Ingress by bike is good when you’re in the countryside because it allows you to travel between villages faster than if you were walking and without the carbon footprint of taking the car or a scooter with an internal combustion engine. It also allows you to stop anywhere.
Distance Covered
In two hours I travelled about 30 km, which by ordinary cycling standards is slow. I like to cover that distance in about an hour and a half or less. I was able to cover at least six to eight villages and visit portals that I would not overwise visit.
New Portal Spotting
During the bike ride I noticed that there were some unmarked portal opportunities. I saw some “borne kilometrique” and border markers that were not listed. The border markers are old stone sculptures where you see VD on one side and FR on the other. In this context FR stands for France, not Fribourg. They’re spaced out regularly enough to be justified as portals.
Undulating Terrain
The landscape here isn’t flat so if you’re cycling to play Ingress you sometimes visit portals that are at the bottom of troughs or other hills. You also need to cycle upwards as much as you cycle downwards. As a result it does promote a healthy afternoon of physical exercise. When you sprint between portals you’re exerting yourself more than if you were looking down at your phone while walking.
Quadlock holder
if you’re playing ingress on a bike holding the phone in your hand is dangerous. That’s why it makes sense to use something like the quadlock bike mount. It’s easy to install on your bike and when you’re playing ingress you clip the phone on, and when you finish it you remove the phone in seconds.
In the past when I’ve played ingress I kept the phone in my pocket and I had to stop to see if I was close to the next portal or if I wanted to navigate. In this case you’re using the Ingress app rather than a cycling app and you spot the field lines and head towards the portal that you either want to capture or link from.
All in all this is a nice way of going for a bike ride somewhere familiar without getting bored by the routine or the 30th time down the same road. It’s a nice way of passing an afternoon.
Today I participated in two Zwift events, a social ride and a race. The social ride was one hour of pedalling at a comfortable pace trying to keep to the same speed as the group. Rather than trying to be as fast as the group I was trying to pace myself to be within the peloton rather than riding off.
Social rides are amusing because you start on the peer and wait for the counter to get down to zero and when it does you go from being on a home trainer in the real world cycling on a home trainer in the virtual world to cycling on the roads of Watopia. Social rides are interesting because you have people from Australia, England, Denmark and many other countries, so long as they are in a timezone where it would be reasonable to cycle at such a time of day.
It’s the first time that I get out of bed, look at the schedule for Zwift events and feel excited about doing something virtual like riding a bike. Keep in mind that today I could have burned diesel by heading to St Triphon to climb with people I know. I felt no motivation to drive that far so I was happy to stay home.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that riding a bike on Zwift is riding an apartment bike because it isn’t. It’s similar to riding a bike in the real world, with real hills, virtual drafting, virtual fellow drivers, no cars and more. What is real is the conviviality, the desire to share a few phrases, the cheering and the desire to ride as a group.
During the ride we did sprint twice and on the first sprint I beat my personal record and on the second go I had less energy remaining. During the first sprint I put out up to 934 watts in theory. That’s enough energy for me to rest on the handle bars for a little bit before catching my breath and continuing.
When I ride in the real world it’s usually alone and I race against myself but when it’s on Zwift I have a choice between virtual social rides, virtual races, training, or just a “as the wind takes me” option. Of course there is no wind, I mean that you ride for the pleasure of riding.
A Race up a Volcano
The second ride of the morning, about 15 minutes after the first ride finished was a 15km race up the side of the volcano on the Watopia map. I thought that with my abilities I should select group D. I pedalled during the countdown to keep warm and a few seconds before the race started I pedalled at a higher cadence to compensate for the lag that I experience with my current setup. I started well but I tired more quickly than most. While I was trying to maintain 200 or more watts they were racing off into the distance. I found myself in 110th or lower positions but I continued pedalling. I tried to maintain between 180 watts and 220 watts. I kept looking at the riders beside me and most were category C riders.
Keeping up
I worked hard to keep the power up and at moments when I felt that I needed to rest I changed gear, changed my cadence, but tried to keep the cadence up. Usually my cadence is about 85 when I’m riding alone but in this race, as I tried to keep up it reached an average of 105 strokes per minute. Over the duration of the race I was generating about 2.61 watts per kilo.
I didn’t know what to expect from the other racers so my goal was simply not to be dropped into last position. After that and as I got closer to the end my goal was to be within the top one hundred so although my body wanted me to slow down I kept working at it. I was pushing at over 200 watts for 14:45 in this race.
I spent hours and days training on Zwift before I felt ready to try a race. I trained for multiple sessions and those sessions got me used to pushing beyond my comfort levels for minutes at a time and it paid off in this race. If I continue training I can aim for better positioning. Today I was in 6th place in D category out of over 40 riders and 99th out of 180+ riders. So half of the racers have trained more than me. I can continue training and see where I come up next time.
What I like about the race, that I don’t have except for sprints is information on how far it is to the end of the race. If I know for how many more kilometres I have to make an effort then psychologically I can push harder. This was just a short race at 15km and I would struggle on a longer race and I would struggle on the flat.
I want to participate in more races and I need to choose which training course to attempt next. It’s nice to race virtual cyclists rather than real cars, e-bikes or people on lighter bikes than the one I ride in the physical world. In the virtual world today I was riding a trek emonda. This might be geeky but it’s pushing me to be fitter so fewer people can object.
It took me one hour this morning to assemble a single beltdrive bike. It was relatively simple, unbox it, assemble the saddle, add the handlebars, add the pedals, add the front wheel, inflate the tires and I think that was it. The part that took me longer was finding where the front wheel bolts were. They were in the plastic inserts to stabilise the bike in the box.
First test run
I then went for a bike ride on a variety of gradients to assess how it felt on each. I found that I wanted to instinctively change gears but I couldn’t. It required me to get out of the saddle more than I would with a geared bike but other than that the ride was pleasant.
Beltdrive bikes are silent but as this isn’t a true fixie, just a fixie by name there is a noise when you stop pedalling and start freewheeling. The ride felt less smooth than when I ride the road bike but that might be due to the surface I rode on rather than the bike or the tires. The tires are 700c 28s so they should be smoother than the 25s I use on the other bike.
I managed a few personal bests and my best 20 minute average was 24km per hour. That’s in line with the speed an e-bike will get you to so in theory it negates the need for one. We should however keep in mind that this was a short 15km ride where I avoided full steep climbs.
Near the end of the ride I went for a speed test and got to about 40km/h before I met the limitations of this gear ratio. The gradient was about 0.2 to -0-3 percent.
Intended use
My intended use for this bike is for when I go shopping, when I go to a nearby climbing gym and when I go to visit people who live nearby. It could also be used for critical mass events and riding around towns. It is as a replacement for the scooter on small trips.
When the Pandemic was just starting I thought that this would be perfect for a daily bike ride and I was tempted to go to the mountains and to do other things. I didn’t though, because emergency services said “Don’t monopolise our resources getting injured because we may be required to help with the COVID-19 situation. Within three or four weeks they changed their statement to “if you need help we’re still here, our emergency services are still working as normal.
Last year I broke my arm on a day of Canicule and I spent at least four hours waiting to be seen. The wait was so long that I started to lose patience. When finally I was seen, and the break was confirmed the doctor was smiling, almost laughing. “Normally when people break their arm they can’t rotate their wrist”. It shows that despite my interior monologue being impatient during the wait my exterior monologue was polite and courteous to the point where a doctor was relaxed and good-humoured.
I didn’t want to repeat this experience during a pandemic. My other concern, and reason for not cycling was that if the chain broke I would have to walk home, get the car, and then return and get the bike. To call for help would be to break self-isolation for myself and someone else and I was unwilling to do this. That’s why I walked everywhere within range of home.
During the bike ride I saw a lot of cyclists but what was really interesting is that there were more bikes than cars on the roads, at least on the roads I rode along. It was also interesting to see how I was cycling past some people so quickly. It seems that walking every day for so many months has a beneficial effect. It’s also because I am not fatigued.
As people can’t go to the shops, can’t go to the mountains, have walked enough, and more we find that plenty of people are actively cycling. Usually when I look at flyby information I see four or five bikes at a time. Today the map lit up in a way I have never seen before. Twenty people cycling simultaneously in twos or threes.
I overheard someone ask “so do we go down or do we go straight across”. They were new to cycling in the region. As I was doing the cycling equivalent of HYOH (Hike your own Hike), Bike your own bike ride, BYOB, not to be confused with the beer/beverage version, I just continued exploring.
Today’s route was different than usual because I had three variables. The first variable was that I wasn’t allowed to leave the Canton De Vaud. The second variable was that I couldn’t go into France so my usual ride segments were out of the question. The third variable was to ensure that the ride was not too short. I accomplished all three of these goals.
I got five personal records during this ride, which isn’t bad and for one segment I was in the top 5.4 percent. it won’t change my life. I got that time on a segment I love to race cars down. It’s a straight road and the bike lane is downhill so it’s easy to go fast. What was unusual is that I was giving so much power, but without burning out. When I stopped pushing it was to coast, rather than because I flamed out.
I downloaded a Chrome extension to block Twitter and Facebook. Neither of these sites provides me with what I need during this pandemic so rather than delete my accounts, as I almost did this morning, I blocked them. If websites don’t bring joy block them. Good mental health, during a pandemic, especially when self-isolating alone is essential.
As I write this blog post we’re getting the first rain in over a month. Finally the rivers will be able to get their fill. Imagine if I had been caught in the rain during my bike ride. I love the sound of rain on the veluxes.
I like cycling, hiking and climbing rather than running but I read an article that makes me think that cycling and running are incompatible. In one sport the leg becomes a spring and as you run it becomes fine tuned to reflect the energy back into forward motion whereas in cycling torque is key.
Why Do Cyclists Have Bigger Legs explores the physiological difference between running and cycling. Specifically a runner wants muscles that are springy and provice forward motion whereas as cyclist wants to provide torque and downwards force to propel the bike forwards. Apparently trail running and cycling are better friends because both require more strength and power to “raise” the body.
“Any cyclist who has ever tried running will know, those first few runs can lead to quite a bit of discomfort in the Achilles tendon and lower gastrocnemius (calf) muscle.” As I type this blog post I can feel that pain in my achilles tendons. I can feel when I’m running, compared to cycling and that’s why I try to increase the distance I run gradually. I know that my heart can cope with running, but I don’t want to strain my tendons, ligaments and joints too much. I don’t want to end up injuring myself.
The article explores the need to generate a lot more force in cycling than in running. This is especially true when climbing steep gradients. When you’re on a steep gradient you need to be able to press down with a lot of force, for extended periods of time to get to the top so it makes sense not just to have good cardio health but also the muscle strength to follow.
This shows that although cycling feels like a cardio sport it isalso about building the right leg muscles to cope with the demands of the sport. I often trained my upper body for climbing when I went to the gym but I didn’t train it for cycling. For cycling I used Zwift so I didn’t notice whether my legs changed in shape or volume.
When you’re driving from Nyon to the airport without traffic the journey takes about twenty minutes. If you decide to drive into the city of Geneva that journey time is doubled thanks in main part to traffic lights. It once took me over one hour when scuba diving in Hermance to drive from Place des Nations to the other side of the Mont Blanc Bridge. That’s over one hour for less than two kilometres. That idea cooled down my motivation to dive in Hermance. At the time I was driving a petrol rather than a diesel car.
Yesterday I was driving from the foot of the Jura to Cornavin and the drive from the foot of the Jura to Geneva was fast. It’s when you drive from the motorway to the centre that you lose time. 23 minutes to drive 3.8km. I don’t have a start/stop car so when I’m spending 23 minutes at traffic lights the engine is running and polluting the air for nothing. There is no gain from blocking traffic lights.
It was even worse when I was on Rue Montbrillant. The GPS indicated 15 minutes to travel about 750 metres. Can you imagine the carbon footprint of traffic lights? That’s 15 minutes of nitrous oxide that had no need to be sent into the air. Imagine the health impact of keeping vehicles trapped at traffic lights. Within 30 seconds I went right and parked at Place des Nations and walked the last 750 metres. I wasn’t going to waste 15 minutes because “environmentalists” decided that the best way to discourage people from driving was for them to sit in traffic and pollute the air.
When I was working on Rue Montbrillant I was taking the train to and from Geneva every day and I used an abonnement de route to reduce cost. It works well until you’re reliant on bus schedules. Some routes have one bus an hour. This means that a 30-40 minute drive becomes a one and a half hour public transport route. If you finish your day at 1800 you’d arrive home by around 1930-2000. This means that although you’re taking the environmentally friendly option you’re spending two and a half hours a day to commute. During warmer months and drier days, the scooter was a good alternative. Within minutes you’re on the train to Geneva.
That’s the paradox of environmentalism. You want people to be environmentally conscious and you want them to minimise car use but rather than provide them with time efficient solutions to encourage them to take public transport you trap them at traffic lights.
Waze, Tomtom and other GPS manufacturers should take the heat maps we generate with our mobile devices every time we drive and design public transport infrastructures to replace the need for cars. This data is already available. Below are two heat maps of cycling around London and Switzerland. If you used the same type of data from cars you could design a system that replaces the need for cars.
When you live in a city you see two kilometres as a big distance to drive but when you’re in the countryside 2km is nothing. London on a bike feels tiny after walking and taking public transport. In Geneva it’s not that you have much traffic. It’s that the traffic lights give the illusion of traffic. Most of the side streets are empty of traffic most of the time.
This week I wanted to cycle in to Geneva for my lunch time meetings but chose not to because the bike ride is energetic enough without the weight of a 15inch laptop on your back. I did buy a bluetooth keyboard for the mobile phone as a mac book air replacement. That should make cycling more pleasant. I also have spare tires in case I get a puncture.
Geneva’s traffic light policy did work on me. Several years ago I became so tired of waiting at traffic lights when driving into and out of Geneva that I stopped going. Instead of meeting people in Geneva I drove to various lakes to scuba dive and to the mountains to climb, hike, cycle and do other more environmentally friendly activities. This is especially true when we drive other participants. When I climb Fort L’écluse I meet people at CERN and when I meet people to go to Swiss VF I meet them at the Nyon train station, Fourmi metro stations or even the Lavaux motorway stop.
The London Beer Bike group could tempt me to move back to London when and if I can find work there. When I left London it was the city of social media, where for the months after I graduated from University I would go to tweetups, seesmeetups and more.
The last time I went to London I met with the London Beer Bike Group (LBBG) and enjoyed cycling across London with a group of others. The pace was relaxed and it allowed me to see the city in a way that I am not used to. When I lived in London I would move around by tube and by foot. As a result of this I learned the layout of the city but only within reasonable walking distance.
Cycling in London as a group is fun because you are safer. Cars can’t overtake you as easily and when you move off from traffic lights you can move as a group. It’s also an opportunity to see new parts of the city. London on a bike feels smaller. You don’t have to take the busy roads. You can take side streets and cross parks to avoid traffic. As I dislike sitting and listening to small talk this is ideal.
I mention this because later today I should be meeting a group to do something similar in Geneva. As cycling to Geneva and back is a 60km round trip and as I will return later in the evening I will use the car to get the bike down to the lake side and then cycle from there to Geneva with a possible destination of going towards Cologny. I know the roads around there from scuba diving.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.