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@Brommers
Friday was Swiss National Day - cue lots of fireworks and beer. A perfect opportunity to take the day off and head over to Switzerland early. The focus of the weekend was the Gurnigelpass Panorama Classic ride. Neither Cycliste or I had done it before, but with a name like that, how could we resist?
Friday - we both had work to do, so just a quick spin up to the local ski station at Les Plaiedes, and back again. 16 miles, 756m of climbing.
Saturday - picked up the hire car - actually a hire bus as it was a VW minibus. Despite its enormous size, it was actually rather hard fitting two bikes in there as it was full of seats. On the way up to Thun, for the start of the Gurnigelpass ride, we stopped off at Gletsch and did the Furka Pass and the Grimselpass. We'd planned to go up and over the Furka Pass and then climb it again from the other side, but the weather looked at bit grim on the far side of the Furka, while the Grimsel was in sunshine. Easy choice. This is the Furka Pass from halfway up the Grimsel:
20 miles, 1042 metres of climbing.
Sunday There were three options for the Gurnigelpass ride - you could climb up the pass once, twice or three times. We'd both planned to do the three climbs option, but the weather was pretty grim. There was, ironically, a distinct lack of panoramas due to the low cloud and constant rain/drizzle. Here's Cycliste heading up the second climb:
So Cycliste bailed after the second climb, and I did the third climb solo. I dare say it would have been a very enjoyable ride in the sunshine, but in those conditions it was a bit of a slog. The sun came out as soon as I'd finished. Strava says:
I think the altitude figure is a bit high - according to the organisers its 3697m of climbing rather than 4892. Adopting the organisers' figures it's a total of 133 miles and 5495m of climbing for the weekend. Perfect preparation for a time trial on Tuesday evening.