Club des Cent Cols membership, retro style

[frkl]

About a year ago, I decided I needed something to motivate my riding. I have been known to use "waiting for that part to arrive" as an excuse not to get outside, so I thought I should set some sort of goal to help me choose routes and get out on the bike.

I decided to work towards Club des Cent Cols membership, retro style, and was wondering if anyone else here has already earned membership or is working towards it? Last summer, I rode/pushed my bike over 69 of the 100 passes required for membership, I but am worried my motivation might stall this summer for the remaining 31. I thought posting this would provide that necessary perception of peer pressure to get it done

If you don't know the club, you become a member after you ride over 100 passes, 5 of which must be over 2000m high. The passes have to be included in the club's official lists, which are based largely on local, historical place-naming traditions, meaning that not everything that looks like a pass counts as one. So it's a little arbitrary, but what game isn't?

https://www.centcols.org/en/
Anyway, there is no time limit to complete the game, and once you have the "collected" enough passes, you mail in a list and get a patch!

 

[frkl]

So maybe posting about this will actually help me get it done! Or at least get started again...

Since the last post, I replanned the remaining passes into smaller rides. Last summer I tried to ride as efficiently as possible--in one ride I collected 11 passes. But that was exhausting, and I don't think I want to put myself through that again Maybe it was that thought that was making it hard to get motivated again.

All in all, I should be able to get the 26 remaining low elevation passes in 4 or 5 rides, each under 40km each, so doable without any legitimate excuse. I even have a lower gear on my bike now. Last year, I tried really hard not to use the train to get closer to the "starting of the climbing," but it is allowed. So I may keep this open as an option this year in case I need a bit of a boost.

That leaves the 5 passes over 2000m, and I have planned a ride beginning in Andermatt, Switzerland, going up to Oberalppass, back to Andermatt, then up and over Gotthard Pass, and back to Andermatt. It would collect all five passes in 55km, with 1650m of climbing, paved roads up, trail and cobbles down.

I've driven there, but has anyone ever gone riding up there? Any thoughts, especially on the trails/historical roads? I am confident I can do this in a day--I have climbed more in total at considerably higher altitude before, but I was a tick younger. But this ride won't happen for a while anyway, so there is time to make sure the joints are still working...

 

[grey-beard]

I'd never heard of this club, but it looks interesting. It would be nice to see a list of passes in the UK, there is a guide, for 10 euros, and I think you have to be a paid up member first. I must have ridden some of them already?

 

[frkl]

They changed the rules a few years ago. You used to have to be a member to get the guides, but now you can before.

But openrunner.com has mountain and road passes geo-coded into it, as well as the ability to save climbed and planned passes into lists. Can do this all with a free account. You have to be fairly zoomed in to see them, but if you want to look in your usual riding area, it works well.

I take the openrunner passes and plan the routes in Komoot, which I had already paid for. It is actually a lot of fun to plan out the routes.

 

[frkl]

It can be a little strange, what is counted as a pass. It is more dependent on how naming happy the locals have been, not really on how hilly it is. Obvious topographic passes that aren't named as such historically might have been rejected. Little dips in the road, which someone in 1546 named "Lit'l Pass" count.

But it's a game and certainly got me riding more.