Road Riding Weekend
Friday evening I left the office totally overdressed in the cycling gear I had put on in the morning. I arrived at home, jumped into some other clothes and ran to the post office. They had another part for the new road bike waiting. I was somewhat confused when the postal clerk handed me a black HP computer box. I never ordered a new PC. Grabbing the box, I quickly realized that there was no computer inside. Based on the weight, it could be nothing more than the Zipp handlebar I purchased from Bikespeed (awesome shop by the way). Back home, I unpacked it and then hurried to get a road bike ride in before the sun went down. With temperatures still around 20 degrees, I left in shorts bringing along arm and knee warmers in my jersey pocket in case it would get cold at higher elevations. I left Biel and headed to Corgémont, where I wanted to climb to the Place Centrale for a return through Orvin. In the valley to Corgémont everything has turned green and a lot is in full bloom. But as soon as I headed into the climb, the forest was still just coming out of winter. Between the Anabaptist Bridge and the Place Centrale, there was still lots of snow sitting around. The dirt trail was wet and extremely muddy.
I returned for pretty much the same loop this morning, except that I continued to Cortébert to do the more western ascent to the Place Centrale. I went hard on Friday and took it easy today. I’m planning to do another ride tomorrow and had no plans to kill myself today. Right out of Cortébert, I met two guys getting a weird combination of gear out of their car. They had carabiners, cords and other stuff that looked like climbing gear but also wetsuits. Maybe there are caves up in that area, I don’t know. The climb this side up was fantastic. In the morning, temperatures were around 5 degrees. Chilly enough to do the whole ride wearing arm and knee warmers. I returned home before noon. Had some lunch and drove back up there with my wife for a short ride on the plateau. The area was full of daffodils and crocuses. Unfortunately, a chilly breeze blew away our plans to hang out and enjoy the colorful pastures. We stopped at La Cuisinière and shared a plate of cheese covered Rösti. Their dessert menu only offered “industrial” ice cream, so we left for coffee and dessert at the Restaurant des Gorges. As always, we got awesome dessert and wonderful Cappuccino. This is a place we’ll be visiting whenever we want to treat ourselves to good food nearby. Tomorrow is supposed to be another warm day - another day to ride.
