Seven hours and nineteen minutes. That’s how long it takes to cross the western half of the Canton of Vaud on a gravel bike — assuming you stop for Galettes, four coffees, and an unexpected standoff with some cattle.
The 7th of June was the day Serban and I tackled another stage of my ongoing series of 20 Gravel-Packing routes through Switzerland. Yverdon-les-Bains to Lausanne, via the Lac de Joux. Stage 1 and the first half of Stage 2. 114 kilometres, 1.900 metres of climbing, and a difficulty label that the app politely calls “Schwierig.” That last part turned out to be accurate.
Three Climbs and the Law of Diminishing Willpower
The route through Vaud doesn’t ease you in. It introduces itself with a climb, lets you breathe for a bit, then hits you with another one. By climb number two, somewhere before noon, the conversation between Serban and me had narrowed to one topic: food.
So we stopped. Galettes Musclées — the kind of thing you order when you’ve earned it, and we had earned it. By my fourth coffee of the day (it was 13:00, which tells you everything you need to know about the morning), we were ready again. Fed, caffeinated, slightly over-confident.
The Cows That Won
The third climb delivered us into the kind of scenery that makes you remember why you ride: rolling green hills, the smell of summer grass, the satisfying crunch of gravel underfoot. And then, the cows.
A small herd had decided that the path was theirs and that we were a curiosity worth investigating. They were not wrong. Serban, in particular, made an impression on them — or they on him. He stopped. He talked to them. He was delighted. I documented it, obviously.
What happened next was perhaps karmic. At around the 90 km mark, Serban’s thighs staged a coup. Cramps. The kind that make you rethink your entire relationship with cycling. We limped — metaphorically, mostly — into Lausanne together, locked onto one shared goal: a burger place that someone on the internet had promised was nearby.
It was. The Valaisanne was cold. It was exactly right.
The Route
If you want to ride it yourself — or just suffer along vicariously — the full route is on Komoot:
On Two Wheels Through Vaud
This series has been one of those slow-burn projects. Twenty routes. Switzerland, piece by piece. There’s something meditative about doing it this way — no rush, no grand finish line, just one stage at a time when the calendar cooperates and someone like Serban says yes.
Western Vaud gave us cattle diplomacy, too many coffees, and a reminder that 115 km and 1.900 metres don’t get easier just because you’ve done it before. They get better, though. That’s different.
🎬 If you want to see more rides like this, I post them over on YouTube — come say hi: youtube.com/@whereisvinz
🎵 Listening along: