Hirzel is the village that sits on a shelf above Lake Zurich, between the lakeside town of Horgen and the high country toward Einsiedeln, and the road that climbs there from the water is one of the most popular afternoon rides in the canton. It is a quick succession of wide, open bends through orchards and meadows, with the lake spread out behind you and the Alps on the horizon. The ride starts and ends at these corners, which riders have named the sweepers for their smooth, generous radius. Horgen, a lakeside town of about six thousand people in its centre, lies four kilometres away, and has fuel and cafes.
The surface is excellent and the gradients are modest. This is a road for finding your rhythm, rolling on the throttle out of each bend and sweeping across the hillside, with the odd tractor to remind you that the land is working. It is also popular, so you will share it with cyclists, sports cars and other bikes, especially on sunny weekends. The road continues over the ridge to Biberbrugg and then to the Sihlsee, a long artificial lake created in the 1930s by damming the Sihl river, and one of the largest reservoirs in Switzerland. Speed limits are low and enforcement is regular, so ride with courtesy.
The destination is Einsiedeln, a small town built around its great Benedictine abbey, founded in the tenth century on the site where a hermit named Meinrad had lived. The baroque church, with its twin towers and black Madonna, has drawn pilgrims for a thousand years, and the long square in front is a place to sit and watch the world go by. The town also lies on the Way of St James, the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. Nearby, the moor country around the Sihlsee shelters rare plants and birds, and the dam is a good spot to watch the sunset.
The landscape is a pretty mix of orchard, farm and forest. Cows with bells graze on steep fields, and in spring the cherry blossom makes the hillside white, while in autumn the beech turns copper. The air smells of grass, hay and, sometimes, woodsmoke from farmhouses. On a clear day you can see the Glarus Alps and the Rigi, and the lake below glints like a mirror.
Bring a light jacket for the evening, since the shaded slopes can be cool, and expect a busy road on summer weekends.