From Vauderens to Pura in 3 days

Pestalozzi / Gasser Bike Trip over the Western Swiss Alps, August 5-7 1998

For illiterates of swiss geography, we could translate this into "From Moudon to Ponte Tresa", or even less accurately to "From Lausanne to Lugano". 347 km in 3 days.

Thanks to DIVELIT SA for lending us the van and other support.

The Actors
How it all began
Planning and dreaming
Training for the Big One
Vauderens - Iseltwald, 110 km
Iseltwald - Binn, 98 km
Binn - Pura, 130 km

How it all began

In the Summer of 97 Francesco, Mike, Cristoforo and Enrico set out on a one day bike trip over the Cristallina pass. Needless to say that the pass was far from being suitable for bikes of any kind. In fact, it proved totally incompatible. They had to reply to the Naret pass, which wasn't any better, but a little shorter in distance. Resume: Great fun in spite of over 4 hours of carrying the bikes on narrow and rocky hiking trails.

On that day the idea of crossing the entire Alps from western Switzerland to Ticino, where the Pestalozzi family owns a mountain cabin, was born.

Planning and dreaming

During the winter 97/98 Francesco started sending meter-long faxes to Cristoforo with trip suggestions and altitude graphs. It took some emailing and faxing around between us five before we agreed on the final route in June 98. It was unclear up to the starting day if Cristoforo was going to be with us, because he absolutely wanted to ride his road racing bike. He finally decided to use the road bike where possible and rent a mountain bike for the trail section. Also, he and his german friends (Mike and Georg) did their own version of the tour.

Based on map study and on trip descriptions on the internet (mostly http://wwwinfo.cern.ch/~mtovey/bike_trip.html and http://home.t-online.de/home/0715297650/montr.htm) we decided to try out a pass that is not known
as a biking route. The rest of the trip was limited by the fact that we only had 3 days, so we needed to choose a fast route, which meant a lot of paved roads.

We didn't want to suffer any inconveniences in addition to the physical effort, but rather enjoy the fellowship and sleep well at night. Overnights where in hotels and we had a van (thank you Catherine and Mami!) for luggage and emergencies.

Training for the Big One

What training background is required for such a trip? I can't generalize on this, as I'm not a specialist. In any case, it's nothing for beginners. One should be able to sustain a major effort and the lower back should be used to some rubbing. Try a 3-4 hour trip with 1000-1500 altitude meters. If a the the end you feel like you might do it again on the same day, you should be in good shape.

Here's what we did:

Catherine: Never before she had driven the big company van (VW LT 35). Preparation consisted in turning it in the driveway of Villa Montebello.

Cristoforo: Has been a regular rider for a couple of years, with trips of over 100 km on his log. His training was increased in preparation of the trip, but he didn't have a chance to do any climbing. Except one trip with Enrico and Lorenzo, all of his trainig was on flat, paved road and with a road racing bike.

Enrico: Except some occasional horseback riding he hadn't done any regular sports until Fabruary 98. From then on he started with bike trips once to twice weekly varying from 20-30 km (more often) to 70-100 km (only a few of those).

Lorenzo: He bought his wife a new mountain bike last year, and that's when he started to do more or less regular riding - on his wife's bike, of course - in the hilly Montreux area. He's been a sporty guy from his youth one (former Swiss champion in cross country running, in that specific junor category). However, no intensive regular sports, some Squash and Tennis. Preparation for the trip was limited to biking once to twice weekly and 2 more extensive day tours with Enrico.

Gottardo: Since countless years I try to do my 5-7 km jogging twice a week. I discovered "serious" biking last Summer after buying a GT mountain bike. Over the last 10 years I had done a few tours with rented bikes or my old 18 speed supermarket bike, but never anything close to even the shortes stage of this trip. Preparation for this tour was a weekly trip to the Uetliberg (450 m steep ascent) or riding to/from work (a 30 km return trip). I felt very uncertain about doing 100 km stages with over 2000 altitude meters.

Francesco: He's the only one who got his anaerobic level determined by a doctor. Generally goes biking 1-2 times a week, rather short trips up Monte Lema or other trails in the Malcantone region. He carried a pulse meter with him. At Jaun Pass we all left him behind, because he stuck to his 150 puls rate. Later in the trip we started to adapt to his speed, because we knew that then we'd make it through the day.

Georg: Smoking 19 1/2 sigarettes per day, dreaming about bad mountain pass roads, 8 daily laps round Reichenau, 3 weeks looking at the french Alps and in depth study of several stages of the Tour de France. Geheimrick: Tief stapeln auf verschiedenen Niveaus. Apres-bike: eventuell duschen. Mein Bock: Plastic bike by Kestrel. Und: ich liebe Lastwagen... :-(

Mike: ?

The Actors
How it all began
Planning and dreaming
Training for the Big One
Vauderens - Iseltwald, 110 km
Iseltwald - Binn, 98 km
Binn - Pura, 130 km