A TDC Social Ride to La Baudichonne

Yesterday evening I went for a group ride but rather than riding for an hour or so to get to Geneva I rode to the centre of Nyon. I rode to the old garage that was transformed into a café called Tête de Course. This is where the TDC group meet before starting their Thursday evening bike ride. Social Rides

Three Groups

The group split into three groups. Group 1 was the fastest, and then group 2, and finally group 3. I chose to be in the easiest group as I am not used to riding with this group and it was the right decision.

After running in the morning, and not having a proper lunch I thought that I should choose a group that did not push me too much. Little did I know that in the end I would ride up to the P’tit Bar, before deciding, “I feel ok” so I continued to the top.

Challenge To The Top

This is not an easy ride. When I do this ride I wish that I had more easy gears so that I could shift to easier gears. As I did not have this option I stood up on the harder bits, and kept pushing. When I got to the p’tit bar I fuelled up before continuing.

I was overtaken by people from the first and second groups during the climb. Quite a few of them said nothing. I don’t know whether it was out of shyness or exhaustion. I suspect exhaustion was the main reason for their silence.

At one point I did ride alongside someone who had music playing. For him this was a “rest day” as it was for me. His idea of rest is staying in zone 2. This makes sense. We talked for a bit, until I felt I was pushing too hard and chose to slow down.

Short in Distance but Steep

This is not an easy climb. It’s only 5km so it’s short, but it is steep and you barely have an opportunity to rest. You just need to grind. It didn’t help that I did not have the route that we were doing on the GPS. I had the long variant and the long variant made it so that I knew how much was left to climb, but not distance.

I still made it to the top. It’s the first time that I see so many people up there. Usually I just see three or four other cyclists. This time I saw two cycling groups. No one but me, from group three, made it to the top.

Did I choose to ride with a group that was too easy, and that’s why I dropped them? I don’t think so. I didn’t know this group, or their riding experience. I prefer to try for the slowest group, see how it feels, and then push myself if I feel that I can try for a slightly harder group.

And Finally

A seventy kilometre loop with a Geneva group involves fourty four kilometres to get to the start point and back. In theory I would cycle one hundred and ten kilometres. If I start with a Nyon group the ride to the start is less than three kilometres. I only add 6km, or six minutes to the start. It is also an opportunity to meet local people, to Nyon, rather than local people, to Geneva.

If I am not just doing long rides I can do more strenuous rides and I can skip the train.