Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Tour 2006 - Day 1

It was friday morning, on the 28th of July when 3 semi-sportive guys took their bikes to go on a tour through Switzerland. The three were Armin, Mattias and me, Erik.
We set out with a lot of material: two tents, each had a sleeping bag and loads of other stuff required for biking and camping. Together with water and food each had a load of about 15kg.
The destination of this first day was Andermatt, which lies about 1400 metres above sea level. Zug, where our tour started, lies on 400 and something. Thus there were about 1000 metres in altitude to go that day.

After about two hours of warming up, our trip led us to Brunnen where we took a small break. The picture on the right was taken in direciton south-east. It shows the 'Axenstrasse' which took us along to Flüelen and Altdorf.

This picture was taken up there. It seems that some of us already were quite out of breath :)
But the view was surely worth it. Normally there was nothing on the right side of the street, the rock went straight down to the lake.

Along the Axenstrasse, there are several spots which provide a great view on the surrounding mountains and the lake.
In the center of the left hand picture we see the 'Uri Rotstock'.
The picture on the right gives another an impression how steep the rock there really is.
At that time the weather started to brighten and the temperatures went up too.

All these exertions had its consequences as one can see on peoples faces ;). No, basically it made us very hungry. Fruits, bred, meat, cheese and a lot of all of it. That was the daily basis of our nutrition. Here we were just before Amsteg, from where the real fun started. After about 60 kilometers of more or less flat terrain, there are still about 1000 metres to go up. If just we hadn't eaten that much...

Inspired by the Tour de France 2006, I had to refill my doping supply several times per day :) I am a big fan of Testosterone-Floyd and attempting to copy him in every way. And it worked, I was up there in Andermatt before me mates. So do not tell me doping is bad ^^.

Soon after we went on it was again time for a break. Must have been comfortable :)

Wait, whats this? A break again? Well yes, but it took us quite some time and altitude to get here. 'Here' is Wassen, still in the canton Uri. And yes, it was hard to get up here with all our luggage.

Here we were already in Goeschenen. Only about 300 metres left on the vertical scale, but the weather was about to get a lot worse than it was before. We got right into a nice heavy alpine downpour, it did not take long to get us drowned like big biking rats.
Luckily it was still quite warm while we made it to Andermatt, and there we had some nice warm apple strudel.

Phew, we made it! After the rain, we pitched our tents. Our arses did hurt, but we enjoyed some beer and there was even some sun again. Good, for we had to prepare ourselves for the Mountains to come.

Tour 2006 - Day 2

The next morning. First thing to do after taking ones piss is to feed. Very important, for we had another some hundred meters to go up ahead, and at the end of the day another six hundred. The goal of this day was Olivone in Ticino on 900 metres above sea level. But to reach Olivone from Andermatt, one needs to climb the Gotthard pass, go down to Biasca which lies on just about 300 metres above sea level and from there up again.

The additional weight on our bikes did not decrease. No, it even increased.. all the wet stuff from the day before was still not dry and thus was heavier... lucky us :) but we put these clothes on top of everything to get them dry as soon as possible. It worked, but not until we were already in the canton Ticino.

So we took our wet stuff, our tents, the food and a lot of water (and some testosterone for better regeneration) and went for the St. Gotthard on 2200 metres above sea level. The road was perfect, lucky the ones with suspension on their bikes which obviously the two mates of mine did not have.
But even with dampers on my bike it was hard to take a clean picture while cycling :)

The weather was not that good, but the temperature was great for climbing a mountain by bike ^^
Back on the main road traffic was heavy, because many wantet to evade the traffic jam in front of the Gotthard tunnel.
Nevertheless, we made it to the top and even kept our good mood. For now the first time of this tour, it went down... and the road did so for a long time.

Weather started to brighten and revealed the beautiful environment of the St. Gotthard to my camera. This picture was taken from almost the top of the mountain pass and shows part of the road down to Airolo and in the background the valley which leads to another pass, the Nufenen. Might be another nice one to do for a future tour.

We did not stop a lot after we passed Airolo for we needed to reach Biasca before 4 o'clock to be able to buy the food we needed for that evening and the next day, as it is somewhat difficult to do so on a sunday (at least if you are under way with a bike in the mountains).
But this spot was definitely worth a stop to take a picture.

There, by now we passed Biasca, filled our food bags and made our way to Olivone. It took us a lot of effort to get a look on this sign, not only was it almost 35 Degrees Celsius, there was also no wind, almost no shadow and we just did the San Gotthardo some hours ago.

hehehe, who is faster? :)

Olivone itself is quite a small but peaceful place in the Ticinese Alps. There is a nice view to its surrounding moutains, especially with such good weather like we had.
The only problem: there is no campsite in Olivone at all and we did not know until we got there. The next one would have been on 1700 metres above sea leavel and the other one down almost at Biasca. Great :)

So we asked the a farmer whether we may pitch up our tents on one of his fields. Allthough he spoke no German and we no Italian, we were surprised how easy we could make ourselfes clear, and more even surprised that the farmer had no problem at all with our desire. The only disadvantage was that there were no showers and no toilets.
Too bad, I really could have used a shower. As one can see on my calf as an example of how dirty we were. The smell in our tents the next morning was not the best... but we slept perfectly on that farmers field.

Tour 2006 - Day 3

Good morning everybody!
Get on your feet, there is only another onethousand metres altitude difference to go. - People did not look like they had a good night's rest, but that was this is for...

.. a very important thing, coffee in the morning. Either with coffee or with some coffee-taste and schnaps.
That was worth a lot ;)
The small burner on top of the gas bottle cost me a small fortune, but in the end I did not regret it.

And then we went on for the last peak of this tour, the Passo del Lucomagno with its 1914 metres had to be climbed. It was never very steep, but a very long way to the top. Enough time to take a picture of Olivone from above. Even though taken while cycling, that photograph got not that bad.

It was a long, steady climb up to the Lucomagno. The weather was great, but still very hot, luckily it got a little colder the highter we were.

The landscape was as beautiful up there as it was in Olivone. And still there was very nice weather. On almost 2000 metres above sea the temperatures were just right, but as soon as we got down on the north side of the pass, we suffered again. One reason was the burning sun, the other reason was our fatigue after more than 200 kilometres. We felt every small ascension in our legs and the luggage was always pulling in the wrong direction.

But we finally made it for Ilanz in the canton Graubünden. Actually our final goal was to reachChur but it was just too hot to take some other hundred metres vertically. And we relly appreciated to be able to sit on something which is not as hard as a bicycle seat...
It just took about three hours until we arrived in Zug again.

All in all, the tour was great and I can recommend it to anyone who would like cycling in the Swiss Alps. One does have to start in Zug itself, everywhere in reach of Andermatt would be suitable. And the tour can easily do so by tent or hotel. However, it is a relatively hard tour with a lot of metres of altitude to go.

The pictures were made by Matt and me.

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