For all the talk about rubbish weather in Switzerland in the past few weeks the weekend so far has been sunshine with some clouds. Nothing to fear really. When I got to the start the 121kmers were split into two chutes - the pros and alsorans.

The crowds and rides gathered from six AM for the pistol start at 6:30. The pros went off 10 minutes bAt the checkpoint efore the rest of us. The was a good gathering of people at this stupid hour to cheer the competitors on, probably most of them were cycling widows.

The first climb was a tar pull upto the peak back looking over Vierbier. The route then dropped down into the second valley. This was a quick descent, coming nicely after the circa hour climb and warmup. The descent kicked back rolling down into the basic of the valley. The route then crossed the side the hill into the forest where it was pretty cold as the morning sun became hidden by the sheer mountains.

The track consisted mostly of tar roads and gravel forest tracks. At points the route took crossed across ski slope climbing towards the peak.  There was a fantastic descent into Heremence. The next section was somewhat my undoing. The route flattened out then followed the side of a mountain before a descent into a foodstation.  The sun by this time was noon high and the pace was slowing but still a respectable 11km/h.

At the next foodstation I learned there was hourly cutoff between now and the end The first on was an hour away at the top of the next climb, a 7km pull on a modest gradient. I chucked some bananas down my gob and set off. At this point I was pacing with another Brit, Rob Muihead. He pulled away from me towards the peak of the ascent but we both made the cutoff.

Rob setoff again as I hit the water stop saying he wanted to hit the next checkpoint and battle on from there. I know I would not complete the next 20kms to make the next checkpoint in time but given the hill I had just rode I marched on saying I would enjoy the scenery and descent the other side.

The ride here was pretty tough with a rock field coming after another stretch upwards. The final descent into Evolene was a really longone and put a smile back onto my face. Rolling into the checkpoint I clocked out at 7:54.37, only 41kms from the end but still with 2000m of ascent and the infamous Pas-de-loma.

At least there was a pub at the checkpoint to refresh and reflect.

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