Re: Grande Alpe

[MatG]

Day 0

Checked my bag – spare shirt, base layer, two pairs of socks, arm warmers, leg warmers, coat & flip flops. Bike stuff – two spare tubes, tyre levers & multi tool. Decided spare cycling shorts too heavy.

Two of us cycled from centre of Bristol to Bristol airport (about 24km)

At a round about half way there we were both turning left there was a car approaching the round about which was not yet on the round about found that he had to slow by about 2 seconds. Obviously devastated to this delay to his journey drove past us & slammed on the brakes & decided to get out & shout at us – thus delaying himself even more. Was this a sign of things to come – a week of crazy drivers.

We arrived at the airport without any other incidents. Although we had bike bags, we decided to try to put our bikes on naked – let down the tyres, turn handle bars 90 degrees & take the pedals off. In principle it protects the bikes more – forks can not be squashed & bike will be wheeled & not thrown from place to place. The guy at the checked with his supervisor but wouldn’t let us on like that. So we put them in bags. We met two others doing the trip with us at the airport – their bikes were already over.

Arrived at Geneva airport & bikes already brought off – 5 bikes there – including one of ours but not mine! Oh well that will be an excuse not to climb all those mountains  Well my bike with a number of others turned up on another conveyor belt. I proceeded to put my bike back together – found the derailleur slightly bent – bent it back – although slightly concerned that it might not hold out. The other two saw we had our bikes so said they carry on – the 40km to where we were meeting the other 4. Pumped tyres up but managed to snap top off valve on one tyre – still hard enough to ride.

We set off through Geneva – riding around the lake to Thonon. Geneva seemed to be full of good looking people. I punctured on the way there – so replaced my tube. When we got to the meeting place I decided to replace the tube with the broken valve. So not started trip & used both my tubes. Did get another one.

The two others had some how managed to catch a train the wrong way around the lake & then had to catch a ferry across – arriving over two hours later than us! – bike is the best option.

Stats of day

Day 64km

Total 64km

Total punctures 2

Idiot drivers 1

Bad navigators 2

Ugly People in Geneva 2 (us)