I live in the Alps and went to PdS for the first time the week before last. I rode mainly around Morzine, Les Gets and Chatel and TBH didn't get the attraction for the place. The riding was fun, in a freeride (I wouldn't rate it technical enough for downhill) type of way. Lots of really fast banked turned tracks with only breaking bumps to give them a bit of technicality. I found some flowy singletrails in the woods which were a bit of fun, but the whole place gave me the vibe of it would be good if you didn't know any better.

If you like lift ques, fast gravity assisted BMX tracks with a bit of woodland singletrail thrown in for good measure and bad food then I PdS is ok. If you like rocky, switchbacky technical Alpine singletrack go somewhere else.

From what I hear Les Arcs or Bourg should be really good. I ride mainly along the main Alpine ridge in Switzerland and it is rather good fun.

You'll find a few pics from my favourite playgrounds here.

Have you used those Monster101? Any good?

My limited experience of Swiss VTT routes (guide books or websites) are cracking fireroad and jeep track ascents leading to the most wonderful (and disappointing) fireroad or tarmac descent back to the valley..
You've just not been looking right then. I can't remember the last time I rode a fireroad back down to the valley.

Polars calorie calculations are far more accurate then Garmins. Polar did studies on groups of people with different activity levels and measured the HR's against a Expired air analysis (Gold Standard for calculating calorific usage). That is why you need to put in your activity level, age, sex etc when setting your polar watch. If you put in the information correctly your polar should be damn close to the real figure. I've had the possibility to check my polar in the lab against expired air analysis a few times and it has always been within about 5% of the real figure under different test conditions.

AFAIK the Garmin calculation is based on mechanical energy rather then any physiological measures. This causes the figures to be way off. I own both devices and my Garmin never gives figures anywhere close to the Polar and I trust the Polar.

As far as energy expenditure for the tour cyclists like somebody said sitting in the peleton is quite energy saving. I've read somewhere that on a flat stage it is probably possible to hang onto the back of the peleton with a power output of 90W!!! This is achievable by pretty much any amateur cyclist so these guys are barely ticking over if they are chilling somewhere in the bunch. That obviously goes out the window on a mountain stage.

HR and power output are correlated for a given person under the same conditions. Over a period of time a phenomenon known as Cardiac Drift occurs which means that your HR will drift upwards at the same power output. This is due to dehydration and a reduction in stroke volume in the heart which means it needs to pump faster to provide the same amount of oxygen to the muscles. Its not related to glycogen levels as someone has mentioned. When glycogen levels deplete there is simply no fuel to run anaerobically so power output and HR both have to drop, but they remain correlated (with a little deviation for cardiac drift).

Plenty of Singletrail in the region around Meiringen. I did a tour from Engelberg to Lungern via Meiringen on Saturday and found loads of nice stuff. Granted the trail section traversing Meiringen itself was quite non technical for the most part but the sections in the near by areas were awesome.

More information on the tour we did here

Keep going from Bachalpsee up to Faulhorn… Single track almost the whole way back down to Interlaken! ;-)

I can confirm that the route in the pictures above was fairly ok.

The great thing about the Alps is that every valley is pretty much its own microclimate. It can be miserable in one valley and quite nice in the next.

This picture below was taken while Switzerland was drowning under some serious rainfall. A couple of hours of a drive and we enjoyed dry dusty trails.

Thanks for some of that fab info!!! Will deffo use some of the advice. Psyched to use the trains and post buses.

I just wish i could take my DH Norco aswell as my HT santa cruz… oh well. It'll still be amazing!!

Has anyone camped around Lenzerheide??? We're hoping to hit a few spots where we can park our van for free but aim to do quite a few campsites aswell. The grindelwald and lauterbrunnen campsites look aswesome. Think I've found a decent one 3km outside Lugano.

seems to be a fair bit of rain there at the mo but Lugano seems to be stonkingly hot at the mo!!!

I've camped at the campsite in Lenzerheide. Its basic but functional and walking distance to the town if you are going to go for a few beers.
http://www.reisen-tcs.ch/travel/de/home/camping/platzsuche/lenzerheide.html

The youth hostel in Lenzerheide is pretty good value during the summer too. I think we paid about 65CHF per person including evening meal and breakfast.

There is another one a little bit out the road in Lenz and one in Churwalden too. You'll be able to park the car and bike from all of them.

6000m – that's nothing!; You'll be needing the Bahnentour from Davos. 9700m of descent in 1 day.
Would probably take the FS bike for that day though.

That's old news. ;-)

(Apparantly there will be a chairlift accepting bikes to replace the 2nd section of the Parsennbahn from Panoramaweg – Weissfluejoch will be renovated this summer)

Great stuff, I knew they were running the chair, but didn't know that they would accept bikes on it.

There is more riding then you can shake a stick at in the Lenzerheide area. As Crouch_potato said make sure you include the larger area as its possible to ride between Davos, Arosa and Lenzerheide very easily on some amazing trails.

Its also worth noting that this year the Rothorn cable car in Lenzerheide and the highest lift to Weissfluhjoch in Davos are closed due to renovations. This takes out the main "classic" route in each of these resorts, but in both cases there is still heaps of riding. Don't be afraid to ride away from the lifts and use the Post buses and trains like Crouch_potato said.

Flims/Laax is only about 40m from Lenzerheide and Engadin is about from Lenzerheide. So many trails so little time.

50-60km days with about 500-1000m up and 6000+m down are just an average day out in these places. :-)

Schweiz

Hmm, can I really wait until the end of September to ride that.
Roadtrip?

Schweiz
(come on Dave, you know you want to….)

I know I want to… I just don't think I can this year. :-/

I am starting to get the feeling that there will be another T-P in my future. Serious FOMO for this year.

Hmm… have to wait till I go home to look. Vimeo is blocked at work. :-(

All this T-P talk is starting to make me want to go back. God damn temptation! :-/

I wasn't invited

Are you not the guy with the big grin and the carpet covered helmet? ;-)

Funny that cos the chap with the big grin and the carpet covered helmet looks quite like a chap I know called Dave

Mistaken identity? ;-)

Try the Trans-Provence. No one day is what you are looking for, but put 7 of them together and proper technical single-trail it is pretty challenging.

Is buff another word for adrenaflow?

Pity about all the rain in the pics. I'd hate to have been there.