Could be worse. Taking sprint jerseys in Zwift and instantly losing them to some fella I didn’t know I was leading out is my new jam.
I think I had it for about a tenth of a second.
3 Likes
On Wed I won the B group town line sprint, but if I had ridden with the As my role is usually as a lead out man.
2 Likes
In the US too
1 Like
10 Likes
A chill weekend in Moab with family and friends. This is a good way to spend the weekend before Unbound, as it’s fun riding, not training. At least so far… until I get tempted to ride something hard and fast like Ahab… and then I better not crash 
18 Likes
Last easy day.
7 Likes
A short recovery ride for me today, then the sun came out.
A Chinese tree for a Chinese bike #Fuji
The dragon flies were too fast for me, this guy was slower and the same colour.
A new barrier has appeared 
13 Likes
An “easy” spin today, as in I kept the focus on cadence and form, eschewing power in favor of an “easy” endurance spin in the saddle. In the end, the ride reminded me I was fitter when I was doing 50-110mi rides every weekend, plus TR and other rides during the week, plus 8-15k meters of swimming / week, running 20-35 miles / week, and younger. I haven’t been doing many long rides, and a rare (in the past couple of years) 4-5hr trail ride on the gravel bike isn’t the same as the nearly constant pedal pressure of a road ride, as we all know.
Today’s go was a local ride of 65 miles with one main climb, which was the easier way up to the summit, as you can see:
The downhill (for me) was 8 miles (with zero cadence nearly for the entirety), which makes for a brutal climb, so I approached from the other direction, which broke up the ascent.
On my approach, here’s a fountain with tasty cold water just at the base of the main climb at about mile 24 (the text is says it’s a commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the confederation):
Here’s the summit:
A pause on the descent for a pic:
At the bottom, another fountain to refill (I didn’t fill an empty bottle at the fountain on the approach, but now is a good time to have two bottles) facing the town hall (on the right) of Schwyz (where the name “Switzerland” comes from):
That structure, which remains the town hall, is from the 1640s. It replaced an earlier town hall built in the 1590s that burned down. That structure had replaced a town hall apparently built before 1314, when it first appeared in the historical record.
But on the way to all of that, somewhere around mile 15, I’m on a bridge looking toward the climb:
Overall, it was a good time under a nice sun with the temperature in the 70s but bumping into the low 80s at time. Glorious.
I have a GoPro movie of the ride, but it keeps failing to compile and upload. I’ll upload it here later. Though the camera was pointed a degree to low, I think it’s still worth sharing.
12 Likes
So beautiful.
2 Likes
I did a few laps at my local area just to test my fitness for the first XC race of the season in two days.
Spoiler alert: I’m as slow as ever 
Though I did manage to cut my downhill segment time by 10% or so.
14 Likes
Do you know where you’re headed next? Will it be as beautiful? Always love your pics.
The 
speak German! I too sometimes find myself switching from English to Chinese to “speak” w/the local wildlife 
It would seem you are an American or at least speak American English. If so, where does your daughter get that accent from? Int’l school?
Fun fun fun! Those kids looked stoked! Looking forward to your Unbound report and hopefully w/some pics!
1 Like
lots of cows tonight, no cowbell, and no pics. My wife got a video of baby foxes at the creek near our house, on the video the two babies are chasing each other around. Here is a still shot:
All I got was some zone 5.5 work and this uninteresting pic:
along with 10 days of riding with this song ending bass / guitar interplay stuck in my head:
with Flea getting some props, in-studio, at the very end.
7 Likes
Here’s the video of yesterday’s local ride that included some time near lakes and climbing a hill. There was more lake riding but the memory card on the gopro filled up, so next time. The vid is in 4k, you may have to switch your player to 4k instead of a lower and more boring resolution.
At about the 4:49 mark of the video, there’s this guy:
He’s running down the hill after Alpine “skiing” (“Rollerski”) up the hill. I didn’t ask from which direction he approached the summit, but I figure it’s this direction because it’s not like there are other roads to swing around to the other side for a start. That said, I’ve seen Rollerkis climbing the direction I approached, but not on this way.
A couple of years ago, on this same descent, and with a GoPro in my hand and not mounted, I encountered traffic jam. As you can see by the video of the descent from Ibergeregg (the main climb of the day), the road is pretty narrow for two-way traffic. There was a classic car meet-up or something below the hill, apparently, and I was following pristine and very fancy 1930s, at the latest, car. I wish I took a picture. I thought I paused to take a picture of the meetup spot lower down, but I couldn’t find. I did find this picture of an ascent, a still from a video I’ve shared before of cowbell, on the same. By the way, unlike all the other cows-on-the-road-or-path pictures I think I’ve shared, there were no humans to be found here. I think they escaped one pasture a mile up the road (see the vid above and the area of the parking sign with some riders descending) and went, on their own, to another.
But my favorite cowbell picture I have, if it’s not the above, is this @WindWarrior. It’s from a 46km (28.6mi) run (so technically an ultramarathon even though it’s just 4km over a marathon) that had 8800’ of ascent. This pic is 2.5hrs after the 5a start and the headlight is already packed away as the sun rises. (This was from 2017 when I was 30lbs lighter and focused on trail ultras.)
Yes, to Boston. Since I have less than two months here, and two weeks will be for traveling elsewhere, my picture sharing may increase as a result. We’ve been lucky to live here, and not just because of the road and trail riding and running that’s literally out the door, but also because of the relatively easy access to other great places. BTW - in the video above, the opening sequence starts maybe 5 seconds after getting on this road from the side road we live on. Zurich is in the distance. In other words, leaving home to go into the village center – market, butcher shop, barber, kids’ doctor, our (the parents) doctor, dentist, ortho, Starbucks, it’s all there – or to the highway or to the lakeside for the lake or to go into Zurich by street rather than highway has this view. Driving to the small river valley where so many of my trail pics are is in the opposite direction. It’s not terrible.
Yes, we’re US American. When we lived in (west) London, our kids went to a British school and my daughter picked up her accent there. With the uniforms, the formality (I never did refer to any teacher by anything other than Mr or Ms and I never knew their first names), and the schedule… including Latin, English, French, Maths, Science, History and probably another subject or two – all at the same time – that our 11yr old son took was intense coming from a US public school. In Switzerland, they attended an international school and her accent changed, I wouldn’t say it went away. Fun story: though Americans are a distinct minority – there simply aren’t a lot of US expats compared to other nationalities, with our tax laws likely being the most significant barrier – the school suggested our daughter get a speech therapist because of the way she pronounced her r’s. We asked, if our daughter was British, would they suggest the same. No.
8 Likes
We rode slickrock with them yesterday. The 12 yr olds killed it. My 8 yr old who insisted on trying to ride the full thing did not do so well 
. I had ridden the shorter practice loop with him last fall, so he had high confidence to try the full thing. I advised him strongly against it, but he’s a stubborn 8 yr old. Turned around after a few miles and lots of tears. Learning the hard way makes for a good lesson!
Hard. Hot. Windy. Long. Wrote it in advance!
I’ll have my phone with me. These latest gen phones take amazing pics. May even be able to make KS grassland look special.
Pic taken last night under starts/moon of our camping spot in the Moab desert.
7 Likes
After 5 mins I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, a bank holiday bonus ride. On the way to the start I was glad I tend to cycle breathing through my teeth. Something relatively big flew straight into my teeth stinging me on the bottom lip, Fortunately whilst it was a sharp pain it wasn’t long lasting and shortly after I met folk I think the swelling started to go down. It was near one of our regular routes to Fineshades and the Grounds cafe apart from one bridleway which is still badly cut up from a few weeks ago. I don’t know how long it’ll last but I gave the last gravel road dip to Kings Cliffe Road a bit of a burst and it looks like I’ve picked up the KOM!
7 Likes
@mountainrunner here is the place we had our first cowbell sighting in 2019:
took a lift up above Lauterbrunnen, started our hike from here:
and then… COWBELL. A gif of that moment:
Sorry no sound in a gif 
That’s the Eiger hiding behind the clouds in that gif.
And below I demonstrate no mastery with my phone camera, a pic of the Eiger with its top cut off… I should be sanctioned (70s movie fans?!) for not taking another panorama.
And the Eiger in all its glory:
11 Likes
awwwwwwww – I love foxes. A family lived at the barn last year. I haven’t seen any this year… just rabbits and skunks so far.
1 Like
