Amazing all these people doing Pragel tomorrow- must be some vortex calling all english speaking cyclists to the region. I am leaving Thalwil at 7:20 and meeting a friend in Pfaffikon at 8:00 am and then doing Pragel and Ibergerregg and back to Zurich via Raten/ Schindelleggi/ or Zug depending on energy level. We plan on riding at a fast pace, including the passes. The guy I am riding with just qualified for the Half-Ironman world championships and can make the trip from Zurich to the base of Pragel fly by, letting your arrive at the base of Pragel in good shape.

If you would like to join, send me a PM or respond to this thread.

Mike

You have me on everything but the fast pace, maybe I will see you coming down the otherside.

if anyone is interested in a more relaxed pace climb, but still with the two passes (Ibergeregg and Pragel). Hillseekeer and I (though her pace will be less relaxed than mine ) are meeting at the Näfels-Mollis Bahnhof at 9:10, to go up Pragel and the up Ibergeregg and then make our way back to Ruschlikon,

Please Pm me if you are interested. This is still a hard days work and I am not sure how long it will take.

Mrs southie and i did the Pragel last summer ,but with our fully loaded Bob Ibex trailers(25-30kgs) hanging on behind. Going up was one thing, heading down to Muotathal which is steeper was far more interesting, like (un)guided missiles with glowing brakes dodging upcoming traffic,my lovely wife was a bit p*ssed with me for awhile for some reason.
Cheers

Wow, Dakman - Thanks for documenting our ride from Saturday with Pragel and Ibergeregg passes in so much detail. As you said, it was another great cycling day here in Switzerland - Such beautiful scenery, smooth and virtually car-free roads, and no shortage of hills to climb... We are definitely spoiled living here!

I have posted some pictures from the ride here.

Thanks for the photos, I definitely need to adjust my crooked helmet.

Has anyone ridden a bike from Meiringen to Bern? Is it very family-friendly? Is it all bike trails or do you ride along a busy road? We (husband, wife and kids 13 & 10) are thinking of doing this trip sometime this summer.

Thanks for your advice!

I just got back from riding the traiL (ROUTE 8) from Thun to Interlaken, the section from Thun to Spiez is nice but from Spiez to Interlaken is along a busy road, a very busy road so I would't recommend it for a family.

Thanks, dakman and ChrisW, for your descriptions of the Gross Scheidegg route on the Road Cycling Routes thread. They were posted when we were already gone so I didn't get to read them before we did it a few days ago, but they describe the experience very well and helped me to re-live the fun memories as I read them

We started at Meiringen (same direction as dakman) and I would suggest that direction as well since, as ChrisW said, going the other direction means a pretty dangerous descent with such a narrow road and blind corners where meeting a car head-on is definitely a risk. Plus, if you start and end in Meiringen, you get the main climb completed at the beginning of the ride and have a (generally) descending or flat ride the rest of the way.

The climb was steep at times but beaUtiful. After the reeeeeally fun descent down to Grindelwald and continuing on toward Interlaken, we also took the road bike route, which turned into gravel (it is one of my pet-peeves too, dakman). But luckily that section was not very long so it was ok, and nice to avoid the busy road.

After Interlaken we started following the bike path up along the ridge but didn't feel like doing so much climbing anymore (I know, it is a first for the hillseekers! but we'd had a lot of climbing the day before), so we descended to the main road that goes around Lake Brienz on the north side, and that was fine, as long as you are experienced with riding on roads with cars and remain far to the right side.

Here's the GPS details from our ride in case anyone is interested in seeing the map, or elevation profile... Don't pay attention to our slow time though - like I mentioned, we'd had a big climbing day the day before! whew Plus just enjoying the views - It was really amazing!!

Now we're headed to Italy and the Dolomites this weekend to check out some routes from the Maratona - I'll try to take notes to share later. Ciao!

Aggh, have fun, I am envious again....the best one is supposedly the Giau, but I didn't do that one in the race last year, to slow to beat the cut off time. The climbs are generally shorter than the ones you just did this week though, as you start a pretty high elevation. Also, really loved the Passo di Valparola (Falzarego) The Dolomites are amazingly beautiful too, hopefully not too many motorcycles . Don't forget the Alphorns.

Did the Klausen then Pragel circuit on Tuesday starting at Schwyz - not cold at all.

see http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...0&id=711176855

for amusing pictures from my friend Howard - the photographer, mine are still stuck in my phone.

Get out there before any more snow falls

Lucky you, this work thing always gets in the way of fun (but I should also be careful of what I ask for in these times I suppose)

http://www.cycling-challenge.com/

By the way, if anyone is looking for cycling route ideas in the Geneva area, this is a great blog.....written by one person who is even nuttier about uphill cycling than some of us (though for all I know he could be a forum member so I should be careful with my words)

You're right, here's his post on this forum introducing his website. You must have read it before because you already Thanked him for it!

I am getting old my memory isn't what it used to be Now I can highly recommend it though....I know I am just around the corner from being one of those old people that repeats the exact same story 5 minutes later...

Has anyone cycled along the south shore of Walensee (Lake Walen)? Is it necessary to take the high road between Murg and Mollis, marked as "Kerenzerberg Pass" on one of my maps, or is there a route that stays at lake level for cyclists that avoids the 300+ metres of climbing?

There is an indication of a lake-level route on the Kumerly-Frey 1:301,000 Swiss cycling map, and there is a track marked on Google maps that seems to correspond. However, my topographical 1:100,000 SwissTopo map doesn't have anything marked that suggests that there is anything rideable along that section of lakeshore. Maybe someone more local can give me some reliable information about the condition of the road/track along the southwest section of the lake.

Normally I would enjoy the extra 300m of climbing, but I may use this passage as part of an epic-distance ride in which I'd like to avoid any unnecessary pieces of climbing.

Yes - there is a bike route along there. It's mostly tarmac and weaves in, out and around the motorway and through a few of the villages. There are a few short sections of gravel track but they're graded pretty well and are fine on a road bike as long as you're paying attention. There are a couple of very short ramps so it's not completely flat but it's certainly nothing like the 300m of climb you'd do the other way.

I agree with Nick. Road bike is no problem. Just look out for crazy German guys who are out on 250km+ days.

Thanks for the info guys. This ride might be one of those 250+ km days. This weekend will have the longest daylight of the year - ideal to try to top my current best of 240km in one day.

I do want to do a bit of climbing during the day, so I've been wondering what the Kunkelspass between Tamins and Bad Ragaz is like but I've been unable to find much info about it online. I have three questions about it:
Is it paved all the way?
How steep is it when coming from the southwest (Tamins) side?
It appears that there are two roads down to Bad Ragaz, one via Pfafers and one via Valens, is one any better than the other?

I did Kunklespass from Tamins on the Monday of the June bank holiday. It's got an average gradient of about 13%. It is mostly paved, maybe a couple of clicks unpaved near the top and in my opinion totally doable on a road bike, although I did it on a mountain bike. The road is actually used by cars so even on the unpaved sections there are two compact tracks to ride up which will be no problem at all for a road bike. Near the top there is a tunnel which is barely the width of a car and is really dark. Once you are through this tunnel you are pretty much on top.
We only took the road for very short sections on the way down, but it seems to me like the road which crosses the dam at the end of the lake and goes down the left side of the valley might be the better option to take (Think thats the Valens one). We ended up going down the valley offroad on some rather tasty trails.