caitelliott.co.uk » mtb Switzerland

La Trentàl Enduro, Mervelier CH

Cait — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 19:08:28 +0000

Holy sh**t that’s steep, not sure I can go…stop thinking do it, off the brakes let go, yeow, twist the hips into the corner, ok I’m alive, compose yourself ready for the next bit, braap loamy corner, and another… This was hands down the steepest and most technical enduro race I’ve ever done, EWS and Trans Savoie included.

Deep in the French speaking Swiss Jura there is a tiny village called Mervelier surrounded by innocent looking little limestone hills. The place is the unexpected home to Magma Bike the Swiss Banshee distributors, and JUride a bunch of incrediley passionate trail builders. In the woods behind the village this small group of passionate guys have been busy constructing a network of mountain bike trails, the easiest of which would challenge most good riders. The skill and knowledge put into these trails has to be seen to be believed, steep sections drop into perfectly formed catch berms, incredibly technical lines have been picked out through the rocky outcrops of limestone, off-camber traverses built up to hold your bike. People building most of the rubbish motorway style goober friendly shite you find in the Swiss Alpine resorts could learn a thing or two by coming here.

The race itself was mental. I didn’t have time to practice most of the trails so rode a lot of it blind, and quickly realised neither my body or mind were recovered enough from the Trans Savoie to go full gas into a race. Too late! Never the less I found myself riding things that if I had have had chance to stop at the top and look, there is no way I’d have gone down. Sometimes it was the sheer length and steepness that was the challenge, other times the sharp rugged limestone rocks littering the trail provided a huge technical challenge. I had a massive stack on one near vertical long chute where i didn’t turn in time and went hurtling down the hill ending up with a massive dead leg, which left has me hobbling around like an idiot ever since.

In between the sketchy bits it was incredible fun. Deep loam, incredible tacky grip, switchback and catch berm gallore. The way the trails are built means you are able to get down things which on first look are super steep and scary. There was very little pedaling in the stages but with 1900m climbing over 26 km it was a big day out. The stages got progressively harder, culminating in Delerium, a track which scared even some former world cup downhill riders and left me so physically and mentally fried that I was taking breaks along the way to compose myself before the next technical onslaught!. Overall I was happy to survive and finish 2nd to the incredibly fast top 10 EWS rider Melanie Pugin. I wouldn’t like every race to be this tough but its great to push your comfort zone from time to time!

The race was part of Juride Days, a bike festival which brought people from miles around. Also behind the village is a bike park with some huge dirt jumps and north shore which was at the centre of the race village. Back-flips and 360s were the order of the day for a best trick contest, there was a DJ, live music, food and a party late into the night. The contrast between people and lifestyle here and that in Zürich is amazing and its worth a visit for that alone. The guys involved are some of the most friendly, open, passionate (and crazy) people you can ever meet and they for sure know how to ride bikes.

The race was the first of the Helveti’ Cup, a mini 4 race series in the French speaking part of Switzerland. Great to finally see some racing here, looking forward to the rest!

Altitude expedition – St Moritz

Cait — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 12:24:31 +0000

With the arrival of Autumn coming rapidly nearer my summer ended in a panic stricken rush to ride everything possible with a string of weekends in the mountains. The latest was a camping expedition with friends in St Moritz, perhaps better known as a posh ski resort, but in summer its a stunning wild high-Alpine area full of singletracks with far less people than some of the better promoted bike resorts. Its hard work to ride, the town is at 1700m so you’re up riding at well over 2000m, there is a good reason why all the Swiss mtb stars train up there.

We arrived to heavy clouds, cool temperatures and muddy trails – quite a novelty after a summer of dust but I felt perfectly at home. The first ride involved a long slog to get above the clouds surrounded by rugged, wild mountains. Unexpectedly we turned straight into a really fun man-made mountain bike trail full of jumps and berms to descent 100s of metres back down to St Moritz where it was time for a bit of boutique shopping.

The next day the weather cleared up just in time for an epic technical freeride day up to the Survetta Pass. This was the kind of ride where you could stop and take a photo every ten meters, filled with views of glaciers, turquoise lakes, empty valleys and high peaks. Steep climbing was rewarded with a technical traverse along the edge of a mountainside with a disconcerting drop of the edge and kilometers of perfect, fast narrow singletrack descents. Eventually we made it to the Survetta pass, a desolate empty valley with a beautiful glacial lake, and from there one of the best technical rocky descents I’ve ever ridden. More of the same the next day followed by a stunning train ride swooping down 1000s of meters back down to Zurich.

With this kind of thing on the doorstep it’s very difficult to justify going to work on a Monday morning…

Summer & sanity maintenance

Cait — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 09:47:37 +0000

Lack of racing means I need new ways to get an adrenaline fix and feeling of adventure. The solution is to explore as much as possible, ride in interesting places and on challenging trails. I’ve developed hawk eyes for spotting singletracks in the woods and a tendancy for taking risks.

A few weeks ago I had an early season freeride adventure risking the presence of snow remaining in the Alps. I remember passing the near vertical mountain above Wallenstadt on the train when I was Liechtenstein and wondering how on earth there could be houses up there, so after finding out there was also a mountain bike trail there it had to be investigated!

Walensee - the start

A nice flat intro along the edge of the Walensee with a view of where we would end up.

climbing up

Gaining altitude rapidly, 1500m up a very steep hill in scorching heat.

first obstacle

Several snow obstacles and hike-a-bike sections.

steep cliffs

Alpine singletrack!

the top (ish!)

Seemed to be the top, it should be easy from here right?

scheisse Schnee!

Awkwardly placed snow patches on vertical sections of mountain with 100s of metres to fall to the lake. Possible to hike but when carrying a bike at the same time it would have been a bit stupid! = ride failure, turn back the way we came.

spring colours

Ragley you are one spoilt bike

Back down via some super walking trails – the illegal ones are always the best!

Wallenstadt

A quick (ie cold!) swim to cool off in the lake to cool off before hopping on the train home.

Wallensee

The arrival of summer makes Zurich a much nicer place to be. There is suddenly life in the streets and people come crawling out of their houses for bbqs and summer parties. Switzerland is a country of extremes, when the sun is out it gets super hot so jumping in the lake or super fast flowing river through the city are essential for cooling off. When it’s not sunny it can drop 15°C in an hour and rain torrentially with sky exploding bursts of thunder and giant hail stones. It’s all quite exciting as long as you’re not out on a bike!

post ride river chilling

hailstones

evening road exploration

Ireland vs Switzerland Part II

Cait — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:00:39 +0000

My last blog post seemed to raise a few opinions so I’d better explain further. As I said before Ireland and particularly Dublin is one of the best places I know for xc riding and training, with a great cycling community and a great variety of technical trails within easy access of the capital city. So why do Switzerland have a handful of both male and female xc riders in the top 20 in the world from junior through to elite level whilst Ireland has… err, well, none?! Elite racing is given so much more prestige and recognition here, achievement in sport seems to be more desirable and encouraged. The national newspapers frequently cover mountain bike racing and national races frequently attract 7,000+ spectators.

Swiss racing

There are 8 UCI ranked xc races attracting top riders from all over the world in Switzerland this year and none in Ireland. This allows riders to compete in their own country whilst gaining experience of world class level racing, providing inspiration and increasing ambitions. It gives the events more prestige making it easier to attract public and media attention as well as associated funding and financial support. The availability of support not only from the National Cycling body but also from teams from amateur through to professional level cannot be underestimated – making racing financially possible (it is almost unheard of here for an elite rider to work full time), providing valuable expertise and allowing riders to focus on performance.

Development from a young age is well considered in Switzerland. Nationals races have kids races which include skills testing as well as other entertainment to keep them interested throughout the day. Many clubs have a good development structure offering technical coaching, training and race assistance for underage riders. This is only beginning to get going in Ireland.

Up to a certain level the Irish race scene is quite good, it is not considered elitist so there is a wide variety of people taking part, there is a good sociable atmosphere at races, and participation is rapidly increasing. Having raced all over Europe I would still say Djouce, Castlewellan or Kilruddery are amongst the best national standard races courses I’ve ridden, technically and physically challenging as well as great fun to ride.

racing - Dublin mountians

Its when you get to the top level of the sport that things are lacking with very few riders competing at a real international level, especially for elite women. There is little understanding of the standard of international racing and what is involved to get that fast. There is no structure or guidance and little experience of coaching for riders wanting to compete at that level. Without our own UCI races and with low numbers of elite riders it becomes essential to travel to Europe for anyone wanting to progress in the sport but there is no encouragement to do so. It is logistically and financially difficult with riders left to make their own way. This takes a lot of determination, often leads to doing things the hard way and ultimately often affects results negatively. It is easier to stay at home, win a race all be it at a slower pace and be happy with what we have rather than really progressing and being internationally competitive.

Some of these factors come down to wider cultural economical differences between Switzerland and Ireland (some of which you would never dream of trying to change!), but I’m sure that Ireland has the potential to gain a reputation for being at least as good a place for mountain biking and racing as Switzerland, and develop some top level riders to go with that.

Zürich vs Dublin

Cait — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:00:05 +0000

Alpine mtb

I’m starting to get annoyed with people telling me I must be in heaven coming from ‘flat’ Ireland to go mountain biking in Switzerland. Actually not quite. Think of Swiss mountain biking and you think of spectacular mountains, massive climbs and long technical Alpine descents. There is that but firstly I don’t live in the Alps, the hills around Zurich are similar size to the Dublin mountains. There are a few good trails that are very easy to get to from the city but far less of them and less variety than in Dublin. The hills are very steep so you climb from ages by fireroad because the singletracks are too steep to ride up, do one long descent and then repeat. I miss technical climbs and xc rides where you go for hours and barely see a bloody fireroad.

Powerscourt, Wicklow

Admittedly Ireland has no Alpine size mountains and there really is something amazing about riding in such spectacular scenery, but when it’s limited to 3 or 4 months of the year due to snow then its less of an advantage. For downhill and freeride Switzerland probably wins, uplifts and long descents make far more sense for this than small hills. There is also has the advantage of an extremely reliable and extensive train network so its easy to get to different riding locations at the weekend to get some variety.

Dublin mountains singletrack

Cycling is not a seasonal sport in Ireland. I can’t get my head around the fact that here everyone puts their bike in the cellar between November and March. Summer dust is all very well but mud and wet roots are my favourite biking conditions and make for good technical skills. We don’t have the option of skiing so you just toughen up (actually that is possible here 95% of the time too but most people seem too weak!).

Then there is the social side. Clubs here seem to be only for serious cyclists and most people ride alone or in small groups. There are a lot of people riding but so many of them can only ride downhill or else tear around the fireroads on pimped out bikes but have no skills or appreciation for what the sport is really about. I couldn’t imagine anything like the Epic Club race with 50 or 60 people turning up for some hardcore xc mtb fun and then having a laugh in the pub afterwards. I really think that for xc riding and training Dublin is one of the best places you can live. No matter what level you are riding at there are club rides, races and training buddys to make things more fun.

There is so much potential for mountain biking in Ireland, which is perhaps beginning to be recognised internationally, but not anywhere near as much as it deserves. But actually maybe we should keep quiet about it, keep Irish mountain biking for real mountain bikers – an influx of Eurogoobers could seriously ruin things…

Lugnaquilla, Wicklow

Alpine mtb in Ticino

Cait — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:00:31 +0000

Just as we thought summer had arrived the weather made a dramatic return to snowy winter timed perfectly with Easter weekend. The solution? head south and chase the sun! Fellow Irish exile Fiola Foley and I had a road trip to Ticino for some big-mountain biking. When you pass through the Gothard tunnel everything breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes, the buildings are colourful and disordered, the weather sunny and snow-free, the language and food Italian – only the Swiss francs and the incessant ringing of church bells confirm that you’re still in Switzerland.

Day 1 didn’t quite follow the weather forecast and was a bit of an adventure with a monster steep long climb up to 1400m, river crossings, hike-a-bike, riding in the clouds, mud and rain, a fast fun descent, soaking wet kit, an enforced coffee and lunch stop due to gigantic thunder and lightening storms, a more sheltered xc ride, more rain, hail stones, more wet kit and finally a well deserved Italian pizza.

river crossing

hike-a-bike

the top

big climbs

looks like Italy!

The next day the sun came out and another long, steep and extremely windy 1500m climb took us up to Refugio San Lucio on top of a ridge surrounded by spectacular mountain views. After welcome stop for hot coffee and a chat with some super friendly Germans in the hut we hit a singletrack climb along the ridge dodging the occasional snow drift before starting an awesome long decent. Unfortunately just as it was getting good, Fiola snapped her mech hangar and had to take the fireroad down whilst I hit some rocky, rooty, fast, flowing, switchbacking singletrack down to the bottom. Lugging the ‘Green Monster’ (Ragely mmm bop) all the way up the mountain was suddenly worthwhile!

Refugio San Lucio

Singletrack climbing

1000m decent!

Excitingly this all took place only 2.5 hours drive from where I live! bring on the summer…

more photos here.

The ‘Euro-goober’

Cait — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:47:02 +0000

They’ve been around in the UK for a few years, typically known as ‘all the gear, no idea’ riders. The construction of man-made trailcentres in Ireland in the last year or two has meant they have become increasingly common sight in the hills around Dublin leading to the term ‘goober’. You know the story – shiny new bikes, bad setup, lots of expensive kit, a reluctance to ride anywhere other than marked trails, riding veerrryyy slowly up the hills, riding very badly back down again but able to tell you everything there is to know about the latest bikes and components (providing it has been written about in a magazine).

It turns out this could be a world-wide phenomenon, Euro-goobers take things to a new level with the Zuri-goober being possibly the pinnacle of gooberness. There are lots of people with too much money and no idea what to do with it. There even seem to be some Euro bike brands that specialize in making such bikes.

I’ve seen beautiful €5000 carbon xtr clad bikes utterly destroyed by the addition of a stand, a gigantic GPS, a bell, mudguards, bar ends, luggage racks and even wing mirrors. I have to question what goes through these people’s mind when they buy such accessories, its a crime against cycling and good design. I’ve seen hardcore downhillers with 100s of mm of travel, full face helmets and full body armour getting loose and wild descending the fireroads beside Zurich (I wouldn’t mind but there is even a goober friendly waymarked trail they could use!). I get funny looks for riding up the hills when I could take the tram and even more funny looks for hurtling past such people on my little hardtail down the singletracks.

There is even an equivalent hiker – fully clad in gore-tex, mountaineering style hiking books, rucksacks large enough to survive for a week, and essential here are ski poles to aid walking slowly up the hills. They only walk on fireroads in the small hills beside the city, stop for a picnic after 10 minutes and get in the way but complain like mad when mountain bikers want to get past.

I’ve started to make a collection of photos of their wonderful bikes, here is a taster to be updated with more soon:
Maybe I shouldn’t be so judgemental, at least they’re getting out and doing something!

Images

Cait — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:30:38 +0000

Exploration is the name of the game at the moment. I have to admit, Zurich has some great mountain bike trails but I quickly realised it comes nowhere near Dublin when in terms of quantity and variety of riding. Too many fireroad climbs and not enough singletrack. I was almost starting to get bored until I got on a train to Zug and was shown around by some of the locals. Suddenly the climbs got technical, the descents steeper, the riding more varied. Happy days.

Today I re-discovered road biking after 6 weeks off due to my bike still being in Dublin. Nice climbs, long descents with swooping corners and super smooth wide roads. Speed is fun. Even found a mid-ride bakery open on a Sunday. Awesome.

Some images:

Greifensee road ride

Greifensee

Lindt chocolate

Horgener Bergweiher

Zugerberg ride

alpine views

18 degrees in November!

zurich night spin

No sign of snow yet.

Switzerland

Cait — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:57:25 +0000

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic relocating to Switzerland and adapting to a new job and a new life – exciting times but there is also a lot of hassle involved so its lucky October is the off-season and I haven’t been trying to train. I now have a place to live, a residence permit, a Swiss bank account, compulsory health insurance, a Swiss phone number, a few people to go biking with, a few more people to go partying with, and a few words of Swiss German.

Zurich seems to be quite an eclectic city. Super rich, sharply dressed bankers with horrible slicked back hair driving fast sports cars. Trendy graphic designers, artists and architects posing in cool cafes. Adventurous types taking the opportunity to do every adventurous sport you can think of in the surrounding mountains.

A few general observations:
Switzerland is THE most expensive place I have ever been in my life but you always get good quality for your money.
Shops are never open when you need them, EVERYTHING is shut on Sundays.
Supermarkets have a bigger selection of chocolate, cheese and yoghurt than you could ever think possible.
Swiss German sounds like gobbledegook and is entirely incomprehensible.
Rules are there to be followed, everything is accurate, it is not acceptable to be fashionably late.
The hills here can be steeper than you would think possible, biking down such hills in the wet with summer race tyres can be scary.

Riding to work along the edge of woods full of trails looking at views of the Alps is a bit of a killer but the weekends are good. Paragliding, lakeside running and chasing freeride mountain bikers down hills have counteracted all the Swiss cheese and chocolate – so far the weather has been great but I’m starting to get scared about winter. Weeks of pedalling on a turbo in the basement could be looming…

morning commute

Sunday in Switzerland

running by the lake

Davos

flying in Davos

Walking off a cliff

Paragliding!

MTB in Zurichoberland

Zurichoberland

A week in Zurich

Cait — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:30:03 +0000

My plan to escape Ireland in October using the cunning method of applying for jobs according to google maps terrain setting finally paid off, resulting in a spontaneous last minute trip to Zurich last week for a work trial. Switzerland is the home of über-cool concrete architecture, a functioning economy and most importantly of course, the Alps!

lunchtime at work

I got the job and Zurich passed the test as a suitable city to live in as a mountain biker. Its surrounded by small, steep mountains that are riddled with awesome technical singletrack, including some semi-manmade downhill courses, jump parks, and a pump track. I got a lot of funny looks from people on downhill bikes as I hammered down on my carbon hardtail, it was fun but I’m buying a freeride bike asap!

Alpine backdrop

The Alps are a short train ride away and make an amazing backdrop to the city. Even better there are 5 UCI races within an hour of Zurich (Swiss Cup), 4 World Cups can be accessed without going near an airport, German and Italian races are close by. 2012 race schedule sorted.

Now I have 2 weeks to learn German, learn that rules are there to be followed, learn to turn up early for things not late and attend to some unfinished business with the 2011 race season…

view on an evening ride

Lake Zurich

lake zurich & the alps

Zurich city centre

River

Stedelhofen Station by Calvatrava