Wow - I’ve really enjoyed seeing your ride reports over the last week or so - looks like you’ve had an amazing cycling vacation!! 
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Thanks, very nice you enjoyed it! 
The vacation was (and with the one big ride in Switzerland to go - still is) utterly amazing for any mountain goat.
Very challenging but very beautiful, too.
Ventoux and Madeleine have to be among the most beautiful places I have ever been.
The Loze/ Val Thorens day was the most I’ve ever suffered.
Can only recommend to at least do this once in a life time!
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Last nights groupride turned into a proper dropride.
I did .96 IF for the first 65 minutes having to go above FTP just to hold the wheel and then even harder to close gaps a few times. Those over-overs are “fun”.
Got dropped when the rider in front of me opened a gap I couldn’t close. The rider behind me could, but she did it with so much snap there was no way of following.
The two of us left got a pretty good rythm going for the next 25 minutes before stopping and regrouping with some chasers for the last 25 kms back.
A bunch all time power PRs and really happy with ability to go hard, recover in the wheels and go hard again.
Also, it’s fun to go fast, to bad I couldn’t hang on a bit longer…
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Last trip of my travels through France and Switzerland, and it might have been the best ride of them all.
I was in Andermatt, Switzerland, where I was like 8 weeks ago. Back then, most of the Passi were still closed because of the snow, so I wanted to give it a shot again.
This time, the weather was absolutely fantastic. And many cyclists (but also cars and motorbikes) were out on the road.
I went down from Andermatt (1,400m elevation) to Wassen (900m) and from there up the Sustenpass. It is a 18km long, 1,310m elevation gain climb, that has fantastic scenery at the top half. The pass itself, at 2,224m is kind of boring and the only shop sells water for 6 Euros for 0.5L. Not great!
The straight road you can see in the far there, is the road to follow. It is a pretty long climb.
After the long descent to Innertkirchen (25k and 1600m), the next climb awaits. It is more beautiful even, and even longer.
The climb to Grimselpass is 25k long, and climbs over 1500m to over 2,100m
After the first 10k, that are rather eventless, you come by several dams, that always make you think the pass is right behind there… it isn’t.
The last 3k are beautiful Serpentines that snake up to the Col.
Finally!
The descent to Gletsch is extremely beautiful, and really made me want to climb up there next time. It is much much shorter than the other side of the climb, but it has a wide, windy road, with beautiful views. From Gletsch, the next climb begins up to the Furkapass. James Bond Fans might know the pass from the movie Goldfinger. That’s why a tiny road there is also marked as „James Bond Street“.
The climb starts off with a few bends and then kicks up into double digits.
There are little bridges over a waterfall and great views from the Hotel Belvedere:
(Zoom in here, you can see the bridges and the Hotel)
The last bid of the climb is rather flat, and you ease to the Col.
At 2,430m this also marks the highest point of my 12 day travels.
The Furka is the 4th highest pass in Switzerland (behind Grand Bernard, Umbrail and Nufenenpass) and it is a thing of beauty!
The last thing now was to descend back to Andermatt, and my loop was completed!
A hell of a ride, and amazingly beautiful. Likely the most beautiful ride I have ever done…
In total I was traveling for 12 days, ticked off 725km, 19,000m of climbing, in 30 hours of riding, including 8 HC climbs (Col de la Croix, Col de la Loze, Val Thorens, Col de la Madeleine, Mont Ventoux, Col de Turini + l‘Authion, Sustenpass, Grimselpass) + a few cat 1 and 2 (Col de Pillon, Col de Ferrier, Col de Vence, Col de l‘Ecré, Furkapass) and most importantly : loads of freaking FUN
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daughter number 1 is on temporary assignment in SD and working a 10/3 schedule, today was her first day off in over a week:
giddy up! 
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Prince William County, VA, USA
67 miles in Virginia farm country about 50-75 miles southwest of Washington, DC. It’s mostly nondescript farm roads but still pretty and a joy to be outside. All of the drivers were courteous, waiting until there was clear road to pass and yielding plenty of room when doing so. Beat the mid-morning rain, too!
There were four deer in this field when I passed the first time, but only two when I looped by the second time and decided to take a picture.
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Out to Fincham in Norfolk (England) for my TT today (25.14 miles down to Mundford and back). It had been forecasted heavy showers with 30mph winds. Fortunately there was one torrential downpour which finished about 30mins before I started and the winds were about half of what was forecasted. That’s where my luck ran out though. I had kept it where I wanted power wise (maybe a tad too conservative but hey ho) but when I got to around 45mins in I started closing in on a huge articulated lorry. A good draft, no! I eased up because I was catching him to quick then I realised, he was stuck behind two horse drawn gypsy wagons. After what seemed like ages at 6mph (in truth it was probably less than a minute), the road straightened up but he still couldn’t overtake, so I did. I was only on the road for circa 15 more minutes during which he never reappeared so he must’ve been stuck behind them for ages 
Despite the hold up and a couple of other smaller holds up though I really enjoyed the course and afterwards touch of normality with cakes, times and banter 
Despite
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I did the Bauke Mollema Tour this weekend (Netherlands). Beautiful day, too much wind for my liking though and got soaked during the last 10 minutes
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True Bauke fashion, SRAM and all haha nicely done
I was at a party last night and drank too much, was feeling so blah this morning but made myself get outside, plan was to just take it easy. Sniped a KOM by the house which was a good mental boost, then cruised a bit and added more intensity as I went, taking 6 more KOMs in the process. Pretty good day then
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Met a mate for a quick coffee and a zone 2 ride before accompanying another mate for a short bit on the start of his bivvying expedition. Ideal recovery from yesterday’s TT I thought.
Not really! It turned out to be a rapid 20miles of Zone 3 to start. Then the short ride turned out to be a bit longer, with a few soakings on route 
During the last soaking I put my head down and pressed on. Lol, the others had dived for shelter. A bottle and a banana wasn’t enough. Actually it was, with a coffee shop start (banana bread) and a coffee stop on the ride (granola bar), I got back with 2/5 of a bottle and 1/4 of the banana
Got back to the good news that we had won the team prize for yesterday.
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Sauna bath ride for 135 minutes 
39C / 102F at ride start. Average temp of 36C / 97F.
The cornfields cool things off a bit:
which is good because there isn’t a lot of shade at the edge of the SF Bay Delta.
In the background is the only US Interstate highway connecting Mexico and Canada, so it only seemed fitting to get a photo of Trek/Bontrager wheels on a Specialized bike This section of the Interstate is along the southern section of the Siskiyou Trail which was originally established by Native Americans.
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I am sick now, but soon I’ll explore new locations!
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So, were you wanting to be wished away to the cornfield without being “a very bad man”?
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It’s been great reading your posts, @Aeroiseverything. For those not in the area, in typical years there’s the AlpenBrevet for a “catered” ride over Sustenpass, Grimselpass, Gotthardpass, and Furkapass, or Nufenpass (depending on the year and which route you ride). Swiss Cycling Alpenbrevet - the biggest bike marathon in Switzerland The event started in Andermatt the last few years but the first year I did it, the start was in Meiringen (allegedly the place here meringue was created and where Sherlock Holmes died (Reichenbach Fall). There are four distances to select from, with the longest (Platinum, 5 passes) requiring reaching a certain point by a certain time to continue. If you don’t make it, then you’re on the Gold (4 passes). Before that option, there’s an option to drop from the Gold down to the shorter Silver route (3 passes). But there’s also the Bronze for a less demanding option. Maybe some of you will come out for it next year. Know that the places hotels etc fill up quickly once the date for following year event is announced, as does the event.
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Alpen Brevet is definitely on the list.
Andermatt definitely being a place to come back to. Crazy how you have 10 (literally) beautiful Cat 1 or HC climbs within a radius of 50k around there, and most of them can be planned into a loop, that isn’t crazy long.
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Lol, I forgot to turn on my GPS today and was too busy following the Lazy Mountain +1 workout but my ride was something like this today. Through Peterborough Rowing lake (well the path beside it), out to Elton Furze/ Bullock Rd and down to the Washingley cross roads and back.
At least it answered one question of mine about AT, it will recognise future rides by the looks of it that have no distance (just power, cadence and HR). The system has recognised some of my historic workouts like that but not others despite them all being associated to outdoor TR workouts
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The penultimate club TT was tonight’s ride. It was really blowing and I wanted to save something for the weekend so it wasn’t flat out.
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