Wednesday, July 6, 2005 [Zurich, Switzerland]
Training in Engelberg

After a long day of travel, the team arrived in Zurich Switzerland late on Friday, July 1. For us, Canada day was spent crossing time zones (8 hours difference from Calgary) and sitting in planes, airports and vehicles. One of our Swiss sponsors, Martin Ruckstuhl, picked us up at the Zurich airport in a support vehicle equipped to handle the entire team with our sports equipment (especially the bikes) and luggage. Martin oriented us to Swiss driving (short yellow lights and ever watchful polizia) and sent us on our way to Engelberg again reminding us that the van refueled with “diesel, not gas”.

Engelberg, (Angel Mountain), is our training base and from here we’ve traveled south to Locarno to survey the site for the first day of racing. David was provided with a new Gary Fisher mountain bike by another of our Swiss sponsors, Hefti Sport Mode. With his new wheels he climbed half the elevation from Fusio to Paso del Naret which comprises part of the mountain bike portion of the first race day. David said “I didn’t train as much as I wanted to before leaving because of all the rain so this was the first time in almost three weeks I’ve been on a mountain bike. The hair pin turns and inclines from 9 to 13% turned my legs to mush in the 30 degree heat”.

On Tuesday, July 5, the previous hot and sunny weather conditions turned into rain, wind and cold but eventually cleared to allow for a great day of pre-race training. Susan transported Ben to his inline skate route, Joanne to the edge of Lago Maggiore and Suzanne and David to check out the first 50 km of the road bike leg through Nufenenpass and Grimselpass. Suzanne said, “What a beautiful ride, but soooo cruel. Hills are my friends, hills are my friends!”

For Ben, the skate seemed, “encouraging” and “I’m excited for Saturday”.

Jonanne swim in the Lago was... [paragraph to be completed soon]

On Wednesday, July 6th, Jeremy will arrive to join the team. He will have two days to survey his running landscape from Sarnen to Luzern and then the final leg from Laufen to Basel.

The team has maintained its good mood through time with new Swiss friends and excellent cuisine. Only minor injuries so far... David (knee, ipod), Suzanne (back), Ben (assorted road rash), but nothing to stop us from reaching the goal of ENJOYING OUR LIMITS.

Click here to see the photos from Switzerland

Saturday, June 10, 2005 [Highwood Pass, Alberta]
Training Ride, 2206 m (road closed to cars until mid-June)
written by Suzanne and David Fulton

This could have been the centennial ride. It was a most beautiful day and adventure is just one part of it. David Lawson, my riding partner in the gigathlon had to work this weekend, so our new found friend from the Golden Triangle came along instead.

When we left for K-Country it was pitch dark and one could have easily turned around but we didn't and sure we drove through a huge storm. We parked the car at the Golf Course and rode from there - it was difficult to know what to wear as it seemed warm when the sun came out. But assuming that it could change and aware of the elevation on the summit we dressed accordingly.

And off we went. I asked David F. to just go ahead at his speed but he seemed in a relaxing mood and enjoyed riding along with me, making jokes and simply enjoying the surroundings. The scenery was so beautiful and we rode through sunshine and rain - lots of snow still in the mountains and all was beautifully green.

Once we were at the gate (about 22km) we were warned off the bears and the avalanche from other riders coming back. From now on, I wanted him to go his own pace so that I could mentally focus on my ride and the hill. It was a steady climb sometimes the wind blowing against us... so we're climbing each at a steady pace the whole road belonged to the riders only.

Later two riders signaled and warned me about a large grizzly bear on the side of the road. David came back too as he just spotted the grizzly himself and didn't want me to go through there alone. The scenery, the sun, the clouds, the views, the power of nature and then the sight of the grizzly was unreal. We felt so fortunate to be able to ride in this pristine environment and we felt like visitors in our own backyard. It was a huge grizzly, David estimated about 700 pounds. Just a bit further up we see the avalanche meters high still covering the whole road.

We did a detour by foot with our bikes and attacked the last long and steep incline, and then all began to be white... the whole road still covered with snow but we made it through to the top - I could hardly believe that we've already reached it, same thing for David. I think we both enjoyed all of it so much that the hard work didn't seem that hard. From there all or almost all was downhill but we now were facing strong headwinds, snow and cold - we were both freezing, our hands and feet were more than cold. Lower down it was raining quite heavily and now we were wet too. But as we rode past the gate towards Nakiska it cleared up a bit. At least we could change and take the bikes apart and load when it was dry - and the heated car seats were a real bonus to warm up those cold bones.