i have been living there for about a year, then moved back to Zurich. I am in Switzerland since 18 years in total

I have been riding in several placed in US during holidays or long periods of working there and I always felt very unsafe, from California to Florida, mid west, etc. I don't know if I were unlucky but I went to popular cyclist routes.
Here in Switzerland, the road standards are very high, I prefer the German part of Switzerland for riding but also in the French part, you ll be amazed about the variety and quality. you can go climbing big mountains or just hilly or flat around the Geneva lake. it is 180km of flat road...done a couple of times, you cross into France for a while and then back to Switzerland. It is a good road for TT training.
Anyway, you ll find on Strava all the popular routes from Lausanne for cycling.
It is a pretty city but too small for me. Also I prefer the German part of Switzerland for everyday life, more precise and cleaner.
If you have any specific question, just PM me

Thanks. I don't doubt for a second that the riding is better and safer than in the States.

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I've only visited twice, but the book Swiss Watching is a must if you are going to live there. It was written by Brit expat and is very interesting ... about their history, way of life, customs, etc.

Sending this link to an acquaintance of mine who moved from Waterloo (Ontario) to Lausanne.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

i'm a canadian who's lived many places but is currently back in zurich. feel free to PM me if you like.

for me, the road riding here is the best i've had anywhere, bar none. clean, safe, smooth roads, and, as mentioned, all the variety you need. running is excellent, as trail networks are very good, though there's very little 'wild country' in switzerland if you really want to get way out there. swimming is pretty great in summer, what with all the lakes, but logistically a bit tougher in winter w/r/t pools. i've been spoiled in the past, i suppose. but saying that, i live about 500m from a nice indoor 25.

the racing scene is quite good, though it can take some decoding for outsiders. far more variety than north america in terms of disciplines and distances, which you might find fun. i'm racing about 15 road races this year, and only 1 or 2 will actually be standard 5k-10k-half marathon distance, the rest are all random. ditto triathlon - don't think there are any standard sprint/oly/halfs.

life generally is expensive but i find racing probably cheaper. i just paid 30 francs to do an 11k running race, which is possibly less than i'd pay in canada.

anyway, good luck!

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Thanks, I'll get it.

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I also recommend that you send an e-mail to sportnews@datasport.com and get on their mailing list which seems to include all the endurance races in Switzerland from running, skiing, triathlon, etc.

I also saw recently that the Lausanne Triathlon would be held 18-19 August 2018 as a preview race for the Gran Final to be held there in 2019.

Salut Arnaud,

I grew up on the Swiss Riviera (Vevey-Montreux, 25 kms down the road/lake from Lausanne) and lived there until 2011 (I moved then to Australia, where my wife comes from).

Oh and I was a member of, and then president of, the triathlon club TRIVIERA. So my very unbiased opinion would be to base yourself in Vevey-La Tour-de-Peilz and commute to work by train/car/bike whichever you prefer, and take advantage of living in the best triathlon region in the world :-)

Link to the TRIVIERA club:
http://triviera.ch/


There are other TRI clubs slightly closer to Lausanne in Pully and Cully (not as good, but again I'm biased :-)). List of all the clubs from Swiss Triathlon: https://swisstriathlon.ch/fr/clubs/


Let me know if you have any other questions, cheers,
Laurent

To decode,

Training/area/outdoors - bloody fantastic. Also have skiing and climbing on your doorstep if that's your thing.

The Swiss can be uptight (it is a stereotype for a reason) although also very friendly.

Switzerland is also about 'the quiet life' - don't expect cutting edge culture or rock star excitement

I'd move there like a shot, but then it's my thing.

I've been living in Geneva for 10 years now and began my triathlon career here 3 years ago. There is plenty of racing going on, including a good number of standard distance races: in the Western part of the country Lausanne, Nyon, Geneva, Yverdon, Murten all have Olympic distance races every year, then there is a 70.3 in Rapperswil and a 140.6 in Zurich. Plus it is not so far to get to some races in France or Germany, eg Vichy has a 70.3 and 140.6.

The Swiss Triathlon federation has a calendar here: https://swisstriathlon.ch/fr/event-directory/
For races in France, you can look here: http://www.fftri.com/carte-interactive-1

I don't really know much about the clubs in Lausanne, but I see Tri Team Pully a lot at races so they would probably be worth checking out: http://www.triteampully.ch

As others have mentioned, living in Switzerland is great if you like an outdoors lifestyle. As a city, Lausanne seems to be more lively than Geneva given the relatively large student population, but Zurich is a fair amount bigger so has a bigger variety of things going on.

I'm also happy to help if you have any specific questions.

Hi Arnaud,

Parc Louis Bourget is my favorite training spot. It's very close from Lausanne University and Swiss Tech Campus=Lot's of training facilities there (400m track, 50m outdoor swimming pool very close, yep and also open water possibility in Geneva Lake)

Tri scene is very active, lot's of local race as already mentionned.

If you attend to swim in decent condition during winter you'll have to join a Triathlon Club.

Biking is relatively safe here. North-West side of Lausanne offers a tons of uncrowded road + very close from the Jura Moutain.

Feel free to contact me
cheers - MARC

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Merci, Laurent. Je vais regarder Triviera, mais je pense que je serai mieux si on habite à moins de 25 km du taf.

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That all sounds good. I'm not looking for the partying-all-night type of lifestyle. I'll be in bed by 9pm, since training starts at 5am.

How's the international community in Lausanne? My fiancée is US, so I think we'll try to integrate with foreigners.

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Thanks, Marc.
Any indoor pools that you know of around Parc Louis Bourget for swimming during the winter?

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Pas de problemes, je comprends. J'ai travaille une annee au CIO (juste a cote de parc bourget) et je venais au travail la plupart du temps a velo depuis Vevey/Corseaux. Possibilite de passer par la corniche (cully-chexbres) au retour, la plus belle route du monde pour le velo!!

Courir durant la pose de midi entre parc bourget et parc du debarcadere (St-Sulpice), y-a pas beaucoup mieux. Le seul probleme sur Lausanne c'est le choix plutot limite de piscines, surtout l'hiver (l'ete il y a le lac, super propre, et la piscine de bellervie a proximite de ton travail).

Hi Arnaud,

As mentionned by Laurent, indoor pool around your place are not so common. The closest will be :

http://www.chavannes.ch/...ublic-2017-2018-.pdf

At this pool we do have one training spot with the University Community every monday during lunch time. Otherwise you'll have to go to Piscine de Mont-repos, central Lausanne (very crowded)

In 2021 is expected an Indoor 50m pool very close from your job location...

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Oui, j'y étais le mois dernier et le parcours Parc Bourget / débarcadère, même la nuit, était sympa. Ennuyeux pour la natation, mais bon. Merci, en tout cas.

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Thanks, Marc. This is great.

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You have no chance with Daniela Rief!!

Hi Arnaud,

I'm a Canadian living in Lausanne for almost 3 years now. The triathlon scene here is amazing. There are several clubs in the area, I'll add Tri Team Pully (http://www.triteampully.ch/) and Tri Team Lutry (http://www.trilutry.ch) to the list of those already mentioned. They both do their running intervals near Parc Louis Bourget and can be found swimming in the lake in the summer months :) The cycling opportunities are just endless, you are within short distance of both the Jura and the Alps, with countless epic climbs and amazing mountain sceneries (I hope you like climbing by the way). A great resources for cycling related advice is Alain Rump's blog over at https://grandtoursproject.com/.

Any recommendations for bike rentals in Lausanne? I’m planning to attend the 2019 age group worlds then tour Switzerland after the race with my wife. Thinking it may be easier to rent a bike vs bringing my own.

So, I've been living in Lausanne for about three years now but doing very little tri/bike because of work. Any tips on tri-related stuff in the area?

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Also look to check out this swim organiser

https://www.lgsa.com/

Run (at least in part) by a nice Brit (well, we're all nice!!) that I met a couple of years back at an English swim event.

They run an 8 mile cross-lake swim from Evian to Lausanne which I'll be in on, once all this covid nonsense has calmed down and I can actually book travel without risk of cancellation.


Some great mountain biking to be had on the other side of the lake in the Porte du Soleil area from the end of June through to September, particularly out of Les Gets, morzine, Champery, etc.

We lived in Lausanne for a year, but returned to the US about 12 years ago. I'm trying to decode some of your concern that is not tri but social/integration for a spouse who is reluctant / not a French speaker / maybe stay-at-home. I was there... We lived in the middle of Lausanne (Av. de Beaulieu), no car (multiple stops for different bus lines 3-4 blocks away). We lived on one floor of a four floor building. Walk to market, bakery, etc. My spouse hated it and wanted to live where the US expats lived - out of town where owning a giant SUV was feasible (hard to do where we were - no parking, tiny streets, etc...). Most of our US acquaintances were in Morges or the Vevey area. We will be having visitors tomorrow from Lausanne, as it turns out - Swiss friends we met while there... Lausanne is not a big city and some French is very helpful and absolutely necessary in some circumstances. My French was caveman style but I was able to get things done in ways that my spouse could not. She more-or-less gave up on some errands - forcing them on me...