August adventures and a reminder to charge your bike :)

Despite the weeks of high temperatures, which are only predicted to change next week,  we had a large number of riders out for our ride today. We gathered behind Sissach station where some had come by train, others by bike and we welcomed 2 new joiners. The Strava group has 106 members, as of today August 16 2026, which is brilliant. We said our hellos and clarified the planned route before setting off towards Gelterkinden. Over the main road, just after the railway bridge, to avoid the main road at Thürnen completely and made good progress on the veloweg. It wasnt long before we had our first challenge, right turn and climb to Wittinsburg. This is a good way to avoid the very steep climb to Känerkinden from Buckten and is normally quiet, it was quiet today too. 

Once at the top and regrouped we continued to Känerkinden, turned right to go past the play ground and again avoided the steep section and the main road. We were waved at and were shouted encouragement by a local in his front garden who seemed surprised at our group passing. Not long to top and the view of the brown fields all over the place. The countryside has taken a real beating this summer. No real stop at the top before we had fun on the descent and managed to be passed by a large car and horse box making strange squealing sounds as it braked going down the other side. We turned on to the side road before the bottom and left him and his squealing brakes to it.

 In Diepflingen it isnt far to the motorway turnoff and, once under, it we again left the main road to weave our way through the farms roads. In the spirit of - "you never know who you will meet when out on your bike" - one of our group shouted hellos to a woman walking her dog who took a few seconds to realise that yes! - she did know her and there were smiles all round. We were soon in Bennwil and stopped to prepare for the climb out of the village. Its not long and is steeper from the other side but its long and steep enough to be a good test for an early morning - oeff! The road starts steep, slackens off for a few meters before it ramps up again. You are rewarded by a really good run down to Oberdorf which is always worth it - wheech!

Next challenge was crossing the road at Oberdorf - we had trams as well as cars. The water fountain was closed but as we weren't too far from Reigoldswil and the TOILETS!! I expected us to be fine, which we were.  We got to Reigoldswill having waved and shouted hello to loads of cyclists coming the other way, and the occasional speedy bloke who passed us. Here we had a fairly long stop, lots of chatting was done as well as refiling water using the worlds slowest water fountain. It was pretty though.

Here we had lots of opportunities to take photos for the Strava group Centenary competition of "My bike leaning on a thing" - send your entry to basellandvelofrauen@gmail.com. More details in a previous blog post.

Now refreshed, it was time for more climbing. It was nearly the last major climb of the day as we were at or second last valley.

Over we went, declined a generous offer of a man to join the group on his electric scooter, took our group photo and continued on to Nunningen.

As we climbed out of Bretzwil the road peaks and you have a fun fast descent to Nunningen before you need to use the speed you gained to climb out of the village again.  It was here that we realised that one of us didnt have any more gears! Di2 battery was flat - so she was spinning like a hamster. Going uphill was sort of OK, going downhill - yikes. She nursed it along to Grellingen where she stopped the ride. Oh dear - She will never forget that again, I expect.

The downhill to Grellingen was an opportunity for another to admire the Hofladen and buy some food. 

We said cheerio to our first departing rider at Grellingen station - she would be picked up and we continued. I was delighted to see the roadworks have finished and the new road layout avoids the need to cross the tracks twice! We were soon in Aesch then onwards to Dornach for a water fountain stop.  we refilled again and apparently my mud guards were admired by a passing cyclist. I love them, they are an absolute hassle to fit, but once they are on the bike you dont know they are there. I had hoped for some rain which is why I took this bike. We got some but nothing much, fingers crossed for tomorrow!!

Now back in civilisation it didnt take much to get us to Muttenz where we said goodbye to another of the group, the rest continued towards Liestal. After the final stop,  we weaved through the village centre to Lausen for another drop off - lots of cheerio shouts! thanks for coming! and see you next time!  We continued to Sissach, somewhat depleted.

Soon back at the start, more goodbyes. One went on to ride back to Olten and 2 others came with me to Bückten before turning back to Basel. Got to get those 100km rides in somehow :-).

A great day out on the bike, not much wildlife seen, lots of brown fields and the occasional interesting car passed us.

Thanks to all for joining. I had a great time and am now in need of a rest. Hope to see you all on a bike soon!

Distance: 73km

Climbing: 1100m

Avg Speed: 20km/h  thanks to the push from Grellingen home

BLVF meets CdCC at the TdF

The Club des Cent Cols is a community of cyclists who visit and "collect" defined passes, or cols, from a global database of passes they maintain. I joined this group a few years ago and have been expanding my collection ever since. They hosted an organised a trip to see the Tour de France, when it visited Alp D'Huez this year, and I went along for the ride.

https://centcols.org/

I love cycling in the mountains, I have always loved mountains. Growing up in Scotland means mountains are for walking, normally in the rain with added snow and sleet for extra difficulty.  When I started cycling, about 10 years ago, the mountains seemed like an insurmountable obstacle and I never expected to be able to get to the top.  As I cycled more, I started to believe I could get up one. After much reading and planning, I tried one. My first experience was Sustenpass. It was amazing and I could hardly believe I managed it all under my own power. I loved it. Slow plod up the road with the reward at the top of the view then the wheech back down again. Wonderful. I started doing more and more. When I found the club a few years ago, I realised that I already qualified to join - and so the adventures began to expand.  The rules of the game are - cycle 100 recognised Cols and 5% need to be over 2000m.  

The trip:

The plan was to cycle in the Alp D'Huez area, see the race from the side of the road and collect some cols - ideally over 2000m. 

I drove down, arriving at the Gîte late in the afternoon. Once I had checked in and managed to put my bike back together, I met the others on the terrace.  We were a group of 6 altogether, 2 would arrive the next day as they lived closer. We had been sent options for the next days full day ride - no race watching just collecting cols. There were 2 versions, once climbed up the Alp with all 21 corners, the other joined the road higher up and missed out the lowest 6. I had read that the balcony road was brilliant and wanted to do that, the others wanted to full Alp D'Huez experience so we agreed to meet part of the way up the climb.

As it turned out, we didnt meet at all due to my balcony road being a disaster area. I climbed towards it and noticed a sign indicating the road was closed. It was strange as there were a fair number of cyclists coming on the other direction - having used this road - so I continued. At the junction - more signs - telling us all not to go. Still more people were coming in the opposite direction. I asked if it was OK, was told "sort of, you will need to carry your bike". so thought it should be fine. I had my gravel creation with me so was OK with poor surface. Or so I thought. This is what I saw:

Poor surface but OK - then I saw this and was a smidge concerned - its a vertical drop on the left. 

I crawled over on my knees pushing my bike up and over then crawling over myself. There were about 5 of these rock falls. I got help from some other cyclists for the most difficult one - this was not a fun ride. I passed others coming on the opposite direction and advised them not to go. Once asked if it was dangerous - answer - yes.

Once past the rocks, the road was indeed great - I hope they can fix it. I joined the main climb at La Garde to the sight of hundreds of other cyclists, cars and commotion. This would be like this all the way to the top. I climbed up the pass in a group, sometimes squeezed between traffic and the road edge it was madness. This was the day before stage 19 - which would finish up the climb and everyone seemed to be there to get their climb in before the big day. Along the way I got my action photo taken. When I got to the end I was very hot and in need of refreshments.  Unlike most of the others on the climb, my days wasnt over when I got to the race finish line. My plans were Col de Poutran and Col de Sarenne. Poutran was not very interesing, Sarenne was a dream of a climb.

Col de Sarenne is basically the other side of the mountain and you climb again our of the village and within minutes you are met with spectacular views and quiet roads. This road is the opposite of Alp D'Huez which makes it a brilliant way to continue. The road had been closed to traffic in preparation for the race so there were only some cyclists. It was great, when I reached the top there were goats welcoming the cyclists around the pass sign. They looked bored.

This is the view just after the summit looking down the climb - note the huge zig zag

It didnt take me long to get to the bottom and just had 4km to climb to the Gite again - this was steep and I was pleased to get back and have a well deserved beer.

The others were back before me. At dinner the discussion was what route to do the next day - they wanted to watch the race, I wanted to do less climbing so went on an adventure on my own up gravel climbs just behind village. I managed 3 of the 4 cols I attempted as the road was rough, steep and full of goats, so I skipped one and went on to 3 and 4 of my planned route. These were great and I realised I was on the next mountain over from Col du Sarenne and had a perfect view of that road for my lunch break

Col du Sarenne from across the valley

I got back early and had to wait outside till the Gite opened again. Melt melt

When the others got back late and had had a great time with stories of the Caravan and the race, we decided that the next day we would go to the 2 cols I had seen that day then walk down to watch the race pass later in the afternoon. Plans settled, we went for a well deserved sleep.

Next morning, we tried to eat as much as possible for breakfast., but there is only so much bread and jam I can cope with - I was missing my porridge. We set off, only a short distance but a decent climb to the view of Col du Sarenne I had done the day before. This time we had an even better view. 

I was on my gravel bike, the others were on road bikes which made the ride more difficult both going up and coming back down again.  It was great, slowly making our way to the top and the views. When we got to the very top col, we were quietly admiring the view when we started to see huge birds - these turned out to be vultures! It was brilliant to just stand there and watch them float around us. We must have seen about 10 individuals altogether.

After spending our time admiring the view and the birds we went back to the village, got changed into normal clothes and walked to see the race. It had been a great day so far, more to follow!

Down at the roadside we met someone we had been talking to the night before about the race and he had a tv - so we could watch the race from the behind the car :). The build up continued, more and more people arrived on the roadside and after about an hour - the helicopters were heard heralding the arrival of the race!

 

This boy had such a good time - making the riders smile with his antics and was gifted 2 bidons for his trouble.

It took over 30 minutes for the various parts of the race to pass us and everyone was clapping and cheering all the riders as they started their last climb of the day.  Its a great experience to be at the side of the road, but at a section where there wasnt a huge number of fans and no madness. Once they had all past us, and the small boys had calmed down from all the excitement - we walked back up the hill to the village and dinner.

The night before a small boy and his dad had told us they too were going to watch the race so when we sat down I asked the boy if he had seen the race. His dad smiled and the boy brought a bidon from Pic Nic Post NL out from under the table - ta daaaaa!!!!  Handed to him by a rider. It sat next to him all evening and I am sure they now have a fan for life.

Next day we left early, had breakfast in a beautiful bakery in the village of Le Bourg-d'Oisans before I set off for my 6 hours drive north.

What a fantastic few days - the scenery, the race and the company. 

If you want to know more about the Club des Cent Cols. just let me know or have a look on their website - now translated into more than French.

Come and join the collecting fun!

July adventures

After weeks and weeks of high 30s Deg C weather, we planned to start early today in an attempt to avoid the heat. The route started at the back of Gelterkinden station and we planned to leave at 8am. 4 of us has registered for the ride and 3 had gathered when I received the first notice of a problem. A flat tyre that couldnt be changed because she couldnt get the wheel off!! I know this bike and had issue swapping wheels  - I suggested meeting up on the route by riding it in the opposite direction - we would see later if she made it.

We had a new joiner today, after quick introductions we set off towards Tecknau, weaving our way through the village that still seemed to be sleeping. The planned route would avoid main roads and use farms and narrow roads instead. We made good progress up the valley to Zeglingen for the first climb. The route went up the narrow channel with the tiny stream -  there was still water in the lower part - we arrived at the top just as a few drops of rain fell. This rain increased as we stopped and had a snack/drink. The radar predicted a shower for about 10 minutes - it wasnt long before it slowed enough for us to start again, being careful of the now wet roads on the steep sections. When we got to Oltingen, the rain was worse,  we stopped again to huddle under a canopy in the middle of the village. 

It was here that I received the message that companion 3 had given up on the bike and was in the process of dusting off her old bike. She would met us at Frick station - when would we be there? Not a clue, as we were at that point under a brolly, watching the rain.  I decided to adjust the route and skip the extra climb to the church at top of the Rothenfluh hill and go straight down to Wittnau. The roads were quite wet at this point but the rain soon stopped and we wouldnt see any more. There were some dark could above Frick at that point but by the time we got there - they had gone.

The descent to Wittnau was just as quiet as the other roads had been until we passed a cycling club on their way up the hill. There were hundreds - OK not hundreds but loads :) - in little groups with spaces between. We waved, of course.

It didnt take us long to stop in Wittnau for the toilets before riding to Frick and landed at the station and I learned our companion still had 4km left to ride to meet up. We used this second stop for more eating....

She arrived, we let he calm down and after introductions we were off again for the climb over to Schupfart. Practically no traffic we climbed up and over. We spotted a deer in the distance - it ran into the middle of a recently harvested field, seemed to realise it was now very visible and ran back to where it had come from. A brief stop at the top to admire the view, find the correct road and spot some small planes. These will have come from the airfield at Schupfart so we decided we would go and investigate

We seemed to see this plane over and over again.

Now to get to Schupfart! It didnt take long and we cycled up to the airstrip. We spent some time here admiring the planes. We saw the yellow plane that had been circling above us land and a glider being launched.

It was now time to leave and finish the ride. In Wegenstetten we used the farm road, joined the main one near the Hemmiken junction and climbed the very last part to Junkershloss where we said cheerio to companion 3 who turned right in Hemmiken to go to Buus and home, the rest of us enjoyed the run down to Ormalingen and then back to the station.

The weather was perfect - apart from that short rain shower -  and it was lovely to not boil for once.

Thanks to all who joined, it was great.

Distance - 50km

Climbing - 1000m

Avg Speed - 18km/h

Wildlife spotted: woodpeckers in Zeglingen, a Red Kite at Schupfart and the spooked deer

Remember to think of a picture for our competition - send your entries of "My bike leaning on a thing" to basellandvelofrauen@gmail.com.