Enter day 05 of nothing but Alpine mountain biking with Mission Workshop. My body is still sore, almost a week later and all I can think about is how much fun we all had. The morning was cold, damp and silent, save for the cow bells that somehow echoed through the valley all night, barely being muted by the drunken Swiss wine-tasting party that erupted outside my open hotel window.

Lyle and I awoke at 7am and ate breakfast with Stefan (owner of Stilrad Zurich) and Alberto. 7:30am we rolled out into the misty mountains. From the onset, today was supposed to be quite easy, with a few technical sections and one nasty, nasty climb. At this point, the extra rain clothes and merino base layers I brought became a burden. Every ounce of extra weight in my backpack seemed to pull me back down each climb. Not to mention the 5Dmkii and 24-70mm lens… But hey, that’s my job right?

We made it out just fine, save for a few spills, a few flats and loose legs. All I could think of was drinking a sparkling water and a Radler… 30 miles and 4,000′ of climbing at altitude, on a MTB is no joke.

Check out more narrated photos in the Gallery!

Side note: I want to thank everyone who made this trip possible. Stefan, Alberto, Mission Workshop, Santa Cruz Bicycles and anyone else who helped us out along the way. THANK YOU!