For several days I was the only person signed up for a bike ride. Last night it went up to seven people, and then this morning it was down to three people, including me. I arrived half an hour to fifteen minutes early. During that time I had the opportunity to think “What if no one turns up, would I still ride”. My reaction was “of course”. I was already at the meeting point, ready to cycle.
Yesterday I cycled along the lake to get to Geneva. When I got to Geneva I cycled by World Meteorological Organisation before heading up from there towards the Graduate Institute, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Palace of Nations (Palais des Nations) before heading by the International committee of the Red cross, by the International Labour Organisation and World Health Organisation before passing by the European Broadcasting Union, before finally heading back out of Geneva.
Today I looked at the Sports Tracker app and I noticed that all of my activities started from home, whether cycling, hiking, or walking. That’s because I spent this month cycling and walking from home. I didn’t use the car, or trains to get around.
I was thinking of this luxury when I was walking to the food shops this morning. Usually I would go by car, not because I am too lazy to walk four kilometres to the shops and back, but because recently the roads have been congested. People commuting to work all drive at the same time, so the entire road gets clogged up. That’s why I walked.
When I was scuba diving every weekend I would often feel tired in the afternoon, after I got home. It’s due to the huge change in pressure, from 40m down in the lake to 300+m above sea level around the Léman. Yesterday I went for a ride, and today I went for a ride again. I feel fatigue. I feel tired and in need of time to recover.
I believe that it’s due to the Autumn conditions. The mornings are darker, we’re wearing more layers to keep warm, and the environment is cooler. I believe that all of these contribute to the body needing to make more effort to warm up, and then to keep warm. The irony is that we go for morning rides, when an afternoon ride could make more sense. In the afternoon the air has had time to warm up, as have the roads. Just as importantly humidity has had time to decrease.
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.
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.
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.
I was perfectly happy hiking in solitude for years in a row, but eventually, as normal life returned, after the pandemic I felt a sense of isolation, especially on weekends. I would see groups walking together and I longed to revert to that habit. Eventually I did and now for more than a year I have been on regular group hikes and bike rides.
I enjoy group hikes and bike rides but as an introvert I usually don’t start speaking with people near the end of an event, and if the event comes to an end then I usually don’t see people again for weeks, or even months. The result is that despite knowing hundreds of cyclists and hikers at this point, my solitude remains the same.
For a year or more I had been tempted to cycle up to the Mont Tendre and on Saturday I got the opportunity to try that ride with Tête de Course, a Nyon cycling community and café/restaurant.
The route went from Nyon to Rolle, and then from Rolle upwards towards Aubonne and then upwards towards Montricher. From Montricher you have the climb to Mont Tendre.
In theory this is a quiet road with limited cars. In practice we had quite a few cars passing us. The road is narrow, so when a car passes you need to get to the side of the road but with débris and more it does not fill me with euphoria. If the road was completely closed to cars, then this would be a nice climb. For me, good climbs are those with no cars, or those where the road is wide enough for cars to pass with ease.