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.