Lee, Grant and Vytas will be riding 300 iconic kilometres centered around Meiringen in the Swiss Alps over the 3 days of 10/11/12 September 2025.

Day 1: Grimsel - Furka - Susten

This iconic Swiss cycle route is not to be taken lightly. It may skirt four turquoise lakes and three major glaciers nestled amongst snow-capped Alpine peaks, but this is where the holiday brochure enticements end… 125kms of serpentine roads, with 58 hairpin bends and 4547m of vertical ascent await us … and that’s just day 1…

Starting from Meiringen and heading south, very soon we’ll hit our first climb of the day, the Hors Cat Grimselpass – 27km of climbing, with 1534m of height gained at an average gradient of just over 5%. The top of the pass sits at 2,165m above sea level.

At the summit of Grimsel Pass, we’ll reach the town of Gletsch and make a left turn, before a short descent and onto the day’s second leg-shredding effort, another HC “wall”, the 10km climb up the Furkapass to an altitude of 2436m. One source describes this section as a “sheer ladder” and an “arduous slog”; we’ll be repeating the pass’s name under our breath all the way!

After summiting Furka Pass at around 43kms, the following descent towards Andermatt will be thrilling for more than the obvious reasons… This stretch of road was used as a filming location for the James Bond movie "Goldfinger". And whilst we may not be chasing a Ford Mustang convertible in an Aston Martin DB5, it’ll be every bit as nail-biting!

34kms of glorious freewheeling through Europe’s most spectacular scenery will take us to Wassen at 77kms, where we’ll bury ourselves in the final ascent of the day, the 18km handlebar-chewing HC delight that is Sustenpass. If the final 1308m of vertical ascent hasn’t completely finished us off, we should be able to enjoy a jubilant and celebratory 28km roll down to the finish line at Meiringen and a well-deserved steak supper (with extra onion rings)!

Day 2: Easy Day - Ride to Lauterbrunnen

It’s kind of amusing to call this the “easy day”. Any other time it would be an epic ride in its own right, but in comparison to the big days it’s sandwiched between, it should feel like a rest, and just enough to keep our legs loose and ready for more.

Lauterbrunnen is a small, Swiss alpine town, up a valley surrounded by just about the most quintessential chocolate-box, fairytale scenery to be found anywhere on the planet. And it’s a tempting 50kms from where we’re staying in Meiringen. with little more than 350m of elevation gain to negotiate. It’s an “out-and-back” ride, along the shores of Lake Brienzersee, so we can spin easy, enjoy the mountain scenery and generally immerse ourselves in the land of cuckoo clocks, fine watches and Toblerone.

Day 3: Nufenan - St Gotthard - Furka

Day three and we’ll haul our weary bodies into the car and drive up the Grimselpass to Gletsch for our starting point…

Setting off from Gletsch in a southerly direction, we’ll enjoy an easy spin for the first 6kms, downhill through a set of hairpin bends and into the picturesque village of Obergoms, followed by another few flat kms along the valley floor… before the suffering starts all over.

The Nufenanpass is Switzerland’s highest paved road that’s entirely within the country’s borders, and it’s not for the faint-hearted, nor fatigued cyclists. This stairway to the clouds will present us with a 15km climb, with a vertical ascent of 1134m to an altitude of 2478m. Utter madness! Much soul searching and silent studying of our respective front wheels, we predict…

The 24km descent that awaits us on the other side, however, is an enticing reward, and, trying our best to dodge mountain goats and marmots, we’ll hurtle downwards in our gravity-fed enthusiasm towards the town of Airolo at speeds approaching triple figures (kph, of course, not mph).

At Airolo, we’ll arrive at the famous St Gotthard Tunnel... A feat of engineering, it’s the world’s longest and deepest tunnel… and it’s closed to bicycles! Instead, we’ll follow the old Tremola road, as it tilts upwards and brings us to our second climb of the day. 14kms and 42 hairpin bends of Switzerland’s oldest road will not only spit us out, broken, at the 2106m summit of Gotthard Pass, but it also includes 5kms of cobbles to rattle the fillings out of our teeth!

The descent from the cobbled top of Gotthard promises to be as thrilling as all those that preceded it since we first turned a pedal in Switzerland, but the sting in the tail of our day is around the corner. One last 18km climb to revisit the Furkapass, this time in the opposite direction from our previous visit on day 1.

Summiting Furkapass for the second time will be a bittersweet moment, as it will not only mark the end of the pain and suffering, it will also herald the arrival of our last and final chance to hurtle down an alpine road with the wind in our hair, with the promise of a hot shower to come, followed by cold beers and a belly full of food.

Wish us luck and pray for our souls.

Allez, allez!