Technique! Technique!!

Old Postcard of Rigi Peak

A couple of days ago was my first real mountain bike ride of the year. I road up a road to the top of the nearby Rigi Mountain and then back down the backside of it along a single trail that starts at the Rigi Staffel. A very fine route, but it made me realized I need some work on technique.

In search of a way to improve my technique I started reading 'Trials' riding; these are the guys that hop up on boulders and other such things with their mountain bikes.

Above: Pro Mountain Biker Asa Salas demonstrates a trackstand

Here's what I've decided to do:

• take my Shimano clipless pedals off my bike for the next little while and replace them with platform pedals with loose toe straps. I am just not confident enough to get out of my clipless pedals at very slow speed on technical sections.
  
• set up my old mountain bike so that I can use it for trials practice


• practice the basic skills as described on this website http://www.trials-online.com/ . The basics are all about mastering balance.


• start with mastering the trackstand. A good description of how to learn it is provided at: http://www.teamestrogen.com/articles/asa_trackstand.asp
  

I feel like a bit of a whimp taking the clipless pedals off the mountain bike, but after a little research I decided that's where I am at in my skill level. I want to practice balance.

Mtn Village Illgau: second times a charm

Left: Lake of Luzern
Center: Rigi Mountain
Right: Lake of Lauerzer

Wednesday May 7th. This ride was 60km - about 2.5 hrs, from Walchwil to the village of Illgau and back. It is the second time doing it this year. The first time was real tough on me; my legs were so wasted I was barely moving near the top of the ride. This time I made it home with some juice still left in the legs.

The ride took me through the village of Schwyz, into the Muotathal (Muota Valley) , up a side road for several kms of steady 8 % climbing to the cliff top village of Illgau, and then exited the backside of the village to snake up a set of steeper little roads to the main Ibergeregg road ( webcam ). From there you can continue up to the pass, but I swung back down to the village of Schwyz and then home to Walchwil. There were three or four other cyclists on the Illgau road, but I was the only one on a roadbike.

Next time I do the ride I think I'll be going up and over the Ibergeregg pass.


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Over the Hill to Aegeri Lake We Go

Village of Oberaegeri

The village of Walchwil, where I live, is located at the bottom of a small mountain (1400m). If you go up the hill to the Zugerberg plateau and down the other side you end up at the Aegerisee (Aegeri Lake for us German language impaired). Total ride was 40km with one hard climb of 350m.

The hill up from Walchwil to the plateau is tough. There are two routes up, the hard climb and the nasty climb. Since I'm just starting out my bike season I only took the hard one.

On the east side of the little lake of Aegeri - which is about 10km long - there are a few small villages:

• Unteraegeri
• Mittenageri
• Oberaegeri
• Morgarten

Morgarten is a famous location because that's where the Austrian's had their asses kicked by the Swiss in 1315. Austria had several 'barons' in Switzerland around that time managing lands and abbies. The swiss peasants versus the Austria knights was a sort of liberation battle for the Swiss. For more information about this ass-kicking see the Battle of Morgarten.


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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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First Ride Round the Rigi

Village of Weggis (photo taken from Bürgenstock by Sacha Ban)

Today's ride was an easy 65km ride around the Rigi Mountain. Part of the ride is alongside the scenic 'Vierwaldstättersee', or for us English speakers 'The Lake of The Four Forest Cantons'.

The lake is one of the largest and prettiest lakes in Switzerland. If you don't feel like biking alongside it there are beautiful boat rides to be had up and down the 40km, mountain surrounded, lake.


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There are days I love living in Switzerland

Village of Illgau

There are days I love living in Switzerland. Yesterday was one of those days. It was my third ride of the year, and my first challenging ride. About 1000m of climbing, over 50kms, on a few roads I had never been on.

Good rides for me combine exploring. Yesterday I visited an alpine village - Illgau - that is about 30kms from here that I had never been to. That is part of what I love about Switzerland; the great opportunities for exploring by bike. Illgau is a little town at about 850m, on a cliffside up in a quiet valley.

Here's my ride (you'll see a big straight line where I turned off my GPS at one point - oops).

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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.