Stop 3: Matterhorn
We wake up under Switzerland’s most famous mountain; the Matterhorn. Even as a local it can feel like being in a clichéd painting traveling through this landscape of steep sided valleys, endless glaciers, snow-capped peaks and alpine meadows.
Today’s mission is the Gornergrat – a rocky ridgeline with incredible views accessed by railway. With superb light, exceptional alpine scenery and 1450m of descent on technical paths and flow trails, what more could we ask for? A windproof layer turns out to be the answer. Despite the sunshine it’s super cold and windy at the top. In between shooting photos we hide behind rocks to keep out of the biting wind.
As Kasi and I shiver, Fannie, who is made of tougher stuff, wanders off to make friends with some chamois – mountain goats that love clambering up and down the rock slopes. I wonder if the chamois is my spirit animal?
We get riding again and straight away the trail demands our attention, but so does the view. We’re now part of that clichéd painting, adding our own brush strokes to a masterpiece.
Back at the vans we get chatting with some local riders who admire our, now dust covered, bikes. They invite us back to their bike shop in Zermatt for post-ride beers. It’s these kinds of spontaneous, chilled out encounters that make a road trip truly memorable. Prost, salut and cheers!
Stop 4: Lötschental
We assemble our 4060 Z e-bikes, fresh from SCOR, excited to see what they are capable of. Lötschental is the perfect place for these bikes. We take a gondola up the hill and then ride a little further up, laughing at how easy the bikes make the climb.
What awaits us is a long flowing trail all the way back down to the bottom of the valley. With 170mm of travel on the descents and a motor for the climbs it’s easy to tick off run after run after run.
This is Fannie’s first time on an e-bike and she’s loving it. Following her down the track I watch her ponytail swishing through the corners and getting airtime on the drops and jumps. Fannie’s home trails are in Chaumont, Switzerland, just down the road from SCOR HQ. Best known for its jumps it’s not surprising she’s in her element. She’s not the only one having fun though and we genuinely can’t get over how good this combination of track and bike are.
Keen to make the most of the trails, the daylight and our remaining battery life we carry on with party laps until the last of the sunshine fades away. We all feel like we could ride this trail a hundred times more and still not get bored, but it’s time to move on to our final stop of the tour.
We arrive at my mountain hut in Verbier late at night and everyone settles in for a night of pizza, beer and wine – everything we need after a great day on the bike.