It's green here and starting to smell like cow

Village of Steinen

Yesterday's ride was 35+km to and around the little village of Steinen. It was short and had some sections of climbing where the grade was 15+%. I have been through the village many times, but have never explored any of the side roads before yesterday. The town itself has a couple of bakeries, a hotel, and places to eat.

I road up and down several of the little roads in the village exploring the streets and town. The major new find for me was a road up to town of Sattel which is moderately steep (10% grade), but very nice and travels alongside a stream that comes down from Sattel to the lake of Laurez.

The theme for today's ride was farmers. The Swiss countryside is beautifully green and sprinkled with farms. Several places along the route farmers had their tractors stopped on the road and were clearing brush and grass. The smell of 'natural fertilizer' was in the air.

For a bit of change here is a google earth image of the ride:

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Reflections on early season fitness

My wife and I did pretty much the same ride as I did earlier in the week; about 35 kms and 400 m climbing.

As we were biking down in the 'flatlands' I was looking up at the mountains we were biking last summer and reflecting on my present fitness level.

It is interesting to think the fitness level will be back up there again at some point this summer. I am wondering how long it'll be before I post a 70 km and 2000 m of climbing ride.

First Ride of 2008

This was my first bike ride this year. About 35 kms and 400m of climbing.


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