When I left home this morning the sun had not risen yet so my legs, and other parts were cold. I could feel that more layers might have been welcome. That’s because cycling in Autumn is about moving from a hot apartment to a cold dawn air temperature, before meeting with a group and cycling up a mountain, getting hot, and then heading back down into valleys hidden from the sun.
For years I have hated the shift from Summer weather to Autumn because as the days get shorter, and the weather gets colder, so summer sports come to an end. As summer sports come to an end, so the seasons of solitude begin. Autumn and Winter are lonely. The paradox is that I felt this way even when I was scuba diving every Sunday, and climbing every Thursday.
Tomorrow I could go for a run with one group in Nyon or a bike ride with two groups. One group starts iN Geneva, and the other stars in Nyon. If I go with the Geneva group I could ride another metric century quite easily. If I ride with the Nyon group, I remain local.
Galaxus is the Swiss Amazon, or at least one option. I first came across when I was buying tech toys via Digitec. They then bought Galaxus, and then Migros bought them.
They provide an opportunity to buy Raspberry Pi, Continental GP 5000 tires, Apple iPhones, Merkur razors and much more. One of the great things about this online shop is that it interfaces with plenty of other shops and it provides you with an estimate for when things will be delivered. In so doing it is a convenient, and intuitive to buy stuff we do and do not need.
For weeks I haven’t updated Google Photos because I ran out of storage on the 200 gigabyte tier and I avoid using more than 200 gigabytes of storage with Apple iCloud. If either of them had a 500 GB tier, then I’d consider them. As they do not offer this option I chose to phase them out with Immich and Kdrive.
Immich replaces Google Photos, and iCloud among other apps. it allows me to take photos from a phone and have it backed up on a Raspberry Pi at “home”. I have backed up all the photos that I had on my phones to Immich, so, when iCloud says “storage full” I just delete them from my phone and they are automatically removed from iPhoto. It allows me to have my photo gallery locally.
Recently I was thinking about how some people want to offload their work to AI and it got me to think about how people already offloaded getting around to cars. When is the last time that you saw a group of people walk from Nyon to St Cergue via La Dôle, rather than take the train most of the way, and walk a short loop at the top?
If we think about it, years ago we offloaded walking between villages and towns to horses, and carriages, and cars, and trains, and boats and more. We delegated the activity that kept us fit and healthy to animals and horses. The consequence of that shift. as we became more and more dependant on cars, and buses, and trains, is that the energy we burned doing sports, went towards enhancing our girth and mass.
Yesterday I walked from a “village” to a town. In the process I saw very few people out and about. I don’t know whether they stayed in because of the weather, or if they fled because of the three day weekend. Today is a cantonal holiday so shops in Vaud are closed. This could explain why it was quieter yesterday.
It was funny to walk in the rain, equipped for it. Other people had gone out, expecting good weather. They got heavy rain instead. The castle in Nyon had a few people sheltering, but very few were taking photos and appreciating the view. On a rainy day the view is of white clouds, rather than the Alps. The lake was flat too, except for the ripples caused by falling rain.
Yesterday I expected to be quite comfortable on a ride but I wasn’t. The climb was steep, with bits that were at 17 percent according to others. You pedal, and pedal. You feel the muscles in your legs fatigue. You think, “if only I could stop for a few minutes”, but you don’t. You keep going. You keep pushing. You get to the top.
You rest for a bit, while waiting for others to join. Finally the group is reunited so you continue the bike ride. You descend, but as you descend you take a detour back up to the Chemin Des Crêtes. Yet more uphill, before heading back down. Finally you’re in the Vallée de Joux valley, but there’s a problem. There is a strong sustained wind pushing against you. The group pushes on fast.
I have been up the Molard climb four times this year, and each time I sped up by a little. Twice my time improved by two minutes, and when I tried yesterday it improved by only a few seconds. With an average of 2000 meters of climbing per week I can feel the effects.
I can feel that I am climbing with more power and I can feel a big change on short climbs. There is a climb to enter Eysins and a few days ago I went up without tiring until the top. Yesterday when I climbed the Molard my heart rate peaked at 180 beats per minute but I had some strength left to try to sprint the last few meters.
From what I see the aim of AI companies is not to provide human beings with great tools to speed up work flows, to automate menial tasks, and to enhance our daily work lives. It is to replace us. For this reason I don’t like that there is so much hype about AI.
At the same time as I write this I have been to half a dozen, if not a dozen talks about Vibe coding, AI workflows, MCPs, Agents and more. I have also played with Claude, with Le Chat, with MyAI and many other products. I have played with it to correct my french grammar and more.
This morning I toyed with the idea of wearing a proper winter cycling top. Instead I settled for a thermal layer, the usual top, sleeves, and a wind blocker. These weren’t enough for me to feel warm.
The temperature has dropped. it was 10°c this morning and I was cold when I set off and I seriously considered turning back for another layer but thought that if I did, then when it gets really cold, I won’t have anything warmer to wear on bike rides. I should have worn that top. It didn’t warm up.