Aarau

Aarau sits on the Aare between the Jura and the Mittelland, and the country around it is as flat and fast as Switzerland gets. For cycling and running that is the point: long, steady efforts at an even pace, which is genuinely hard to find elsewhere without going to a track.

It is central to a fault — Zurich, Bern, Basel and Lucerne are all under an hour — which makes it easy to staff and easy to reach. Sessions here are cheaper to schedule at short notice than in any of those four.