42nd Birthday Loop
It’s an office tradition to have the afternoon off on one’s birthday. My wife had to be out of town for work, but had placed an order for a birthday gift she knew I’d love - a sunny afternoon. Still a bit sore from the long run on Sunday, I grabbed the Alize for a ride through the Jura. I wanted to climb the Jeanbrenin pass, which I have not done recently, then cross the Mont Soleil to climb the Chasseral pass on the way home. Before leaving I glanced at a map and then took off without any navigational aids. The Jeanbrenin climb went really well. The great thing about cycling and running is that they don’t quite use the same muscle groups. The sore area of my thighs didn’t have to work too badly on the bike, neither when I was spinning nor when I was climbing out of the saddle. I dropped down the steep descent into Tramelan and turned into the road heading to La Chaux-de-Fonds. I rode through Les Breuleux and continued towards La Chaux d’Abel enjoying a nice tailwind. As soon as I spotted a sign pointing to the Mont Soleil, I turned left to climb up to that sunny mountain.
The Mont Soleil is known for renewable energies, being home of a huge solar power plant and a bunch of humongous windmills. I stopped to take a few photos then continued to the Montagne du Droit to reach the “trotinette” descent into Sonvilier. Without a map, I missed the correct turn but easily found the way back onto my route. Once in Sonvilier, I climbed the narrow road I’m familiar with the reach the Montagne de l’Envers. Unfortunately, they were paving a stretch of this one lane road so I decided to try my luck a bit further west. Well, riding mapless I went the wrong way, climbed to a dead-end and couldn’t find anyone with any knowledge of those small mountain roads. There are actually two other tiny roads to get up there and I should check them out to have a few more options in the future. Today, I took a little shortcut and headed straight to Les Pontins from where it’s just a stone-throw to reach the Chasseral climb. The brisk wind made climbing easy as a tailwind and made things a lot harder as a headwind. Once at the top of the Chasseral, I put arm warmers on for the long descent into Nods. On the Diesse plateau, the wind seemed even stiffer. On that usually fast stretch, one had to actually work to keep moving. Two more short climbs were still ahead, a little bump right after Lamboing and the last uphill to get out of Frinvillier. Back in Biel I wanted nothing other than a hot shower and a good dinner.
| Distance: | 103km (64 miles) |
| Elevation: | 2’701m (8’861 feet) |
| Time: | 04:19:46 |
| Speed (avg/max): | 23.8/83.8 kph (14.8/52.1 mph) |
| GPS Track: | GPSies.com |
