While the majority of this road ride will likely not be in English, this looks more like a typical US informal group ride: Every Saturday at 14:00 (2PM) from Tempo-Sport in Thalwil. They indicate the ride will be between 2 and 3 hours. I know the shop owners and they do speak english. See the PDF through the attached link (sorry for the German): http://www.tempo-sport.ch/infos/even...nvelotref.html

Given the difficulty this website has had in setting up regular road rides, this is likely a good alternative.

you didn't mention the Sunday rides that are on the site though. Which if I translate, seems to be a fast ride over sattlegg starting in late April led by one of the top Swiss Ironmen participants.


I am considering a ride for Saturday on the old Zurich Metzgete route, there is one part where I need recheck the exact route. The big loop around is 70K, may or may not tag on the second small route (which is 40k) to get a training ride in. If anyone is interested PM or post. It will be weather dependent.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006...rich06/?id=map

Both these rides sound good. Where is Thalwil in Zurich ? I am in Oftringen and would have to come in to join in with these rides. Otherwise is there anyone close to Oftringen looking for a riding buddy ?

Thalwil is right on Lake zurich maybe about 10k from zurich.

Thanks for sharing these!

This does seem like a nice possible option at least at first so we can learn some good road riding routes. I still want to plan an EF group ride but am first trying to learn the roads better (plus ankle still not healed).

So I hope to try these out sometime soon (especially since it's so close to home!).

I am quite familiar with several Zurich (non-gold coast side of the lake) /Zug /Aegeri /Sihlsee area road rides of between 2-5 hours, so I do not think route finding is so much the issue, as getting something regularly scheduled with a small group of relatively similar fitness levels.

It is quite hard to coordinate expats schedules around work / family / travel and swiss weather. Plus I think many individuals are hesitant to join group rides- although as said by many others---- in larger groups different levels of fitness can easily blend in and have fun and get a solid workout.

I wish you good a recovery.

This is great that you are familiar with the routes near here. So would you be interested in helping me plan a regular weeknight group road ride on this side?

I agree that it can be a challenge to coordinate schedules with everyone so busy. This was the same where I used to live, so we just had a weekly group ride set up, and whoever could make it would show up. We would make sure to have at least one group leader there, plus ideally a "sweeper" to bring up the rear. We provided maps to new riders, plus also marked the course at each turn.

That way people can ride their own pace, and meet others who ride a similar pace.

Any night would work for me except Tuesdays, since I am planning on giving Eire's Tues. night MTB ride a try once I'm healed.

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Add your favorite routes to http://www.mapmyride.com [I have no affiliation]

A quick search for routes in Zurich returned 44 rides in the area.

The default units are miles (being a US based site), but you can change to metric by creating a login and changing your preferences.

Of course none of this helps getting folks to ride with you, but it does help with logistics and finding new routes.

I am willing to help coordinate..although I am not sure about the need to go mark the course at each turn (you may get arrested in CH for such action?), although maps sounds like a great idea. I would propose Thursday evenings given the establishment of the Tuesday mtb ride

I didn't mean we would mark the course turns here (yeah, I agree the Swiss probably wouldn't like that) - Just mentioning what we did in the U.S.

Seems like we have a start for this! Thursday nights would be good. Now, where to meet to start riding... I am friends with the owner of the bike shop in Gattikon (Lerch Cycle Sport), but that may be too far for people to travel...? Maybe Thalwil would be better?

Maybe it would be easiest to meet to discuss this more. How about this Thursday? If the weather cooperates we could even test-ride some possible routes... Maybe Dakman would want to join too. How about Thursday 6:30pm at Tempo-Sport in Thalwil? (just throwing something out there)

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I am still having some interesting thoughts about this marking the road concept. Well anyway, Thursday are swell except this Thursday as my office has an afterwork drinks thing. Though cycling actually sounds more fun....maybe I am becoming a bit nutty.

If it is gorgeous weather evening maybe I will skip the drinks, hmmmmm.

I may get involved in this too. I just ordered my shiny new road bike, which should be delivered early next week. Now its time to start getting fit!

How about varying it a bit though. Meet in Thalwil side of the lake one week, and do Pfanensteil, Bachtel Wald etc another week?

Congratulations on ordering your new bike!!!! So you really will be wearing lycra some this summer after all! That is great.

That sounds like a great idea to me, to vary the side of the lake each week. I'm sure you and Dakman know that side of the lake well so maybe you could come up with a starting place and route...? I would think something like 35-40km would be good.

I know pfannenstiel way too well......don't know Bachtel so well though, i assume for an evening ride though we would have to start that one somewhere quite out of Zurich, assuming we do an out and back. For rides nearer Zurich, I would recommend starting right next door (almost) to my apartment, which is Zurichhorn Casino parking lot.

http://zuri.net/adr/12945/lake_side.htm

Good idea for this week meeting, but I cannot attend due to out-of town work committments.

I know Lerch Cycle, it is only about 5 minutes from my house, but I would suggest starting the Thalwil side of the lake rides down on Seestrasse (as opposed to Gattikon) to accomodate individuals coming from Zurich and the other side of the lake.

Alternating sides of the lake for the Thursday night ride is agreeable to me. One possible thought for these rides is they could start in Meilen/Horgen, respectively. These locations may provide starting points for rides with less traffic, which is preferable for a group ride.

This is a good idea.

But what might be also an idea is that we can have varied starting places. One member takes responsibility for a ride that he knows he/she will be able to attend. Then suggests a starting place that suits everyone for that ride. This way we can get to explore many areas around all sides of lake Zurich and everyone can take a certain amount of responsibility/ownership of the rides.

We could have a list of Starting places such as:
Horgan
Meilen
Tiefenbrunen
Landeweise
Rapperswil

or so and then someone could plan a ride from each of these places.

Logistically it will be a bit more work to get to each ride. But it would certainly liven it up a bit and we all get to see some new areas.

Just a suggestion, I admit I know nothing about organising road rides so if the idea is silly I apologise.

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This message is a natural product. The variations in spelling and grammar enhance it's individual character. (Ski/Snowboard/Mountain Bike in CH)

Meilen or Horgen is fine but I also know good routes to get out of traffic pretty quickly from Zurich, it involves and uphill start though so may not be preferrable. B Tiefenbrunnen would be a better start place than my previous choice though.

I like the idea from an interest standpoint (seeing new routes, areas is preferred) . from a practical standpoint, will need to build in time to get there if farther out.... which may limit participation or the ride time if too far out.

all i need is a road bike and I could join you guys. ( btw any chance that some on a tour bike can keep up with you!)

Well depends on the route, but if we take some of the steep sections that MBLume has taken me before (14%), you will be hurting with a heavy bike . Yes, you can probably get up them but you might wish you didn't