Gotthard Archives

Tour de Suisse 2019 Report – Part 2

November 18, 2022September 1, 2019

Last week, I realised I did not write a post stage report on the second week of my Tour de Suisse 2019.

Well, here it is…

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We moved our base camp from Silvaplana to Sedrun on Saturday – I had an intermediate stage planned, but decided to drop that and have a rest day instead.

Also during the second week, things didn’t go exactly as planned, plus the weather was really bad, most of the time.

I managed to cycle every pass I wanted, except the Nufenen, which was closed due to land slides.

I already knew beforehand that my road book was something I was most likely not going to stick to anyway, but I didn’t anticipate that a medical discomfort would be mostly responsible for that…

Tour de Suisse 2019 Stages – Part 2

June 27, 2022July 24, 2019

In a previous post, I have described the area around Andermatt, our second base camp for my Tour de Suisse 2019.

This post provides more details on the possible stages and alternatives I have in mind and which I will probably not ride.

Although not for lack of trying, but just because most of my trip ideas are insane, given that I would like to ride every day and I’m not a world tour pro rider…

(Plus, I will have a week’s worth of ass-whooping climbs in my legs by the time we settle in Sedrun)

Another factor is, that there are many climbs, most of them with at least two alternative routes to cycle them, and I have only so many days during either part of my Tour de Suisse.

So, each stage below is described including alternatives – if you’d rather not read all of that, just wait for my post stage reports later on 🙂

Tour de Suisse 2019 Sketches – Part 2

June 27, 2022May 31, 2019

(Below is was what I originally had in mind – the reports tell a somewhat different story, althoug in the end, I managed the “must do’s” I had in mind, just not the way I “planned” it 😎 There’s a lot of intersting intel in this post, though.)

Now that our short trip to sunny Egypt has ended and May is coming to a close, the start of my Tour de Suisse 2019 is only two months away.

Although I’m back to a regular – much less ~~intense~~ destructive than in 2018 – training routine, I’m still a long way from anything near my ‘normal’ form.

On average, my power numbers are 30 Watts lower than they used to be before my injuries forced me to take a 3-month break.

With some help from online sources, I successfully rebooted, following two training plans.

During that reboot, I reconnected with Xert and I’m now using their ‘adaptive training advisor’ to get me further back on track. I’ll try and write a post on Xert in the near future.

Anyway, the apartments for the Tour de Suisse have been booked, Chesa Bellaval in Silvaplana and Casa Nacla in Sedrun/Surrein.

Both apartments are chosen based on their strategic location, while still staying within a more or less ‘sane’ budget for the tour.

From either place, a score of cols is available for me to break my legs on…

In this post, I’m covering part 2, the week in Sedrun.

Cols of the Swiss Stage

November 27, 2022March 19, 2016

In June last year, at the end of my Giro d’Italia 2015, I rode an entirely ‘Swiss Stage’ including the Gotthard (Tremola road), the Furka and the Grimsel.

You can read a report on that stage here – it offered some of the most stunning views I have encountered so far and I am determined to get back there for more, during a longer stay.

Gotthard Pass

April 12, 2022March 16, 2016

The St. Gotthard Pass (Italian: Passo del San Gottardo) connects south and north Switzerland.

Other than traversing the Gotthard tunnel, you can travel the new Tremola if you want to enjoy some of the views from within your car or on your motorcycle, while not losing too much time.

However, that also has some (long) tunneled sections and the far more interesting – and better cycle-able – road is the old Tremola between Airolo in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, and Hospental in the German-speaking canton of Uri.

With a summit at 2,106 meters¹, the Gotthard Pass doesn’t earn a high ranking in the European list of ‘highest passes’, but the old Via Tremola is a more than fair compensation.

The Tremola road is Switzerland’s longest memorial road construction. It snakes up the slopes of the Val Tremola as a light-coloured ribbon from Airolo and offers impressive views.

In the most spectacular section, the road climbs up 300 meters over a 4 kilometer stretch, incorporating no less than 24 hairpins, each with its own name. The Tremola road today still largely retains the appearance of the reconstruction completed in 1951.

¹ Coming from Airolo, when you arrive at the Guex memorial, you’re not quite there yet. There’s a sign to be found, reading 2,091 meters, but it’s not the summit. Follow the road past the Lago della Piazza and keep left to bump into the official sign…