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Having failed to get to the Wolfensberg last weekend, I set out with the same goal in mind again. This time, though, I figured I’d throw in a few local passes before heading around the back of the Hulftegg and back to Bauma.

My first climb was straight out from my doorway up to Bettswil: a Cat-3 according to the Tour de Suisse. From there, I dropped back down to Girenbad and headed back up over Egg and down to Gibswil. From Gibswil, I went back to my home valley over the Ghöch and headed down to Bauma with three passes behind me already. From Bauma, I took the same route I had the previous weekend: up the Sternenberg, down to the hidden valley, up to Schmidrüti/Sitzberg, down to Dussnang, through Fischenthal, then Mühlrüti and up the Hulftegg.

I managed to maintain a decent pace on the Hulftegg, but a couple of really fast guys just blew by me. There was no chance of getting on their wheel at that point, having already put in about 1500m of climbing that day. When I got to the top about a minute after them, they were off their bikes and resting at the top, which made me feel a bit better. I kept on riding and concentrated on getting to Steg, then Bauma and then the Wolfensberg.

I took it easy down through Steg and Bauma instead of gunning it like I usually do; it’s a slight downslope the whole way, so you can maintain about 40km/hour pretty easily even if you’re tired. I was trying to rest and recuperate for the Wolfensberg, so I stayed even below that. I got to Bauma, turned left onto the road for the Wolfensberg and stopped. I visualized that damned climb, I took a drink of water, but I was tired. It wasn’t too hot out, though the sun was beating down and the Wolfensberg is mostly out in the open.

I started up, getting up through the first 8-10% part with no issues and then standing to dig through the 15% climb after the first curve. I managed about a dozen cranks before my legs mutinied on me completely and locked up with cramps; I was lucky to be able to click out and get to the side of the road. Ok. Fine. No Wolfensberg today either. I unlocked my upper legs as well as I could and cruised home over Neuthal/Bäretswil instead. Better luck next time.

I was very happy having done 1660m of climbing over 80km.

I hadn’t been riding in a while because of (A) truly horrible weather in the spring and (B) a month-long vacation in the States. When I started off on this ride, I’d done a grand total of 25km of biking in the previous six weeks. Still, I felt pretty good once I got into the rhythm and, because Karin jokingly asked whether I’d be going over the Hulftegg, I set that as my goal, but put a few passes in before I got there.

First, I went up through Oberbalm, then past the golf course and through Dürstelen. From there, I dropped down to Bauma and headed up the Sternenberg, coasting along the top until I dropped down a precipitous, skinny farm road into a place I call the sleepy or hidden valley because it’s nearly impossible to get to and is more-or-less a cul-de-sac ending in two farms. Very pretty, though.

From there, I cruised down out of the valley about 2/3 of the way until I could bend off to the right and start the 4km climb to Schmidrüti/Sitzberg. A long, beautiful descent later and I was in Dussnang/Fischingen and was churning through the slow climb to Mühlrüti, which averages about 3% but swings from 1% to 6% throughout.

From Mühlrüti, there’s nothing for it but to climb the back side of the Hulftegg, which is really a very nice road and on which there remain some mementos from the Tour de Suisse (“Schlecks!” and “Go Lance!”). I was caught at the top by two guys riding together, so I chased them down the other side; though I had reeled them back in by the time we got to Steg, I was feeling some rumblings in my legs and the ride to Bauma elicited some cramping in my thighs. 50km in and I was feeling the lack of training. I bailed on even trying to do the Wolfensberg that day because it starts off at a brisk 15% for the first 250m or so; instead, I crawled my way home over Neuthal and Bäretswil.

That Spiky Yellow Ball is old; I remember playing with that as a kid.

It was so hot that happy hour and swimming at Max and Nadia’s was a near-nightly occurrence.