This is a review of The Challenge Tour offered by Bike Switzerland.
Let me begin that I write a lot of reviews for Trip Advisor and with the exception of two they are all positive. A little bit of torn wall paper or a slight inconvenience doesn’t cause me to write a negative review.
I struggled with this review because the tour was not as expected. I wanted to think this review through so so I waited 4 weeks before writing it. For the value of this tour it is the most expensive tour I have been on ( I have taken 5 European bike tours) I rode 1300 miles to prepare for this tour, and had been looking forward to this trip for 3 years. I was able to ride it because I am very fit and an avid cyclist, but it was not without pain.
Lets begin with the positive.
The guides Dave and Chris were very kind and informative. Antonio, the chef, prepared fabulous picnic lunches daily and upon our hotel arrival he had our luggage in our room. The hotels were very nice and a few exceptional. The scenery in Switzerland is beyond words of description. The people are kind, the roads are smooth, cyclists are accepted as part of the culture and the country has made remarkable provisions to keep cycling safe.
The undesirable portion unfortunately is John (owner), runs a very poor guided tour. He also rents bikes and self-guided tours. Be careful of the self-guided tours. One of our tour riders did a self-guided and was lost every day because of the poor GPS route. Luckily she is extremely fit and could do the daily extra mileage.
Very Large group - 19 riders and only two guides. Dave (a guide) use to work for John 6 years ago and flew in from the U.S to guide since John could not find local guides to help out. Dave, Chris and Antonio are contracted help. His web site lists 5 guides and 2 chefs. Umm
No SAG Wagon for support. On day TWO of this challenge tour 6 people opted not to ride and at noon another 4 dropped out. It was at noon they were told there was NO sag wagon and they would have to find transportation (at their cost) to the hotel With Their Bikes. Meaning at noon more than 50% of the group riders are no longer riding. His web site states there is support for weary riders. Umm
No energy bars, on all my other tours a sag wagon would be on the side of the road with energy bars, fruit, cookies…… every two hours you could count on fueling. With Bike Switzerland you’re on your own. Umm
The web site states the route would consist of 20% packed gravel. It’s a lot more than that. The route overview on the web site states the total trip is 597km of riding (353 miles) with 3020m (9908 feet) climbing. When you add up the daily trip pages from the web site the climbing is 4030m (13,221 feet) a difference of 1010m (3313 ft) of additional climbing. Our actual climbing of the standard route we rode, without additional climbs, was 4863m (15,955 ft) of climbing. Thus an additional 1843km (6,046ft) of climbing, when compared to the web site route overview climbing. Umm
You got into the hotels after 5pm and could not enjoy the amenities of the hotel or take in the beautiful towns we were staying in .
Bike fitting – make sure you know how to fit your bike and be assertive. Female riders had male seats, disc brakes dragged, derailleurs didn’t work etc. My bike had a female seat and I was told that it was ok the only difference is it has more padding. No the seats are altogether different due to male sit bones. When I reserved my bike I told them I needed a 56cm bike with a 100 mm stem, and this was confirmed. When I told the bike fitter this he said “hey I’ve got 20 bike to fit”. I did get the 100mm stem and a male seat.
The breakfasts were whatever the hotels served. Mainly cold cut meats, hardboiled eggs, bread. There were a few exceptions were you could fuel for the day. Because of the lack of fuel on the daily rides, riders took hard boiled eggs, bananas, fruit, etc for daily fuel.
Yes there is a reason this is called The Challenge Tour and its not all because of the cycling.
John lists and offers 4 different tours and for years he has not been able to fill them. In fact this one Challenge tour is all he is able to do this year. I believe it has been this way for several years.
I hope this review helps you make an informed decision where to send your hard earned money and vacation time. I will go back to Switzerland but not with this tour guide.