Glarus to Altdorf - The Bastard Pass

In the last post we indicated that we would never be afraid of riding anywhere on a bike again; how wrong we were...

We left Glarus accompanied by the ever-present smell of cow shit, which the Swiss farmers spray prodigiously on their grass. One wonders why considering the striking absence of any cows in the fields; they must be in the sheds producing the spray.

Fear gripped the three riders of the Tour de Fat as we crawled west up the valley away from Glarus, hemmed in by towering rock faces that disappeared into the clouds. The extra beer of the night before had ensured a maximum speed of only 20km/h as we gazed ahead trying to guess towards which summit we were about to ascend. Jonnie took the prize and led us onto the road to the Klausen Pass, which for a frightening moment was paved with cobble stones.

The stones were replaced with smooth, hot tarmac after the first couple of corners and then the gradient smacked us squarely between the eyes. I think we would have to be honest and say that it wasn't the steepest of climbs at around 7 or 8% gradient, but it dragged on for 22km with only a brief respite through a river valley half-way up. Choc and Dave took the early pace-making, which was no mean feat considering the 15kg of luggage, but it was Jonnie who stormed home in the brutal final 5km to take the King of the Mountains points, followed by Choc with Dave trailing in several minutes down after cracking spectacularly at "Cows with Silly Loud Bells" Corner. (That's where the f##kers have got to!)

The descent was manic for the first 7km, the road hewn from the rock leaving a sheer drop off the left-hand side with only a bar for a barrier that was just the right height to send a cyclist flying off the edge minus his bike. It was nervy stuff with the camping equipment trying to overtake us in every bend, but we managed to descend to the tree line before Dave blew out his front tyre, only just managing to catch it all together before disaster struck. Minor repairs completed, we finally emerged from the 24km drop and onto the shores of lake Urner See.

For our Australian cycling friends, the Dandenong Ranges are not a pimple on the arse of the Bastard Pass (appropriately renamed by our own King of the Mountain).

Stage 10 - 97km