This Isn't a Recovery Ride

Yesterday’s moderate recovery ride was hard. It was hard because we were riding at up to thirty kilometres per hour for sustained periods of time. We were riding fast from Geneva, to Nyon, and then again from Nyon to Geneva. With a small group you can afford to push like this. Witha large group there is no way.

I knew, when I saw that it was a moderate ride, that it would be slightly more challenging than an easy ride. In my eyes it would almost count as a challenging or peak ride.

Having said this we stopped for an hour for coffee, and we did get to rest at traffic lights, and when slowing for the barriers on the voie verte. We were also helped by the road being quite flat. I say flat but we climbed 700m over 60 kilometres. That’s not flat.

The group was fast due to the abilities of everyone in the group. As soon as someone slowed down or had an issue the entire group slowed down. It stayed tight for almost the entire ride.

The average speed was around 24.3 km/h. That’s one of my fastest rides. My average heart rate was 133bpm so I wasn’t working too hard. Almost sixty kilometres in two and a half hours.

What amused me, as we were riding by the US embassy on the way back into Geneva is that it wasn’t even midday when we had almost finished the ride. Imagine going for a ride and being done before lunch.

I was on the 12:08 RE33 back to Nyon. If you want to travel with a bike on the train in Switzerland you need to get two tickets. You get one for yourself, and one for the bike. You get two QR codes. One for you, and one for the bike. I chose the RE33 because it’s easy to get onto and off of with a bike.

I took the train, not out of laziness, but out of convenience. I know that the Route Du Lac will be hell on a sunny Sunday. On weekends cars park on the pavement and people walk on the cycle lane. This means that you can either ride behind lethargic pedestrians suffering from heat stroke, in the afternoon, or get insulted by the very cars that are parked on the pavement and walking on the cycle lanes. That’s why the train makes sense.

I did toy with the idea of riding from Geneva to Yvoire and catching the boat from Yvoire to Nyon. If I had been fresh, I would have considered it. I chose not to overdo it.

I expect that next weekend I will do the same.