The high roads

The Haute Route Davos is a three-day climbing sensation in the Swiss Alps that will leave you stunned at its spectacle, humbled at its steepness and wondering whether the pro rider life is for you after all

- EMMA COLE

It’s a cold, dark morning as a gaggle of cyclists gathers at the newly created bike village in the centre of Davos, the smell of coffee circling easily through the rarefied mountain air. At 1,560m above sea level this Swiss town is Europe’s highest, so little surprise it has two hors catégorie climbs on its doorstep. This June the Tour de Suisse will celebrate its 90th birthday by taking on one, the Albula Pass, but right now it’s the turn of the Haute Route Davos – the event that has brought me here – to make use of the other HC climb, the Flüela Pass, plus a whole lot more besides. Taking place over three days, Haute Route Davos will cover 265km and 6,750m of ascent. Hopefully I packed my climbing legs.

Colder still

Full to the brim with carbs after last night’s pasta party and the continental breakfast this morning, I eye up my fellow riders. Most are drenched in Assos – we’re in Switzerland after all – most are men and, as I discover, most live in the Alps. This means they can’t help but offer some advice about the climbs we are going to face today: ‘The middle bit is the worst,’ I’m told in regard to the Albula, the first and longest climb. With this at the front of my mind, we roll up to the start line where to my great joy the organisers are handing out foil sheets.

There is cold and then there is lateSeptember-Swiss-mountain-cold, so as someone who may have come slightly underprepared I proceed to shove these foil sheets around every possible part of my jacket. No sooner am I more robot than cyclist than the sound rings out of hundreds of riders clipping in, and we are off.