A review of the first day at Safiental. Written by our volunteer Johanna for „dotwatcher.cc„:
Hey dotwatchers, it’s your girl Johanna here, once participant and adventurer who got an arrow to the knee (if any of you get the reference, please let me know). Anyway, I’m volunteering this year instead, manning checkpoint Safiental, as I’m not fit enough after knee surgery to take on this cake challenge. I’m also tasked with writing daily updates. (Which is the reason why I currently feel quite odd, sitting in a mountain hut with a laptop – who does that?) At checkpoint Safiental it’s been dead ends, soup, and thwarted plans (or adaptability on the fly from our riders) so far. Loïc Marin-Lamellet was the first back here to collect his third stamp and cake. He almost didn’t want the latter but was convinced to have half a piece which he quickly judged to be the best he has had (so far) – well, apple pie is hard to beat after all. And as quickly as he arrived, he was gone again. What had arrived about 15min before him decided to remain until about 9pm. Indeed, it had started “schiffe” (raining heavily) and did so with mad fervour for hours. Not only that, the temperatures dropped to about 7 degrees Celsius. Since then, every rider (except one, Jana Kesenheimer) took either an extended break or decided to stay the night at the Berggasthaus Turrahus. Our checkpoint had effectively transformed into “Sackgassen & Suppe” (dead ends & soup) on this first day of racing, as apple pie eaten outside in the cold won’t warm your hands enough. Some riders already had to abandon their idea of doing the hike-a-bike over to Alp Nurdagn, instead riding the long way around and riding back out (like a true dead end). And, believe me, it is a long way – this valley is over 20km long. It is now 10pm and relatively to how many starters there are, we’ve still only seen about two handful. Simon Geiser has finally managed to warm up after getting him some extra blankets and down jacket; he’s finishing his Älplermagronen and then he’s back on his way. He’s got one checkpoint left and could be back in Sankt Gallen for the break of dawn. After the rain stopped, the clouds quickly parted and we were rewarded by beautiful sunset scenery. As the forecast stands now, tomorrow should be an absolutely gorgeous day. Who knows, maybe some riders will attempt the monstruous hike-a-bike in the sun? Stay tuned!
