Cycle tour – Col du Pillon & Col de la Croix

On our favourite corner – looking back down towards Diablerets

A tasty breakfast fuelled us up for day 2 of our cycle tour with climbs over the  Col du Pillon (1,555m) and the Col de la Croix (1,780m). It was a beautiful morning, mist coming off the pastures as the suns rays first hit them. We started climbing from the get go and the route felt much easier than when we did it a few of years back. We reached the cable car at Reusch very quickly and then both of us thought this is where the pain starts. In my memory the last section of the climb up to the Col was very steep (12 or 13%) however in reality it stayed under 10% so very manageable. Here is a link to our route on Ride with GPS LINK TO RIDE

I liked the sign to a small farm stall for fresh butter and cheese just before the last kicker and even thought about stopping for some lunch supplies, (see photo below) but kept going. It was too early for the cafe at the top to have opened, shame as I was looking forward to a mid morning cup. Anyway we admired the goats in their very smart pen and continued on our way.

Mike found a lovely bakery with a table outside and sat in the sun enjoying a coffee before getting a couple of quiches and a piece of shortbread for our lunch. As I was carrying the panniers we had decided to minimise supplies/ weight for our first climb and just buy some extra water from the supermarket rather than haul it all the way from our hotel. Worked a treat.

As we had ridden the Col de la C a couple of years ago I knew what to expect and could remember quite a lot of the route, difficult sections, good rest spots etc. Anyway my strategy was to break it down into 100m uphill sections and have a quick rest after each section. Much like yesterday. It helped also that the signage was very good with signs every km. This approach worked very well as even if I was ahead Mike knew where I would be stopping and it enabled us to keep our temperature down and heart rates under control.

The start of the descent (see above photo) is overshadowed by huge sheer rock faces of the surrounding peaks. On a clear day like today it is an absolutely magnificent ride and well worth the effort of the climb. The road was not too busy so we could enjoy picking our line round the various bends. After a while we reached a slightly flatter section through the woods and ended up above Villars sur Ollon, a largish town that is south facing. Suddenly the nature of the ride changed from a remote mountain experience to travelling through charming towns positioned to take full advantage of the sun with fields of terraced vines separating them. There is a great section through the terraces with multiple hairpin bends. Great fun to ride.

Enjoyed our break and then a little bit more descending before we were back on the valley floor for a short ride, with the wind behind us thankfully, into Aigle. A descent of about 1,300m from the Col, a long way and to put it into perspective much further than cycling down from the top of Snowdon!

Had a bit of a struggle getting out of the parking lot until  I realised we had to pay at a separate kiosk and not at the exit gate.  Slight panic as we were not sure the parking permitted stays over 24 hours! Good place to park in the future.

We were both very happy to prove to ourselves that we could still do a tour over mountain passes, without needing to take our e-bikes. The last tour we had done over high alpine passes was about 5 years ago.  In retrospect it was a good thing we could not fit our e bikes onto the bike rack we have here!

Getting the train up the first day to Le Sépey (to avoid a dangerous/horrible section) and riding further to Bei Gsteig made both days more achievable and we both found that the cycling we had done over the last couple of weeks really paid dividends in terms of our hill climbing g fitness.  Although tired neither of us were wiped out from the tour and could have ridden the next day if we were on a longer journey.