This was John's last day, and it was he and Chris who persuaded me that a day's mountain biking would be fun. The bike shop is next to the Hotel, and after paying we went upstairs to see Ricky, the Ozzie bike mechanic. "Whereya going?" he wanted to know. We told him - bikes on the train to Wengen, up to Kleine Scheidegg, down to Grindelwald, on down to Zweilütschinen, and back up to Lauterbrunnen. "Yerregular bikers?", he asked, looking particularly at me and thinking, I suspect, that the old man - probably the father of one of the two lads - wouldn't make it to Kleine Scheidegg. "Sure", we said. "OK", he shrugged, "come and look at the bikes." We could tell he didn't believe us.
The road from Wengen is tarmac at first, then changes to a dirt road. The first part is the steepest, and the first few kilometres had us panting in near bottom gear. Once the gradient eased we began to enjoy the ride. The times on the signposts to Kleine Scheidegg gradually got shorter. We weren't in any hurry and stopped a few times for a break. A Japanese tourist following the shorter walking path from Wengen passed and re-passed us a few times.
With Kleine Scheidegg in sight, Chris was out in front, then John, then me. The very last few metres of the track are very steep, and in turn we each charged at the slope in super-granny gear, just making it to the top. I passed the Japanese tourist on the way.
We had lunch at the excellent Eiger Nordwand mountain restaurant a couple of hundred metres from the frenetic crowds at the station. And then off for the big downhill - an endless swooping, bumping and jarring down the track towards Grindelwald. Brakes were tested to the full, but Ricky had clearly done a good job and no-one had any problems. Finally down into Grindelwald Grund on the tarmac road.
The downhill continued, though less steeply. A dirt road follows the river valley, with occasional sections on the main road. A group of lycra-clad Germans looked askance at our outfits - sweaty t-shirts, rolled-up trousers (well, I wasn't going to get grease all over my walking trousers), old trainers. We played leapfrog with them, and eventually saw them off convincingly on one of the road sections.
In our downhill euphoria we missed the sharp turn at Zweilütschinen and ended up in Gsteigwiler before realising we'd gone wrong. We turned back, retraced, and eventually rolled back into Lauterbrunnen to surrender the bikes to Ricky. He looked up from oiling a sprocket as we walked in.
"Howdya get on?", he asked, looking at our sweat-soaked clothes and the dust-covered bikes.
"Fine. No problems.", we replied, "It's a good route."
"Y'made it, then?"
"Yeah."
Did we detect a trace of respect in Ricky's face after his doubts of the morning? Probably not.
Later, we awarded ourselves champions' prizes.
| Champion uphill, off-road | Chris |
| Champion downhill, off-road | John |
| Champion downhill, on-road | Tony |
| Total height gain/loss (m) | +1025 / -1470 |
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Last updated 31 August 2002