Born For Offroad-Cycling
I think that I’ve come to realize that miles and elevation just aren’t enough when I saddle up on a road bike. It started last year with rides such as the Strada Bianca, the Anabaptist Bridge and climbs to the Chasseral last year. All these rides would always include stretches of gravel or dirt roads. Nothing I consider technically challenging, but roads I have yet to meet another roadie. This morning, the sun smiled down on the city and it was unusually warm. Everything was still wet and I wasn’t planning to singlespeed through mud. Instead, I grabbed my already dirty road bike for some good climbing time.
I rode out of town with no real plan. I steered to Cortébert for a nice workout climbing through the hillside forest. It was during the climb that a silly and maybe stupid idea popped into mind. Wouldn’t it be cool to attempt reaching the Chasseral in mid January on my road bike. Not on the road, where would the challenge be in that? No, on fire roads from the backside. That was the plan. As I made my way across the plateau and was close to reach the Petite Douanne, a farmer in his 4x4 Subaru came down the narrow mountain road. The road was partially covered under snow and he yielded so that I could pass. As I rode past his car, he rolled down the window and asked if I had snow tires mounted. I replied with a laughing no, and said that pedaling up the road just went fine. He had a big grin in his face while saying: “Not for much longer, dude.”
I rode for a few hundred meters and quickly stood in front of a pile of snow blocking the trail. But I’m not the one to turn around. I climbed across the snow and soon found the fire road partially rideable. At that point I still had the Chasseral in mind, already thinking about a good spot for a photo to immortalize the achievement on Flickr. When the trail turned up to the right, I was back pushing the bike across pure ice. I reached the fork and found my climb to the Chasseral under a good meter of snow. Well, so much for that, I had to forge a new plan. It seemed that I’d have a better chance to ride taking the trail on the left that leads to the Place Centrale and is used for cross-country skiing in the winter.
I rode on and when I met more snow, it was hard as rock, easily carrying me on my skinny road tires. So I quickly covered several miles until my front wheel suddenly took a dive into a soft patch of snow. I went over the bars and realized that more attention needed to be paid from now on. Place Centrale reached, I hit the long downhill to Orvin. I let it rip, though I did watch for black ice in the first couple of turns. Legs still feeling good, I hammered up to Evilard to dive back home into Biel. Folks, if you stowed away your bike waiting for spring, dust it off and go out for a ride. These are the days you’ll remember!
