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@Brommers
At this time last year I did the Alpenbrevet Platintour. 276km and just over 7km of climbing, and it nearly killed me. This year I'm not as fit, thanks to a severe case of stinkymanflu at the beginning of August, and I'm 3kg heavier. So I decided to take the easy option, and do the Gold course with @Cycliste. A mere 172km, but still with 5km of climbing over four Alpine passes - the Grimselpass, the Nufnenpass, the San Gottardo and the Sustenpass.
We set off from Meiringen just after dawn, so climbed up most of the Grimselpass in the shadow of the Alps. It was a scenic as ever, particularly up by the reservoirs at the top:
At the feed station at the top we refuelled whilst being serenaded by a trio of Alpenhorns.
After the Grimselpass came the highest point in the ride at 2,477m, the Nufnenpass, with its long sweeping hairpins and glacial views up at the summit.
At the bottom of the Nufnenpass was Airolo, where the split between the Plantintour and the Gold route takes place. It's just as well I wasn't trying to do the Platintour this year, as I missed the cut-off for the longer route by just over half an hour.
Next up was the San Gottardo, with many many cobbles to add to the hairpin fun. And it was hot. Really hot. Just over 33 degC at the bottom of the climb.
The little red blob is @Cycliste. If you look carefully, the shadows create some interesting optical illusions. The bloke behind her was not, in fact, riding a very small penny farthing. The way down from the San Gottardo featured tarmac rather than cobbles, and I set a new VMax on a road bike of 92.9kph. Strava seems to think I managed 114.9kph, but that's wrong. Trainingpeaks has confirmed it was a mere 92.9kph. Seemed plenty fast at the time.
At the bottom of the descent from the San Gottardo there was a feed station at Andermatt. Since I was taking a more relaxed approach to things this year I took the chance to catch some rays in one of the deckchairs they had available.
Contrary to first impressions, I wasn't in fact having sexeh fun times with my waterbottle. It's just where my hands were comfortable. Ahem. Moving swiftly on, the last pass was the Sustenpass. I really struggled up this climb last, and it wasn't exactly easy this time. The descent is still magnificent though.
Apart from quite a few bicycles, my list of vehicles overtaken this year includes 14 cars, 4 motorbikes, a coach, a cement lorry and an ambulance. It didn't have the blues and twos going, so I decided it was fair game. Leaving a total ride like this:
Going to have to go back next year to try and do the Platintour again though.