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Swiss Championship
Altbüron, Switzerland
Nestled in the rolling hills of Switzerland, about halfway
between Zurich and Lucerne is the small town of Altbüron. The
town has one hotel, and a handful of restaurants, and is only a couple of
kilometers wide, like most of the towns in the region. It is also surrounded by
rolling hills. There are a plethora of roads to ride out here, running through
farms and grassy hillsides.
The road we ran was just over a mile long,
and the best way to explain it, is as a smaller version of Hot Heels, minus
Hells Gate. There are three hairpins at the top followed by a long fast run out.
Immediately after the start was a right hand turn. A short straight later leads
to the first hairpin.
A curve to the right
splits up the straight between the first two hairpins. The second hairpin
becomes trickier thanks to a quick right
left
chicane. The third hairpin comes up fairly quickly.
After the third hairpin, the course is fairly non technical
as it meanders past the camp (just beyond the trees on the right) but its not
straight, and the speeds really pick up. One of the coolest things about
this course
 was
the countryside, the rolling hills and grass.
This course had hay bales in four corners, the ONLY reason there were hay bales
in those corners, is the corners had guard rails. For most of the rest of the
course, if you went off, you went off into the hay. You'll notice that in the
last hairpin there were only hay bales at the end of the turn. Those where there
because there was a short guard rail there! The second coolest thing about the
course, it was lined with speakers.
While music played for most of the day, it allowed the spectators to stay
informed.
Friday, July 5
I spent the day in Zurich, doing some site seeing. I left the
city a bit too late, and a bit too close to rush hour. Between not being able to
find the freeway, and rush hour traffic, it took be several hours to make my way
to Altbüron. Fortunately the road I chose to take was
the road the course was on! I got to to the camp in time to see hay bales being
prepped for rain.
While many people stayed at the camp site
about 1/3 of the way up from the finish, I needed to stay in a hotel. Its hard
enough lugging luging equipment half way around the world, without also having
to worry about camping gear. Several towns and several Gasthofs later (it wasn't
until later that I learned what a Gasthof was!) I found a hotel, about 5
kilometers away, and decided to have dinner. As I was unloading my car it
started to rain, it stopped raining by the time I went for dinner. I made my way
back to the course around 9 pm, with hopes of getting some night riding in.
Apparently the rain didn't make it to the course. The riding was supposed to
start at 9, but there weren't enough course workers. It took my longer than
expected to put my board together, and people started riding sometime after I
started working on my board. Unfortunately it grew dark by the time I finished
my board. I went for a ride anyways. It was too dark to see, and I ended up
sitting up for most of the run. Its interesting that most of us perceive asphalt
as black, yet at night it is white enough to see, if you are high enough off the
ground.
Saturday, July 6
I woke up to the sounds of cars driving on wet pavement. I hoped
for the best, and hoped that the course was dry, as it was the day before.
Several people arrived in the middle of the night
 ,
but the weather still didn't look promising.
It was decided to wait a bit, to see if the course would dry up. Amazingly the
course did dry, although some riders didn't wait for the official shuttle.
We finally got some practice runs in. At the bottom of the
course was a roundabout and a water fountain (if only all race courses had a
water fountain at the bottom.) We waited for the shuttle here.
A few people were also doing "summer luging." As near as I can tell, this is
brings new meaning to a "boomless" or "pegless" luge.
These twenty wheelers are designed to allow ice lugers practice in the summer.
At a previous event they were clocked about 10 seconds slower than a street
luge.
The beginning of our second run, the weather wasn't looking
good.
It started to rain, not much, but enough for me to stop and put my rain suit on.
By the time we got to the bottom, the rain really started to come down. While
most of the riders found shelter
Another tarp was added to increase the shelter, but new support posts were
needed.
I put on my rain suit, braved the torrents coming down the track
and headed down to the riders tent to see whats up. This was one thing I didn't
quite understand. The camp was about a half mile from the finish, maybe a bit
closer, and yet the riders tent, where lunch was served,
was past the finish line! Because of the late start, and the rain, they decided
to break for lunch.
After a long lunch, and with the rain still coming, it was decided to stop for
the day. With the extra free time someone decided to do some shoe repairs.
Richard Hod and I decided to head to Lucerne for dinner. On the
way we spotted a Lego factory.
We had dinner on the waterfront.
With some incredible views.
The clouds even added to the allure.
Sunday, July 7
I woke this morning with light streaming into my room, and no
squishy noises. With the sun shining,
the weather promised to be much better. While everyone else got ready for the
days event,
Stuart ran around plastering Hot Heels posters, EVERYWHERE.
A few people were hoping the sun would dry their wet leathers.
We finally got underway. I don't remember how many practice runs
I got, it wasn't enough, but it was more than I get some places. We gathered
underneath a cross before starting the run.
After several practice runs, it was time for qualifying. Instead of a light
beam, a trigger mechanism was used.
I think only one person failed to trigger the mechanism. Fortunately it was
simple to recall the person. Because all of the buttboarders were racing, we
only got one qualifying run, but only 16 of the street lugers were racing, so
two runs were called for. The summer luges took as many runs as they could get.
Just before lunch time, Spiderman showed up.
When qualifying was over, we broke for lunch. After lunch we all gathered around
the control truck for qualifying results, and a riders meeting.
Streetluge was the first to go.
The top 16 riders raced. I made a mistake, trying to pass in one of the
hairpins. Oliver Wagner was racing in his first race since having knee surgery
in the off season. While his knees aren't 100%, they didn't slow him down as he
took the gold. Buttboard was next.
I was doing decently, and though I had a chance to get into the finals, when I
tapped to enter the first hairpin and my foot stuck to the ground, slowing my
way more than I intended.
After the buttboard race, we headed down to the second hairpin
to watch the standup race. Not only was the second hairpin the more interesting
one, mainly because of the chicane immediately prior to it, but you could also
see almost the entire course.
Today was a very hot day, especially compared to yesterday. Immediately after
racing, I jumped back on the shuttle to the top. I was thirsty. We went down to
the second hairpin and watch the race. I was really thirsty, and hot. We hopped
on our boards and road to the fountain at the bottom, for a refreshing drink and
dip.
Podium:
Inline: Montavon, Laffargue, Labarthe
Buttboard: Leander, Gilder, Bücherl
Streetluge: Wagner, Leander, Eliot
Standup: Bradburn, Schaffner, Labarthe
Its time to clean up and head to Hot Heels. Some peoples jobs of cleaning up
were hard than others.
I don't want to see their tent at the end of Hot Heels!
While we got rained out on Saturday, the weather on Sunday was more than
perfect. The course was fun to run, surrounded by grass. There were no major
injuries this weekend!
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