A Glimpse of Summer (Maybe)
It's been a late start to the warmer season here in Switzerland, and unlike the famous parts of the mountainous cheese kingdom, our little region has some awesome uncrowded trails for riding.

As you will know from my post two weeks ago, it’s been a rainy start to summer.
As such, getting out for a bike ride has been a bit of a non starter.
Mostly.
Of course, you can go riding in the pouring rain, but where’s the fun in that?
The whole point of getting out for a bike ride, besides the exercise, is to enjoy some fresh (dry) air in your face along with some scenery.
And there’s none of that when you can barely see 10m ahead when it’s pouring down with rain and your sunglasses (with the clear lenses on due to the rain) are fogged up.
Never mind the slippery trails that pose a very real danger of injury.
Just ask my colleague who recently found out the hard way.
He’s ok, thanks for asking.
Nothing broken, only a badly banged up knee and skin loss in some weird and wonderful places.
Now he has to limp around for a few weeks.
He’s French, so no stress, they complain all the time anyway (he’ll concur with me on this point, we’re good like that!).
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yes, a glimpse of summer.
You see, even though we’re not such a famous part of Switzerland for summer biking, our advantage is uncrowded trails.
And finally, after a mucho grande amount of unseasonal rain the last while, we had a sunny day or two for some bike riding.
But you have to know your way around.
Like me and the wife on a recent morning ride during a clearing in the weather (we sill got rained on on the way down later), below, in the Lenk region.
Local knowledge, in other words.
Or know a local.
Both work.
This is what I love about our work lunch time rides in summer.
You see, we’re a bike business in summer and a ski business in winter, and we act accordingly.
So, on Wednesday - during summer - we head out on a lunch time ride together (in winter it’s a quick few runs on the ski slope, or ski test session).
All of us know different trails in different ways and regions.
So we often mix and match options depending on progress and time.
And if you’re on a gravel bike, you’re in luck.
Why?
Well, you can connect punchy little asphalt climbs with forest trails on the way down, or vice versa.
It’s really awesome.
If you don’t know a local (in other words, your friends who don’t read Alpine Dispatches), and are looking for routes to ride? Check out the Gstaad website’s cycling section, here, it has some nice routes with descriptions, GPX files, pics, etc.
But there’s so much more to ride that’s not one there, fyi.
I guess you’ll just have to keep in touch here (and tell your friends who’re visiting to subscribe)!

That’s it for this week, over to you!
Do you have any interesting stories or thoughts to share?
Simply hit reply and let me know / comment below (so we can all benefit).
Have a great week!
PS - if you haven’t replied on the polls in last week’s post yet, do so by heading over there now, pretty please :)
PPS - want to visit our region and have some questions? You can book a FREE 30 minute virtual Q&A with me, here.
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Until next time ✌🏽.
Cornelius
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