Camp Hillseeker Recap

The theme of Camp Hillseeker is Climb, Climb, Climb. When we sing our camp song each morning, those are the only words to the lyrics. Switzerland is the perfect base for Herr Gustav and Frau Buggy to run their hardcore training program.

The minute you step off the plane, no time is wasted. Barely given the chance to brush our teeth and wash our face, we were off for a ride.

I posted about our first warm up Jet Lag Be Gone ride through their lovely neighborhood. We even got a chance to be models for their latest brochure promoting the camp.

The next day was a more serious ride with lots of climbing, of course.

I posted pics about climbing through the mystic fog through a lovely forest.

Finally breaking above the clouds for some great downhilling.

You are sure to be exhausted at the end of every workout.

You get your money's worth, that's for sure!

But with a view like this, who wants to nap?

It's the perfect setting for apres ride stretching and strengthening workouts.
Gotta do our push ups, ugh. Raja always gets out of this part of the program. How does he do that? No fair.

This is definitely a posh camp, not like the kind I went to as a kid. But just to make you feel somewhat rustic, they set up some cows in the back yard. This is the view out our bedroom window.

We drove to the Gruyere area for day three of our training; The Gruyere Tour.

My previous post tells all about this spectacular day! Here's some pics from Raja's prespective. There's nothing quite like climbing shoulder to shoulder with a zillion other riders. We own the road here, yea baby!

Raja's first Euro paceline experience heading through the valley to Gstaad.

Second climb of the route.

If you're going to have to stop for a train, this is the kind, short and fast.

After the 76 mile shredfest, it was time for some ice cream! Get as much as you can shove in.

Enjoyed our treat on the shore of beautiful Lake Geneva in Vevey.

This will fit the size of our appetites!

So purdy! Just like Lake Lanier!

Let's do the paddle boats!

When we get back to the states, I'm going to run for Governor. The first thing I'm going to implement is installing this great new water system.

It's great! Anywhere you are, there is easy access to fresh cold refreshing water. Good for a sip or to fill up the water bottles in the middle of your ride.

I'm also thinking how good it would be as an ice bath.......

It has been a grueling camp, and we haven't had much time to relax, but

we're doing the best we can to enjoy ourselves and have a good time.

It's been a great opportunity to ponder this new training program and how to implement these new techniques into our slack routine, so we too can be Hillseekers Extraordinaire!

At the end of the day, when it's all said and done, we're thrilled to be
Hillseeker Campers! Look forward to a new day!

Racing w/Cancellara in Gruyere

Just so happens we signed up for the same Tour as Cancellara, The Gruyere Tour. After the "race", he was autographing jerseys. So I got him to sign mine twice, on each shoulder. How fun.

Let me back up. Saturday night we drove down to Gruyere to meet up with Heather, Chris, and Daniel for the big race on Sunday!
Got our full kits, race numbers, and transponders from registration then headed up to check out the castle.

Watched the sunset before having a carb loading dinner of pasta.

Chris is a veteran of this race (and a shredder supreme) so he led our riders meeting and gave us a play by play of the course. 125 km with 6500' of climbing.

Early Sunday morning we ate our breakfast, put on our race numbers and transponders and rode over to the race start 2.5 miles away in Bulle.

Wow, this is a serious event. Rolling up to the start with a pack of 2,000 riders already in place. Uh oh, we've got to go to the back of this massive pack.

Not only did we get full kits with our fee, the race numbers have your name on them!

We had alot of folks to pass to work our way up to Cancellara.

I've never ridden in a pack of 2,000 where everyone was an excellent rider. It was an incredible experience!

It was like being in the Tour. We had our own cameramen, motorcycle leads, a policeman at every intersection or road hazard. It was unbelieveable. Seriously, when my pack of 15 came within 5 miles of the finish, we had our own motorcycle escort.

Approaching the base of the first long arse climb (8 miles), Buggy and Gustav are looking strong even though the pace was fierce!

There were folks along the course the whole way cheering us on, in French though, so I'm not sure what they were saying.

No matter how far I moved up, there was a constant stream of cyclists ahead. The climbs didn't break up the masses like I'm used to in the gaps. Everyone hammered non stop.

Switchback after switchback.

The sound of cow bells clanking was a neat serenade to help ease the pain.

They know how to do feed zones. It was impressive.

The downhills were fabulous and the pack I was in was flying as if in the Tour. It was like having an out of body experience for me. I couldn't take any pictures on the real downhills because it was a bit dangerous at 41 mph.

My first Euro paceline. It was intimidating, but I did it! These guys are for real!

Chris and Daniel finished in 4 hrs. I was nipping at their heels at 4hrs 50min.
We were all happy campers once we crossed the finish line!

It was an all downhill ride back to the hotel.
Then we headed over to Vevey to see Lake Geneva and eat some well deserved ice cream. It was a most excellent epic day!!!!!!

A 3 Hour Tour

Day Two, an early start riding into the fog. Where will the Hillseekers take us today?

Doing the 125km Gruyere Tour/Race tomorrow so we better take it easy today, right?

It was gorgeous climbing up through the fog. Climbing, climbing, climbing....up through the thick forest. Beautiful!

And we climbed and climbed. Good thing we're taking it easy today!

It's all relative. To Jeff, running through the desert for 6 days is easy.

Getting ready to pop through the clouds.

Treated to some beautiful views!!!

And some even better downhills! Oh yea, these were fantastic!

Took some sweet little roads back to the start of our 3 hour tour.

43 miles, oops I meant 69km, with 3600' climbing. An easy 3 hr tour!
Now that we're warmed up, it's time to pack up the bikes and head to Gruyere for
the real race tomorrow!

Hmmmmm, what's going on here? Ah, just in time for the great marshmallow harvest!

Ciao!!!

Jet Lag Be Gone

Just 6 hrs after landing, it was time to shock the bodies out of jet lag into a new time zone. Never mind we had no sleep Thursday night. An easy neighborhood ride was in order. I was diligent to stay on schedule with my push ups and did 80 of them before beginning our 1.5 hr ride.

But first we have to swing by the local bike shop, Lerch Bikes. Raja was eyeing a trick new bike out within the first 5 minutes.

Raja needs this Bike! I need this bike!

Back to our beautiful ride along stunning roads.


Taskmaster, Becky, took us on the route of a weeknight ride she leads on Thursdays. This loooooooong hill was steep, 17%. A weeknight ride with over 3,000' climbing. No wonder she doesn't have that many repeat customers;-)

If I had these routes just out my back door, I would ride my road bike more often!

We haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet!

After a nice meal, a good night's rest, and water bottles refilled.....we're ready for the next adventure!

The Eagles Have Landed!

We've landed in Zurich and made it to Camp Hillseekers. The bikes are assembled and ready to roll in Rüschlikon, overlooking Lake Zurich. Let the adventure begin!
Tschüess!