If you haven't been following it, TORTOUR is the first non-stop-bike-race in Switzerland lasting several days. The event combines the best ideas of all existing long distance races. You can read about it at www.tortour.ch/ (although most is in German). IWC is a major sponsor of the race.
If you ever have done long distance bicycle riding (and I used to be a Century --100 mile-- rider) you'll appreciate who incredibly challenging the race is . It goes entirely around Switzerland for over 1000 km --over 600 miles! And given the fact that Switzerland is mountainous, the altitude difference is about 13,000 km!
This takes iron men (and women). But IWC and this forum has been well-represented. First, is out very own Andrew Thomas, collector and scientist extraordinaire --who rode, raising money for Laureus. And also there was none other then Georges Kern, IWC's dynamic CEO, who participated too. His team of six was composed of Reto Schoch, Rahel Küng, Andy Sutz, Georges Kern, Marcel Bartholet and Ronnie Schildknecht. You can see Georges leading that team at
The start was at Neuhausen on Thursday, 15 August, and the riders finished on Saturday, 17 August, at the Rhine Falls near Neuhausen. As you may know, Neuhausen is in the Canton of Schaffhausen, and IWC has its large case-making and movement part manufactory there.
Reports are still sketchy, but I believe Georges; team might have come in second for the teams of six --and he thought he'd drag his team down ;) Georges' team is shown at
There are no reports on Andrew except to say he and his team finished. A blurry photo of his team at the finish is here:
These riders rode for a great cause, and their accomplishment --just finishing-- is a huge achievement. My only question is: how in the world did these guys find the time to train?
Congratulations to all --everyone is a winner.
