Mentally a tough day today

A lake at the top of Fluela Pass

Today was tough, mentally. It started with a lot of faffing and a late start, a lot of talking to myself to keep going and a lot of reminders to look at thee views. And with that I managed to ticked off the Fuorn and Fluela Passes, my goal for today. I passed into a new country, saw the scenery change from lush green to brown rugged, and took off and put on my warm clothes a million times or so.

So the day started with a lot of faffing. At breakfast I thought I would change my route for the day but then every time I tried to transfer it to the Garmin the tablet would crash and have to restart. After doing this three times I conceded and cycled the route from memory.

Then when packing my bags up I kept closing a bag, then seeing something I missed, opening, packing, closing back up again, repeat. Was weird. Unlike me.

Then I went to pay but there seemed to be a couple who wished to know the history of the Universe from the guy at reception, who was more than willing to give it to them. I even tried to give the glad eye to him to politely interrupt but not even that worked. All this just added to a late departure.

I then started on my merry way but before too long I had to stop and put more clothes on. The tempriture was around 15 degrees, and normally you start off a little cold to allow your body to heat up and be comfortable. What I didn't realise though was the wind straight from the centre of the north pole I was cycling into that made me need a lot more layers.

Underway again and I passed through the Italy/Swiss border. I was looking for a sign like 'Welcome to Switzerland', but I didn't see one anywhere. Admittedly I was also checking with the border control at the time to see if they wanted me to stop for whatever reason. Both sides seemed more interested in the newspaper they were reading than little old me from New Zealand though. So, a little dejected I took a picture of the first Swiss style thing I saw...

It was about here that I realised that I kept needing to concentrate on pedaling otherwise my legs would stop. No biggy, but then thoughts like 'oh, just stop for a break' kept coming into my mind as well. Considering I was 10kms in, I realised this was just a ploy to try and get me to stop early for the day. I kept going, talking to myself to just look at all the awesome surroundings, and they were awesome.

The climb for Fuorn Pass started pretty much straight away. It is a nice enough climb as you head through lush green pastures and forests, down nice roads. It is a bit benign a climb hovering around 6% for the majority of the way, but there is stuff to keep you occupied - like why do all the signs say 'Ofenpass' but the top and all my research call it Fuorn Pass?

The lush green you climb through

It was about 20kms of climbing and you gain 950m to a height of just over 2,100m high. It was a 'nice' climb, but nothing special as such. Added to that I kept having to change my clothing arrangements as I would freeze in the shady parts, sweat like normal in the sunny parts, freeze again into the headwind around every second corner.  The whole way I was just coaxing myself along, "600m to climb, keep going", "300m to climb, thats one Coromandel Hill, you can do this!". It was weird as it definitely was my head and not my legs, it was just my head was trying to take over my legs.

I got up there, but without the normal elation or enjoyment. I took the pictures, thought about getting a bite to eat (stall tactic) but instead had a muesli bar and carried on before I got too cold.

I put EVERY bit of clothing on, just in case, and carried on down the hill. What I had forgotten is that there is a cheeky wee climb about a third of the way down. It wasn't big, just a few hundred metres high or so, but definitely enough for me to realise I really wanted to take all the extra clothes off again. I resisted, opened up the zips on my vest and jacket and let the north pole head wind I was working into help me out to cool me down. I kind of worked.

In Susch, just before the second climb for the day started I gave in to the head and went in for a pizza. Whilst demolishing the pizza I talked myself into doing just this one more climb today. I also thought as to why everyone was now speaking Italian, but we were in Switzerland, in complete contrast to yesterday. Confusing! Nonetheless, I pushed myself out of the door and set off.

Susch

Climbing out of Susch was one of those great climbs where you skirt the side of a mountain so you can always see the town below. This always gives me a boost as it always looks like you are climbing faster and making a lot of height really quickly. The climb was another 900m gain over about 13kms so was certainly steeper, although generally keep around 9% the whole way.

Through the climb you rise up out of the lush green and into a more rugged mountain, with a lot of strong stream rushing all the melted snow from high above away. It was quite a nice ride again, with beautiful scenery, but it was just nice as a ride.

The contrast to the mornings climb

 There are also two false summits on the climb as well (never nice emotionally). The first was at a height of 2,150m where there is a big radio tower. It looks like a lot of other summits in that it looked like there was no other climbing around the bend, there were buildings, and the tower. It was still 200m shy of the proper height  so I wasn't fully trusting of it, but still was hoping. Then, only when you actually get to the tower do you see a semi flat section of road to a few switchbacks that climb up in the distance. Right, that must be the top then, there are even carparks for scenic lookout on that one. Once again, it is only once you get to the top do you see that it was once again a false summit. This time gutted! But it is only a few hundred metres, past a little lake, that you actually arrive at the top.

So from there it was dress up to the nines again, and head off down hill - and what an awesome downhill it is! It was not too steep, not too many sharp corners but corners that were sharp enough, it was just once of those ones you can cruise all the way down without pedaling once. At the bottom I arrived into Davos, a very well set up ski town, and here I stay for the night.

There is a lot of art work in and around Davos

So all in all, not the best day. Was great that I achieved both climbs, and was so nice to be at the top of Fluela Pass (was nicer than Fuorn), and the descent for there was awesome too so still some great parts to the day. Tomorrow I will head off for Albula Pass, then south probably for La Madonna del Ghisallo (will work out tonight probably, is a long detour).

Highlight: I won over my head.
Lowlight: My head playing games.
Lesson Learned: Dress wisely or forever be changing clothes.