the second coffee stop when he eventually got there ...

Nobody who passed through before Richie arrived was at all concerned as the riding was not to taxing and we could all sense the finish line not too far away.

Free-ranging in Lucerne

It was our weekly evening for us to go out and forage for ourselves. Mooloolaba Richie, Aaron, Fede, Don, Patrick, Di and I went into the old part of town to find some dinner. We had a most satisfactory meal in a brewery/restaurant. On the way Di took a few photos. Here is one of a collection of building across the river ...

... and another of the old 14th century covered bridge, with the tower that was once used as a dungeon ...

Near our hotel there was an apothecary that had the most wonderful sign ...

Moments later, in this city of sublime beauty we found ourselves confronted by the ridiculous sight ...

As mentioned previously tomorrow is a big day with the Gotthard Pass to deal with so it was back to the hotel early to sort our gear and get an early night.

That's about it for this post. Sorry there aren't more photos, but things haven't been particularly conducive over the past couple of days for stopping. A long day yesterday, with lots of climbing and the possibility of rain falling - which didn't eventuate - meant that I just wanted to keep moving. And with rain today for the first 3/4 of the journey, the relatively short stage and a very big day looming tomorrow  I thought I'd just like to get to the hotel early and get the blog done. However, I can leave you with an arresting image ...

That's my right hip (tastefully cropped ) showing the damage I did the morning we left Meursault a few days ago. I was just inching along, turning around as we were getting ready to set off, and not paying sufficient attention to what I was doing. Something distracted me further and over I went without enough time to get my cleat unclipped. That was the third fall on this trip after not coming off the bike for many years. I hope that will be the last of my tumbles on this epic journey!

Tomorrow we leave Switzerland for Italy, via the fabled Gotthard Pass with about 3000 metres of climbing in front of us. To say that we are all filled with a certain amount of trepidation would be an understatement. Can anyone who is reading this please send positive vibes to Hughie for us? We will be going up to an elevation of  2, 106 metres and it would be nice if the weather is favourable.