Congratulations! You must be a better sign-spotter than I am, because I lost the route about four times, and ended up doing 165 km. Our average speeds must have been very similar though, because I was 6h02 for my invented route. It wasn't just me who had problems, I saw many other people further up the road missing turnings and looking confused. Fortunately, I'd tried to draw the route on a map the night before based on the vague outline that is online. The map did help me a bit to anticipate some of the turns, and to re-find the route after I'd lost it, but the route still took many roads that I hadn't expected them to take us down.

It seems that the mountain biking routes are a great idea, and a lot of fun for the families. However, I'm not really sure who the road bike routes are aimed at. The 30km and 50km versions should be for people who are just getting into road cycling and having a bit of fun. However, those routes were way too challenging for a lot of them, and they probably didn't enjoy the never-ending climbing and descending. The ones that I saw pushing their bikes up the hills in the last 10km certainly didn't look like they were having much fun. I felt that those routes should be a lot easier. The longer routes are pretty good for serious cyclists, but the lack of any official timing, the fact that the start is spread out over 2.5 hours, and the biggest deciding factor of how long you take being how successful you are at finding each turn onto the narrow farm lanes, makes it a lot less attractive for the serious riders than it could be. One last thing is that I wish I'd known there was going to be 2,000 metres of climbing before I'd started, because then I might not have faded so badly in the last 40 km. I'm sure that a lot of the people doing the shorter versions would have also appreciated a warning about how much climbing they would be doing.

Overall, I think they need to decide who their target audience is for the road rides, and develop some routes that suit that audience better. At the moment they don't seem to suit the recreational cyclist or the serious cyclist very well.

Has anybody been out to the Tuesday Chalet-a-Gobet rides? Does anyone know if you have to be part of the club?

Anybody interested in going up tomorrow?

I almost missed one signpost, but as I was not alone, I did not. One advantage in starting early, you are almost never alone! Still, I was alone for more than 50 km. F.ex. all the way from the 100/160 km split to Mont Vully, and when I was on the final climb to Mont Vully I saw all those bikes coming down and wondered whether I had missed something. But kept on as I was sure I had read the signs properly, and did actually reached the top and the feed/drink station. Yes, I remember what I was goign to write: those signs should be BIGGER, that is for sure.

People who have been cycling in the region know that it is very, very difficult to find long, somehow flat trips, apart from the Rhone valley and section like Chatel-St-Denis/Bulle or further. The Printaniere, for example, is flat if you skip the climbs.

Anyhow, I was very pleased, not expecting to feel so good on the last 50-60 km.

Hello! Anyone here got a litespeed Ghisallo? Im trying to find a bike shop in the area who has one in stock to try but cant seem to find anyone..

Anyone here be able to help?!

cheers

andrew

Last week, I went on the group ride that starts at the shop called "The Bike" in Pully, just outside Lausanne (Wednesdays at 18:30 sharp, more details in the original post to this thread). This was my first time on the ride, and I must say that it is very intense, with a lot of seriously good riders. There were a couple of short to medium-length climbs when everyone went all out to reach the top. On the way back, people kept attacking off the front and everyone else hunted them down, there may have been some people getting dropped off the back, but I don't know because I never had time to look behind me. My average speed was over 30 kph for 45 km, with 700m of climbing, I believe. However, I was in the front group most of the time, and we occasionally stopped and waited for others, whose averages may have been significantly lower.

All of the other rides listed in the original post should also be in full swing by now, so why not give one a try (I don't think they are all as intense as this one)?