Day 5

Today, we road from Flims to Lugano, 120 miles with 2 big climbs and 5 mile kicker at the 105 mile mark. First off, hats off to Vic for ordering up great weather for our trip. The temperature was very comfortable the entire way and no rain. Second, Vic is determined to stay in Switzerland. He keeps leaving his saddlebag open and his passport is the first thing to hit the pavement. We are not talking once or twice either.

The first climb was Oberalppass, 30 miles of gradual climbing followed by 10 miles of avg 8% with many switchbacks!! Of course, Vic and Squirrel ride away from Garbanzo, each of us finding a rhythm. In general, many Swiss seem to be in great shape, considering seeing this 70 year old couple descending on their 40lbs tandem bike with panniers everywhere! We regrouped at the top for the photo-op. We descended Oberalppass with a tour bus and cars in the way spoiling some of the fun. The second climb over the St. Gotthard Pass begins immediately once you reach the valley. This is the pass where the Romans came through on elephants a few thousand years ago. They were smart to use elephants rather than bicycles. The pitch on both climbs were anywhere from 8%-12% steady.

We had lunch on top of St. Gotthard, consisting of Bratwurst, Alpen Cheese with bread and a refreshing warm Coke! The descent was fast and furious without traffic, until we hit the old cobbled road (remember the Romans). Brick had some excitement on the way down. He is pedaling along and all of a sudden the pedal is not attached to the crank any longer, just to his shoe. We stop with Brick giving Garbanzo a hard time for telling him not to tighten his pedals real tight. Well, turns out the pedal barely spins on the spindle and it just works its way loose after a few strokes. Luckily we were able to convince an Italian speaking auto mechanic into really tightening the pedal to the crank and oiling the spindle. Wait until Brick tries to take that pedal off when packing up the bike.

The next 60 miles were pretty countryside and uneventful until we get into Bellinzona where Squirrel’s true colors came to shine, his fetish of having to chase down every freakin scooter!!! This boy has way too much energy after climbing. On his last attempt he gained about 100 meters on us, so he was unable to hear Brick whistle as he decided to enter the freeway (funny, that the Swiss have a rule against that)!!! After waiting for a few minutes for Squirrel to realize he was being honked at by every passing car, but due to his loud singing of “O sole mio”, Brick and Garbanzo were unable to reconnect with Squirrel! So we had no choice but to continue on the designated bike route on our own. Brick had some choice words, especially after having endured similar antics going down/up (don’t ask) to Flims on our first day on the bike. Fortunately, we were able to catch back up with Squirrel on the short, but very steep climb to Lugano. Him waiting half way up this climb saved Squirrel from hearing all of Brick’s choice words!!

Just as we reach the top of this climb Brick really starts to struggle so we pull into this gas station and buy some cokes and snickers bars. We sit our tired asses down on the few chairs and this short break really feels great. As we’re getting ready to get going again we notice the store owner pumping her fist at us for wetting her chairs with our wonderful sweat!! Luckily she didn’t sick her “Tiffosy” on us, so we simply just rode away while pleasantly smiling at her!

We arrived at the hotel and enjoyed dinner with Harry and Cindy, Vic’s parents. They are the greatest, schlepping our luggage all over Switzerland and being our tour guides off the bike.

Day 4

We decided to ride to shorter loop from Flims to Tiefencastel, then up and over the Lenzerheide Pass down to Chur and back up to Flims. The estimated length was 57 miles or about 4 hours. The reasons for picking the shorter loop was due to Squirrel messing around with his gears and the front break cable until 1AM the night before! ..and because Garbanzo had lower back problems (yeah right!)

So Squirrel and I took off around 11:45. The decent from Flims was a really nice reward for yesterday's climbing. Once we reached the valley we had a few rollers of about 11 miles with a constant uphill slope. At about the 2o mile mark is when wwe started climbing for the first time. About 5 miles averaging about 4% with the first 2 miles of average 6% and 13% max. At the end of the 5 miles we crossed the old Solis bridge over the huge gorge. While we were talking pictures Squirrel fell in love with the Italian Chick! Not because she was riding this very nice De Rosa bike, because of her white shorts!!!

It was a challenge to get him to get focused on the next stretch of road, which kicked up for 1.2 miles at an average of 8.2% and max of 13.5%. He had a short dip and then the real climb up to Lenzerheide started. Total climb was 8.4 miles avg grade of 5% with max 14.9%. The first 4.2 miles however were the though ones, avg at 8.2%. Once at the top we put arm warmers and vest on for the decent. Sure enough, .5 mile into it, it started raining, so we had to take it a bit slower than anticipated, but also because of the slow moving cars. After 9 miles we reached the valley below and luckily the rain stopped, to make it nice and humid for our climb back up to Flims!

Once we got back to the trailer we had 59 miles in 3:43, total climbing 6591ft. In the mean time, Garbanzo, "the-stay-at-home-mom" had made our beds, cleaned the trailer, did the laundry and had gone shopping for dinner. Today's menu included tomatoes with mozzarella, pork steak, pasta, green beans and read wine! Since Garbanzo and I did the cooking, Squirrel had to do the dishes!!!

Day 3 cont.

We finally started our ride up to Flims at 11:45! The first 40 miles or 2 hours were quite uneventful, except that Squirrel had a bit to much energy! After this we started our first climb over the small Kerenzer pass - 4 miles of 5% with a max of 9.4%. Garbanzo dropped off early and said to regroup at the top. Squirrel and I had a nice low zone 4 climb and pulled over at the top. It was quite warm so Squirrel went into the hotel and filled up his water bottle. I went in afterwards to fill mine, while Squirrel was suppose to look out for Garbanzo. Of course Squirrel was up to no good adjusting his gears and not watching for Garbanzo! Once I came out i was surprised the Garbanzo wasen't there yet. I asked Squirrel if he'd been watching for him and he said no, but figured he would have seen him, even though he was virtually invisible hiding behind some parked cars!!! We waited a bit longer and the asked a rider coming up from the other side if had seen a guy in our kit. Sure, he's about 10 minutes a head!!! Squirrel and I started chasing after Garbnzo on the decent and the subsequent flat for about 12 miles. No Garbanzo. So we stopped and I decided to call my Dad, to have him call Garbanzo on the US line, since Garbanzo is the only one with a cell phone that works over here. I go to this public phone booth, but naturally they don't take any change! So I find a kiosk where I can purchase a phone card. I left my saddle bag unzipped heading back over to the phone booth, and sure enough my passport had fallen out!! Luckily I realized that it was missing, so I retraced my steps and found it laying in the middle of the highway! Back to the phone booth and the stupid card doesn't seem to work (I'm sure it's the operator's fault!!). So now Squirrel is getting a bit impatient and tells me to go to the hotel across the street and ask to use their phone. Luckily I'm able to reach my parents just as they are walking out of the door! I explain the embarrassing situation and he ends up rolling around on the floor from laughing so hard! I call him back after a few minutes and he was able to reach Garbanzo, who's just up the rod a few miles!!

After finally regrouping we continue our trip. At mile 91 we start our ascent to Flims. I knew it was fairly steep, but since I've only driven it in a car I had no idea what it was like on a bike. Well it's 8 miles avg 6% with a max of 13%, excluding a small dip. However, the first 4 miles avg 7.4% and include 1 mile of avg 9.8%!

We regroup at the edge of Flims and ride to our new home together. My parents brought up our luggage and were waiting for us. Of course my dad couldn't keep from giving us a hard time about "loosing" a rider!

The final length was 99 miles, 5hr 24 minutes with total climbing of 5526ft.

Day 3

Well, we never received the bikes last night, so I called this morning and actually was able to speak to a live person! They were surprised that we didn't get our stuff. Shortly thereafter I got a call from the delivery service saying that they will deliver between 9 and 11 today. 10:30 they arrived. Now it's almost noon and we are finally ready to roll.

See you in Flims!

We finally started our ride up to Flims at 11:45! The first 40 miles or 2 hours were quite uneventful, except that Squirrel had a bit to much energy! After this we started our first climb over the small Kerenzer pass - 4 miles of 5% with a max of 9.4%. Garbanzo dropped off early and said to regroup at the top. Squirrel and I had a nice low zone 4 climb and pulled over at the top. It was quite warm so Squirrel went into the hotel and filled up his water bottle. I went in afterwards to fill mine, while Squirrel was suppose to look out for Garbanzo. Of course Squirrel was up to no good adjusting his gears and not watching for Garbanzo! Once I came out i was surprised the Garbanzo wasen't there yet. I asked Squirrel if he'd been watching for him and he said no, but figured he would have seen him, even though he was virtually invisible hiding behind some parked cars!!! We waited a bit longer and the asked a rider coming up from the other side if had seen a guy in our kit. Sure, he's about 10 minutes a head!!! Squirrel and I started chasing after Garbnzo on the decent and the subsequent flat for about 12 miles. No Garbanzo. So we stopped and I decided to call my Dad, to have him call Garbanzo on the US line, since Garbanzo is the only one with a cell phone that works over here. I go to this public phone booth, but naturally they don't take any change! So I find a kiosk where I can purchase a phone card. I left my saddle bag unzipped heading back over to the phone booth, and sure enough my passport had fallen out!! Luckily I realized that it was missing, so I retraced my steps and found it laying in the middle of the highway! Back to the phone booth and the stupid card doesn't seem to work (I'm sure it's the operator's fault!!). So now Squirrel is getting a bit impatient and tells me to go to the hotel across the street and ask to use their phone. Luckily I'm able to reach my parents just as they are walking out of the door! I explain the embarrassing situation and he ends up rolling around on the floor from laughing so hard! I call him back after a few minutes and he was able to reach Garbanzo, who's just up the rod a few miles!!

After finally regrouping we continue our trip. At mile 91 we start our ascent to Flims. I knew it was fairly steep, but since I've only driven it in a car I had no idea what it was like on a bike. Well it's 8 miles avg 6% with a max of 13%, excluding a small dip. However, the first 4 miles avg 7.4% and include 1 mile of avg 9.8%!

We regroup at the edge of Flims and ride to our new home together. My parents brought up our luggage and were waiting for us. Of course my dad couldn't keep from giving us a hard time about "loosing" a rider!

The final length was 99 miles, 5hr 24 minutes with total climbing of 5526ft.

Day 2

Yet another fantastic day, about 82 and low humidity!!! Since we still don't have our bikes, we decided to do some sightseeing and tour around Zürich. My dad offered to be the tour guide.

I'm sure it was quite interesting for Squirrel and Garbanzo, I on the other hand was checking out mostly the "scenery"! Squirrel ended up loosing all concentration once my dad pointed out the public swimming place for women only (I think he filled up the entire memory card on his camera)!!! We finally were able to wrestle him away and got back home where I was able to check on the status of our bikes. They have found them and they are suppose to deliver them by 6PM!!!!

Most excellent! If they actually get here at 6, we'll try to get in a short ride, since it doesn't get dusk here until 9:30.

If all works out, we'll get back on "schedule" tomorrow and ride from Zürich to Flims (95m).

Where did Conway's new nickname Garbanzo come from? As we were visiting Doc last Saturday, he suggested going to the restaurant called Garbanzo Bean. As he was talking he was starring at Chris. I thought it was quite funny and really liked Garbanzo, and decided to give him this new nickname. I'm sure the GB would be acceptable too, but Garbanzo just has a great ring to it!!

It's Party Time!

This picture was taken at Dulles, when everything was still going as planned.

After a rocky start at Dulles we finally arrived in Zürich at 3:30PM local time!!  Due to the storm hitting Dulles just as we started taxiing away we ended up sitting on the tarmac for 2.5 hours, and naturally missing our connection in London!!

As we arrived in Zürich our luggage was there, except our bike cases!!!!! No word yet when they'll get them to us. Depending on when we get them, we may have to move our schedule back a day or two. Naturally, the weather right now is just perfect, about 75 degrees and sunny!

However, right now we're quite tired, but not to tired to watch the end of today's TdF stage.