Life In The Saddle

Three days. Three stages. Three chances to explore the gravel roads in the beautiful Lucerne region of Switzerland. The TorTour Cyclocross Stage Race provides a lung bursting, leg busting challenge. The concept of the TorTour Cyclocross event is familiar to me; I rode the winter edition in 2017 in the Schaffhausen region just south of Zürich. That event featured snow, sub-zero temperatures, and a plethora of winter kit. This premiere edition of the Summer Cyclocross is in the foothills of the Alps, and delivers a contrasting mix of dust, grit, 'shark-tooth' climbs, and summertime temperatures. The Prologue The three-day event starts with a 20-kilometre prologue on the Friday evening. A chance to test the legs, or rather give them their first beating of the weekend. Short course racing has never been my forte, and my aim for this first stage was simply to stay safe and minimise time loses ahead of the longer stages. From the moment the start gun sounds it is a ...

Last February, I rode the TorTour Ultra-Cross Stage Race in Zürich. It entailed three stages of snow and sub-zero temperatures, but proved to be fantastic racing (read the report here). This year, I am heading to the Lucerne region of Switzerland for the inaugural TorTour Summer CX Ultra-Cross Stage Race. This is what I'm packing… The Event The TorTour CX is a three day programme: featuring a short prologue stage on the Friday afternoon, and then two longer weekend stages that head out into the challenging Swiss Alps. The total distance is 200 kilometres, almost entirely off-road on gravel paths and single-track. I haven't ridden in Lucerne before, but I have visited on family walking holidays. It is a beautiful and challenging landscape, with steep alpine peaks punctuated by azure blue lakes. Racing in February for the TorTour Winter CX demanded the best winter kit available; there aren't many situations where you are racing for four or five hours through the sno...