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Ride Progression Enduro Skills Camp – Reschenpass

Cait — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 11:34:51 +0000

Zürich based coaching company Ride Progression are putting on an Enduro Skills Camp in the awesome Reschenpass area of the Alps in June. Reschenpass boarders Switzerland, Austria and Italy and offers the chance to ride in 3 countries in one day on loamy, fun trails with gondola uplifts.

Ride Progression’s Enduro Skills Camp will combine mountain bike coaching from Whistler qualified coach Oli, with trail riding, bike set-up and bike repair tips. I’ll be on hand to offer advice and tips for training and preparation for Enduro racing. With a small group (4-6 people) there will be chance to learn lots. The camp is from Friday 16th – Sunday 18th of June, biker friendly accomodation is included and of course there will be chance to chill out and enjoy the mountains with post-ride beers and a bbq.

More information is on Facebook here and Redbull’s description of the area here.

Check out Ride Progression’s website for their other offers for individual and group mountain bike coaching sessions in Zürich and the nearby Alps.

Surviving Winter

Cait — Fri, 01 May 2015 20:01:35 +0000

Winter turned out to be fairly short but pretty hardcore. For two months all the trails around Zürich were covered in snow with sub zero temperatures. Having survived a couple of winters here I’ve learnt its better to embrace the weather rather than fight it. No more long freezing roadie rides or mind numbing roller sessions. This year I did a big mixture of things – xc skiing (fitness), dh skiing (adrenaline), bouldering, weight training, trail running, and of course lots of sliding around in the snow on mountain bikes.

After a while darkness, grey skies, millions of layers of clothing, rides where meter deep snow meant more time spent going over the bars than going forward, and the novelty of variety began to wear off and all I wanted to do was ride a bike properly. So at the end of February we drove 5 hours south to Finale Ligure for a weekend to ride in the dust, swim in the sea and eat icecream. A solution that solves all problems. Since then the benefit of a few years Swiss riding experience has paid off and learning to hunt out the south facing slopes has meant getting a good bit of riding done on real trails, sometimes even up in the Alps.

Alpine Summer

Cait — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 19:33:20 +0000

Summer in Switzerland this year has been the wettest since weather recording began so when there is a good day you have to make the most of it. But when it’s good its pretty damn good!

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!

Spanish Training Camp

Cait — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 19:25:51 +0000

Despite the mild winter in Swissland this year there is only so much mud, bike cleaning and kit washing I can take. A week in the Alpujarras in southern Spain was the perfect solution. Epic climbs and even better technical rocky descents, warm sun, good food and of course rocket fuel coffee. The Enduro 29er passed the Spanish switchback test and scared me a few times with the speed it wanted to be ridden.

Suffering major withdrawal symptoms but spring has arrived in CH and the racing season is on the way…!

What Winter?

Cait — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 20:11:34 +0000

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!

Happy New Year!

Cait — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 19:56:36 +0000

A belated happy new year / gutes neues Jahr! I thought I was escaping the cold Swiss winter with two weeks in Yorkshire and Scotland over the Christmas break. I was wrong. Scotland is the most cold, wet and windy place you could ever imagine but it made for some fun mountain biking on the steep tracks around Innerliethen and gave me a good excuse to search intensively for the best coffee shops in Edinburgh.

Now back in Switzerland where it should be like living in a freezer at this time of year…

‘real’ Winter

Cait — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 19:55:30 +0000

All of a sudden muddy grey autumn turned into sunny cold winter. The snow has arrived and there is plenty of fun to be had. Skiing on a bike in fresh powder is one of the most fun things ever, xc skiing to keep fit, DH for an adrenalin rush and to feed the mountain addiction. Hope the novelty lasts until spring…

Autumn adventures

Cait — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:12:03 +0000

Friends, Autumn colours, dustings of snow, lots of leaves and occasional blasts of hypothermic temperatures. Pre-winter off season adventures on and off road have been fun:

Photos – not winter in the Alps yet!

Cait — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:02:30 +0000

The weather has changed and melting hot summer’s days are a thing of the past, but there is still time for some Alpine adventures before the dreaded snow arrives. Photos from some fun enduro rides near Zurich recently:

Next up 3 weekends in a row of racing…

Alps! on & offroad

Cait — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 20:02:54 +0000

Summer has arrived, the snow has almost disappeared, I’m living for the weekends.

Enduro mountain biking in Davos

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

Klausenpass – 29km road climb up to 1900m