Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Should I Be Worried About Riding In Switzerland?

Got asked about riding in Switzerland and the Alps in general by an American guy who was worried he'd be overwhelmed by the Alpine experience and swarmed by faster riders as he putters along enjoying the scenery. Here's what I told him:

There’s nothing about the tightness of the roads, the sharpness of the curves or the mountain altitudes that makes riding here a recipe for disaster. Just go ahead and ride slowly – lots of people do – and enjoy the vistas. Set realistic goals for a day’s ride, with lots of time budgeted for photos stops – you’ll want to take one approximately every seven meters. 

Add time for long coffee and meal breaks and you’ll be lucky to ride 200 km per day. A good way to calculate riding times here is that one mile of riding in the States = one km in the Alps. Overall, you’ll be lucky to average 50 km/h in Switzerland. The maximum permissible speed on the backroads is 80 km/h, and the Swiss take speed enforcement to a spectacular level of efficiency, complete with hidden speed cameras and LIDAR armed personnel, all coupled with exorbitant fines. (In extreme cases they may charge one-third of an offender’s annual income. Yes, really.) One must be vigilant for speed limit signs everywhere, as the limit may change for noise abatement in a nature preserve or any other reason, so it’s not always intuitive what the limit of any stretch of road might be as it tends to be here in Germany, or in Austria. 

Anyway, you generally won’t find crazy knee-down riders destroying your confidence while you putter along; instead you’ll find well-disciplined riders sharing the road with you who are also trying to follow the rules while enjoying the scenery. Slightly faster riders will pass you politely, with a wave or a foot stuck out to say hi. And yeah, once in a great while a crazy knee-down rider will pass you. No big. Let it go. 

And speaking of waving, you’ll see a thousand bikes on the roads, and they all wave to each other. And, just like in the States, they pump their hand in a downward motion when they mean for you to ride with caution due to speed enforcement or an accident around the next bend. 

In all, the feeling of solidarity among riders here is very high. You’ll always have the feeling you are among friends. And you are.

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