Who We Are - Legacy Circle Edition Member Spotlight: Jana Zanetto’s Bike Origin Story – The Agony and the Ecstasy

At MCBC, we love connecting with community members and hearing about their experiences, everything from how a daily bike commute turned their health around to epic bike tours across the States. Everyone has a story to tell. In this edition of MCBC’s Member Spotlight, we are thrilled to introduce Jana Zanetto, an MCBC legacy circle member, bike-touring enthusiast, and Walk/Bike San Rafael Local Team member. We asked Jana to share her bike origin story and why she and her husband decided to leave a Legacy gift to MCBC.

As an educator, environmentalist, and traveler, my bike has been a lifelong friend. I commuted in college and later, as a City College of SF instructor for 31 years–and even as a Book Passage French instructor. My husband Jeff and I found bike touring the best way to feel immersed in a place while still covering some ground, and we’re still bike touring 35 years later. My bike has helped me stay healthy, just as cycling keeps our community and surroundings healthier. 

I was excited to advocate for SFBC during the 30 years I lived in SF and saw it emerge as a strong, successful organization promoting the bicycle. I have been even more excited to see how MCBC is growing ever stronger as its programs and successes multiply:

Cory’s Ride, Local Teams, Safe Routes to School, the Deb Hubsmith (Cal Park Hill) Tunnel, advances on the north-south greenway, the SMART train path, and new progress with e-bikes being allowed on MMWD trails. These successes inspire my husband and me to want to support MCBC to do even more exciting things to come! We’re proud to have listed MCBC as our #1 funds recipient to continue to support MCBC’s incredible, impactful work.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

by Jana Zanetto

The heat was rising, and it was time to get out of Dodge. “Dodge” was Frankfurt, Germany, and the heat was being created from the increasing tension my German boyfriend Wolfgang (of course!) was facing from the doctoral exam in nuclear physics that he was preparing for two weeks hence, in the middle of June 1986. I was 36 and had been living happily in Frankfurt for a year, but I was now contemplating where I should head in order to get out of Wolfgang’s (long) hair while he consecrated himself to study. My closest German friend Ingrid offered me her 3-speed city bike with fenders and footbrakes to take a trip for those two weeks—so I headed out with my purse in the front basket and my daypack clipped onto the back rack.  A commuter cyclist at home in San Francisco, I was pretty experienced, but I had never done a bike tour before. Still, it seemed pretty easy: pack a map of southern Germany and Switzerland, point myself south, and pedal. 

The first day went without a hitch, and I pulled into Heidelberg, 92 km away, before dinnertime. I was pooped but proud of the distance that I had covered without ever getting lost. I walked by a charming Kneipe (beer tavern) in the old town and treated myself to a beer. My, that Bitburger sure tasted good!–so good that I ordered another. Phew, what a difference the second one made; it was all I could do to pay up, unlock my bike outside, and walk it along to the tourist office, which directed me to the youth hostel for the night.

The next day passed somewhat the same–although I kept it to a single celebratory beer at the end of the day after arriving in Pforzheim. I had started out taking bike paths, but most of them were very local, and I got lost following them, so I then stuck to the smaller roads, still heading south, managing about 75 km a day–not bad on my heavy 3-speed. The following day, however, I entered Schwarzwald (the Black Forest), and from Calw onward, the route became more and more hilly but fortunately also more picturesque.

Wildberg, Nagold, Horb, heading south, the scenery was improving, but now I occasionally had to get off and walk my bike for a bit of a rest for my legs. Eventually, though, I arrived at Schaffhausen, the last town in Germany, before I pedaled on into Switzerland. I marveled at the impressive Rhein River waterfall there, then pushed on towards Zurich, where I was looking forward to staying with friends. As I got closer, crowds of people were on the same small roads that I was on, walking towards downtown. I eventually asked and found out that that very weekend (it was Friday), Zurich was throwing its “2000-year birthday party”. Wow, I had no idea that the city was that old! Once in the city center, it was madness the entire weekend. Bands and beer on every corner, with every Swiss person seemingly wanting only to get drunk and party. My friends were of that same bent, so I spent quite a bit of the weekend just relaxing alone and then having coffee (lots of it!) with them in the mornings. There was music and lots of fun party food, but I was definitely jones-ing more for that scenic beauty Switzerland is known for.

The (long!) weekend over, I set out to Nyon, near Geneva, where my friend Marie-Odile was working at a preschool. As she lived high up in the Jura mountains, I was crossing my fingers that I could meet her at her school and then hitch a ride in her car up to her home. Crossing Switzerland from east to west, Lucerne was my first stop, and while touring its charming streets on foot, I found a “zimmer frei” rented room for the night, with a bountiful breakfast the next morning—which I needed, as the next day was when the hills started and after that, the hills then became full-on Alps. 

I had several memorable experiences during my crossing of mountainous Switzerland. First, my three speeds were no longer cutting it, so I spent a good deal of time pushing my bike up and up. On short passes, I had the thrill of the downhill as payoff, and at this point, I came up with the perfect title for my trip: the Agony and the Ecstasy. However, on longer downhills, my foot brakes started heating up, and the stinking rubber told me it was time to stop and let the brakes cool for a while. I crossed a number of passes, requiring more walking on the uphills and stopping for brake-cooling on the downhills, but I finally reached the Diablerets, the last mountains before I got to Lac Leman, the big lake on which Nyon and Geneva are located. At the top of my last pass, I met a group of cyclists in spandex, so I rang my bell and wished them a hearty “bonjour”; they responded with jaws agape, wondering how ‘granny’ on her city bike had taken a wrong turn from the marketplace!

Jana at the end of her tour in Alsace

In Nyon, I did get driven up the long pass by Marie-Odile to her home in Les Rousses, France, high in the Jura mountains. We spent the next few days catching up (I hadn’t seen her for 4 years) and biking in her lovely local area with her husband, Etienne. However, I had to keep pedaling on, as I was hoping to meet up with Wolfgang, whom I had spoken to the night before and who felt that he’d aced the test (big phew!)  So I continued riding a few more days, still in the mountains at times, still getting off my bike to push it up some hills, still having to stop for a while to cool the brakes—but the kilometers rolled by, and eventually, I made it to my final destination: Colmar in Alsace, a charming city with canals like Venice but ambiance like old-style Germany, with half-timbered houses and flowers in every flowerbox. 

Jana bike touring in the Dolomites in 2023

Wolfgang arrived with his bike by train, and we spent the next five days meandering together by bike toward Strasbourg up the Wine Road, where a wine festival was going on, with parades of folks in costumes on horseback and wine tasting and yummy flammkuchen (Alsatian “pizza”) soft pretzels, and other gastronomic treats of this part of France that seems so German. I had lost a few kilos pedaling (and pushing!) all those kilometers, so I didn’t have to count any calories for those five days. Although the trip truly was a mixture of agony and ecstasy, the whole experience showed me how much more immersive cycling is than other kinds of transportation for smelling, seeing, and FEELING the country one is traveling in. Now I’m 74 and have been bike touring almost yearly for nearly 40 years, and I have that urge to “get out of Dodge” to thank for providing me with a truly wonderful way to see the world!

Have A STORY TO SHARE?

Email info@marinbike.org if we should feature you or someone you know!

If you would like to leave a legacy gift to MCBC in your will, please contact Liz Bernstein.

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