Fellow cyclist my man, the cows were pushing carts. Not many cows on a Labor Day weekend lazy Sunday morning… my wife is a badge carrying bad ass
and if she ever started training would probably be dropping my ass.
Thanks for the heads-up. „Unfortunately“ I‘ll still enjoy holidays in Italy on September 11 but great to know that there is another car-free option to climb a bucket-list pass. I‘ll probably have a go next year.
No Moab biking this weekend due to the hot temps. So decided to do a Colorado backcountry ride instead. We went a long way from civilization, on a trail that does not get ridden that much. You can tell it doesn’t get a lot of riders, as I’m currently ranked 15th out of 550+Riders on Strava (~40 mins for me) on the most remote climb of the route. And I’m not a fast climber. Very chunky, lots of rocks, on a sometimes vague trail. Very physically challenging. Epic views however. I deserved a beer when I got home.
d

Thought you were going to post Coors Light again!
4th photo - is that one of the gorges on the terrain map?
What a place to live and call home!
My beers today included Czechvar, Koenig Pilsner, Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Storm Peak Hazy IPA. No Coors Light - sorry to disappoint ![]()
I think that pic is of the canyon on the top of the map. But not sure. It was my first time riding that route.
I’m going to Spain next weekend for a MTB vacation in the Pyrenees. As good as that will be, its hard to match Colorado. I’m very spoiled.
Ah that would be nice, but I’m doing the Bodensee Radmarathon (ride around lake Constanz) on Saturday, no chance I will be able to ride the Klausen the next day, my legs and Wife would probably kill me ![]()
Nice work on the Alpen Brevet, thinking about singing up for next year.
I’m sure @davewh had enough water on the trail and wanted something with taste instead. ![]()
Awesome! Enjoy. Looking forward to pics.
I remembered you were doing the long Bodensee Radmarathon and thought the Sunday ride would be a nice recovery spin. It is, after all, a late start.
The loop around Constance is relatively flat so you won’t get the downhill rest of Klausen, though I find descending the southern side (toward Urigen) to be trickier than toward Linthal (narrower road, cliff drop on one side, views, blind corners). It’s great to see people of all abilities and on all bikes go up, whether city commuter bikes or e-mtb or kids bikes, towing kids trailers, etc. (To be honest, I’m not doing the Radmarathon for a similar reason: too early start – with the drive from home – and too much time away.)
Whatever happened to Oschner Sports Ride the Alps where they sponsored the closure of several passes? The “Klausen Monument” seems to have picked up the slack for Klausen…
For grins, I looked into the pic archive for a fair pic of a ride on some previous 5 Sept, but I don’t seem to have any cycling pics on any 5 Sep, so the “best” was this, which is apropos because it’s from the 2018 AlpenBrevet (Gold route, 106mi or so). So, it’s not TODAY but almost “on this date”… (No 5 Sep pic that year because 6 Sep I was en route to IM Wales…)
Nowhere ![]()
Had plans a while ago to knock out a century since it’s a holiday in the US. Had to reduce my training load over the last month or so and dialed my plans back to 50-75 miles. The last week of the first part of specialty combined with really poor sleep wrecked me, especially Emerson +2 on Saturday. Yesterday’s tempo workout (Golgotha) was almost Very Hard, then I apparently under-nourished by 750 cal yesterday. So, all of that meant I decided not to dig a deeper hole and not ride at all today despite the weather being nearly perfect.
I’m mostly ok with the decision, and at least got to take our new kayaks out on their maiden voyage! Saw blue herons, hawks, a bald eagle, and jumping fish. Need to bring a better camera next time.

I strongly recommend you do. I liked it a bit better when the start was in Meiringen but Andermatt isn’t terrible. They posted the date of the event (2.9.2023, er for us Americans, that’s Sep 2, 2023
). While entries aren’t open yet, I think they open around the first of the year, I’d look at booking accommodations (fully refundable). The Radison Blu is a great location nearly at the start / registration. It has a good restaurant and serves a good pre-event breakfast (typical full European hotel breakfast layout) at 5:00 (and a pool and sauna). The Gold and Platinum sell out quicker than the shorter Silver and even shorter Bronze (64km, 2140m). Do it!
And enjoy Bodensee this weekend. Hopefully, the forecasted rain will be light.
Is this a guided thing? “Just” a group going? I’d love to hear how much of your riding required shocks (ie how much of your riding you could’ve locked out your shocks… you know where I’m going with this
)
I will sign up for the gold tour, already cleared that with the Boss at home
for accommodation I will see what I want to do, maybe I use the Basecamp hostel I used for Octopus Gravel this year should be cheap and good enough :). Thanks, yeah the weather looks better and better each day, currently there is only a chance of rain predicted and not full on rain anymore. Should be fun, will be my longest ride by far
currently trying to plan my event calendar next year, thought about the Lenzerheide Alpen Challenge, but their Date is unsure for next year. Want to do Octopus Gravel again if there is a 2nd edition. Tour des Stations would also be nice, but that is probably in our Summer vacation time. Nova Eroica Switzerland looks like a nice gravel option.
Visit to Athleticamps for a follow up bike fit, some minor tweaks to fit after using these swept forward aero bars for a couple of months. Spinning at low endurance for 35 minutes:

So busy talking I forgot to start the bike computer, thankfully my watch is always taking HR snapshots so I could estimate effort.
Fitter has been fitting local pro Neilson Powless for years, and Powless was in Sacramento after the TdF and visited Bruce @ Athleticamps for some minor fit tweaks. Enjoyed talking about Powless exploits at the TdF and then I asked Bruce “what’s up with his pedals while descending?” and he just shook his head “I know, I know.”
Then I went outside to stuff bike into car and it was already 115F / 46C. Went to Costco on the way home and it got hotter…
Sacramento broke the all-time high (114 degrees) set almost 100 years ago in 1925. Not many houses with air conditioning in San Francisco, they must have been miserable yesterday.
Unofficially it was 117F / 47C at my house
which is officially hot
So off to the gym:
Spin class for the win while my wife hit the treadmill. People watching was priceless, as always, in the spin room and beyond. Somebody didn’t use the childcare and my wife was ‘entertained’ with two kids using the treadmills as a jungle gym.
Phoenix / Death Valley hot ![]()
To beat the light we brought our chain gang forward by half an hour tonight and kept the route the same as previous weeks. I struggled from the off though something just didn’t feel right. I was hitting stupidly high power numbers (for me at least) and my HR was concurring with it
After I finished the ride my Garmin asked me if I wanted to create a new FTP, it sure didn’t feel like one. Back in the flat I noticed that the rear QR one way (the way was) allowed play in the wheel, doh the other way seems to hold it tighter so Ive put it that way
Or is it a case of a bad workman blames his tools (just bad sleep and stress )![]()
Well, there’s the Tortour gravel event, which is 3 days in October (20k warm-up on Fri up Zürichberg, 90k / 1900m on Sat that’s a loop generally north of Zürich, and 75km / 1380m on Sun that’s SE of Zurich for a big loop around Greifensee though never along it). Or the 200km in June (Zurich - Zurich) before your summer break. Or may I suggest this, something I’ve wanted to do but am unlikely to do: https://www.scott-sports.com/global/en/page/gravel-tripping-piemonte …
Unbelievably hot there. I can’t imagine if you all had high humidity. People would literally be dying. Over in Texas we’re thinking about y’all and happy the power has stayed on. My SIL in LA doesn’t have AC and they’re hating life. Glad you have gym access.
Been stuck in the same heatwave as @WindWarrior. The other day it was 100 degrees at 9PM. I didn’t even know that was possible.
Rode in Marin to try to escape the heat.
My pony knocked me on my butt a couple weeks ago and I am still having tailbone type issues. I can ride but any punchy efforts still hurt like heck. Must be the low back muscles or something. Annoyed that it is taking me so long to heal now that I am getting older.























