There is always the danger of early season over enthusiasm and we got caught out here with a hour of hiking through knee deep snow with bikes on our backs in Davos. The descent was worth it though!

It was even nice to get out on the road and do some big mountain rides in the sun. A day on Furka and Grimsel passes have to be some of the most dramatically stunning rides around (just be prepared to share the road with millions of motorbikes, it makes you appreciate the peace and quiet of trails!). Hairpin after hairpin surrounded by huge cliff faces, waterfalls, glaciers and lakes. Getting wild sprinting back down the hill at 80 kmph is of course awesome too!

This one was a big adventure ride near Flumserberg, a small ski resort an hour from Zürich. With no lift access for bikes there was a 2.5 hour climb up steep ski pistes and technical rocky singetrack up to an isolated pass at 2300m. A super steep, technical, rocky descent made it worth while before some more climbing to some of the best loamy trails ever hidden in the woods lower down.

Next up racing in the European Enduro Series at Reschenpass in Austria at the weekend…

Then I fell off my bike and snapped a rib. Doh! Broken ribs are painful things that prevent anything that remotely involves fun. It’s been nice to chill out for a week or two, get wired on coffee and do other things but I’m starting to crave movement and adrenaline and its not raining as much as I would like. 2-4 more weeks to go, heal dammit!

Spent all of the next day dreaming of mountains!

That was Davos in Graubunden. There are no bad trails (except the one man-made one which filters the goobers), the only problem is a day is too short even after 6000m descending!

One trail was the fairly well known Brazilian, often called the best trail in Switzerland. I’m not sure I would go that far but it was pretty damn cool. A bus followed by 1000m pedaling took us to 2800m and from there it was one long descent down to 500m. The second half was incredible, loads of fast swoopy corners with dust flying everywhere.

The other days were even better as we got up high with spectacular views of glaciers and snow capped mountains before dropping into the woods for amazing loamy fast singletrack descents. One side of the valley is dry and dusty like Italy, full of rocks and loose tight corners. The other is more forested, loamy, fast and flowy. Amazing weekend, I’ve had withdrawal symptoms ever since.

So where were we? top secret, I’d have to kill you if I told you

It turns out this year there was no need for psyching myself up for embracing snow sports in order to survive a freezing cold snowy Swiss winter, winter has been cancelled. Before Christmas it was cold and snowy but since then its been mostly above freezing with hardly any snow in Zurich. Suits me, lots of muddy biking! the problem is one day of snow can can stick around a week or two and on the trails quickly turns to unrideable sheet ice so sometimes the road bike is a better option but thats nice too when you’re surrounded by snow.

Pictures below from a crazy January adventure in the Alps where we had to go to 1200m to find snow and after a short mega avalanche style snow descent we were riding dry sunny trails all day. Awesome.

The nights are slowly getting lighter, the race season is fast approaching – exciting times ahead!

Next up 3 weekends in a row of racing…

Enduro mountain biking in Davos

Mountain bike adventure at the Walensee - 2500m climb and straight back down

Klausenpass – 29km road climb up to 1900m

Prologue

The race began on Saturday evening with a flat out 40 second sprint as fast as your nerves would let you down a short trail, around a steep berm, through a few concrete corners and finishing with a mad sprint up the main street of the village. Pure adrenaline, a party atmosphere and great spectating with lots of crashes.

4 x timed stages, 2 x chairlifts, 2 x 550m climbs 

After a chairlift and a 20 minute climb we began the race proper surrounded by Alpine mountains still covered in snow not far above us. A nice singletrack lead to a short climb and some very fast sections through meadows and bogs where you had to be flat out stomping on the pedals before hitting a  fun bermed pump track style bike park down to the town. I entirely messed up one section and lost a good 40 seconds, not warmed up properly or not in the zone, either way I need to find out how to start these things better!

From there we had a good hour of hot climbing up to stage 2. Not pleasant on a bouncy bike lugging loads of body armour and a full-face helmet along but the views and the banter made it bearable. The sociable relaxed atmosphere at these races and the chance to meet like minded people from all over the world makes it great fun. The second stage was a monster, beginning with off-camber trails cut through grassy pastures it dropped into the forest into endless root covered rutted singletrack that was all perfectly rideable and great fun be to go fast was utter body destruction. Standing on the pedals the whole time, legs burning trying to pump the bike over bumps and around corners, arms screaming reluctant to pull the brakes and brain struggling to stay focused to pick a line and remember what was coming up. It was a relief to get into another bike park section towards the bottom with some fun drops, jumps and swooping berms.

Stage 3 and 4 were a repeat of the first 2 stages – something we thought a bit boring at first but actually a great idea and chance to do justice to the mistakes of the first time. Stage 3 I rode much better and moved up the rankings. The climb to stage 4 seemed longer and steeper. Stage 4 itself was torture by the end, my body had given up. I was shouting to myself ‘get of the brakes, get off the brakes’ but if I did that I could barely hold the bars and my legs were quivering standing up! savage stuff.

I finished 11th against a some strong international riders so happy enough. An amazing weekend, brilliant trails and really tough racing. Lots to improve on, each race I learn more about what not to do than anything else. Now time to hit the gym!

Full report of the women’s race over on Devil in a Dress