My husband is an avid cyclist and decided to do the Alpenbrevet, so we spent a few days in Andermatt. Alpenbrevet is one of the largest cycling races in Switzerland, which offers four different races that range from 2 mountain passes/64km/2140 vertical meters to 5 mountain passes/268km/7090 vertical meters. Almost 3000 people take part in the race.
I had originally planned to try to do some hiking during the day of the race, but the weather wasn’t great so I ended up taking the train to a few stops on the race. Not a bad consolation prize though as the trains you take are the Rhätische Bahn/Rhaetian Railway and the Matterhorn Gottard Express, which both have exceptional views.
Göschenen
The weekend of the race, we stayed in Göschenen, right by the Gotthard tunnel. It’s a very small cute village that is easily accessible to Andermatt, which was super super booked. There are some nice hikes and walks around the area, but the weather didn’t cooperate this weekend so I didn’t have the chance to do them.
Andermatt to airolo
The race starts (for most of the distances) in Andermatt, and the tour that my husband did covered 4 passes – Furka, Nufenen, Lukmanier, and Oberalp. The start time was 6:25am so I slept in and then later went to the Airolo aid station to watch the riders come through (after they had covered 2 passes).
Airolo to disentis
From Airolo I then took the train to Disentis (first going back up to Göschenen then to Andermatt), and from Göschenen to Andermatt you can see the Teufelsbrücke / Devil’s Bridge from the train. Would have loved to see this but again, the weather didn’t hold up for that long.
disentis to andermatt
While in Disentis, I walked around a bit and waited out the rain in the very cute and delicious restaurant Stiva Grischuna. I highly recommend this place! After a little bit of time in Disentis I took the train back to Andermatt.
The train goes directly by Oberalpsee/Oberalppass from canton Graubünden back to canton Uri.
After
Back in Andermatt I watched the finishers come in and also watched the weather change from rain to sun to rain again as it had all day, and this time caught a great view of a double rainbow. All in, a super fun day and super cool race!
