For one hundred and fifty six days I walked 10 thousand steps or more, before I broke my streak by going for two bike rides. The first one was a twenty five kilometre loop. The second was a more ambitious 51km loop. I ended up in Geneva, by the Palais Des Nations. This had not been my goal. I just felt good so I kept going.
View of the Broken Chair and the Palais des Nations
Recently i have seen a few articles that discuss that the 10,000 steps myth was created because that was the name of a step counter, designed by a Japanese company. It stuck around for a few decades. Recent research shows that the health benefits of steps stabilise after 8000 steps. The research found that from 8000 steps per day onwards the health benefits of walking flatten off and it becomes surplus to requirement. This doesn’t mean that you don’t get fitter. They mean that after 8000 steps in a day life expectancy remains the same.
Mahatma Ghandi and spring flowers
The conditions for cycling were good yesterday because there were no commuters in a rush, and ignoring the safety of cyclists. It was also good because the temperature was low enough not to get too warm, but warm enough not to get cold. These are good cycling conditions at the moment.
I cycled 52 kilometres at an average speed of 23.2 kilometres per hour over 2hr14. It took me about one hour to get towards Palexpo etc. This is relevant because people speak about how public transport should be improved, and how people should take public transport. I think that cycling routes should be improved instead. If cycling routes are made safer for cyclists then instead of taking an hour to take a train into Geneva from Nyon you could cycle. Instead of commuting for an hour passively, you could commute on a bike. This is an easy distance to cycle.
View of Vaud looking towards Lausanne with two trees in bloom and a blue sky
We should think about replacing the car, for short journeys, and even for commuting. The bike ride tired me, but because it’s the first time I do such a distance in many months. By the end of summer this will be an easy ride.
Yesterday I went for a bike ride and I was head towards Gland via Genolier but changed the route due to a dog walker when I wanted to turn East. I turned West instead and noticed some people and flags by Crassier. I thought “Was there an accident” as I also saw a police car. Eventually, as I saw more and more people standing by the side of the road I understood that it was for the Tour De Romandie. At the 25km from Geneva marker I took a picture of the sign.
The 25km marker for the Tour De Romandie tour for the 2023 Tour De Romandie stage from Vufflens le Village to Geneva
The sensation of cycling along a cycle race route ahead of the race riders is interesting. You have a crowd. The place where I usually see crowds when I am cycling is Zwift, so my frame of reference for yesterday’s experience was Zwift. Silly, isn’t it? That’s where I have the crowds. I even had one or two people cheer me on as I rode. The riders were at least half an hour behind me, maybe more. Their average speed was 42km per hour, compared to my 22.6 kilometres per hour.
In the last year Romain Bardet, a professional cyclist, rode 9,141 kilometres compared to my 228 kilometres per hour. If they ride at twice my speed it’s because they ride an enormous amount. If a car was used that much you’d think people need to take a break from it. Cycling is a sport where professionals cover huge distances on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
If I want to compare myself I should compare myself to through hikers. I walk what they walk, but in a different context, and year round, rather than in three to six month bursts.
And Finally
You know when the Tour De Romandie and other events are close by because you see the helicopters. You have one flying higher above the cycling race, and the second flying lower down, to get the aerial shots as the cyclists make their way across the landscape. It’s when I was near Founex that I could see the helicopters flying low and slow, to cover the cycling race.
I bought the Cateye Stealth Evo+ a few weeks ago because this summer I am rediscovering my passion for cycling. I made this decision because the Suunto Ambit 3 is not optimised for cycling. I wanted to have a way of checking my cadence whilst at the same time having a GPS track and easy data transfer with a service such as Strava.
Price
I chose the Cateye Stealth Evo+ because of it’s wireless technology and price. I saw that the Garmin 500, 510 etc were offering all the same features but at a slightly higher price.
Setup
The hardware takes a minute or two to set up. I first set up the speed and cadence sensor on the frame before aligning both the speed sensor and cadence sensor. I then tightened everything once I had tested that everything was working properly.
The cateye device has two menu sets. Menu set 1 is for cycling and menu set 2 is for configuring the device. The first step is to go to menu 2 and pair the heart rate monitor and Speed and cadence sensors. Once this is done go to a computer and configure the device. You can tell it which timezone you’re in, whether DST is valid or not, wheel size and more. This takes seconds with the computer interface.
Cycling
To turn on the device hold the power button for 4 seconds and then wait for the stop indicator to blink. It starts to blink once it has acquired your GPS location. At this point you can click the power button once and the indicator will change to go. Once you start moving you should see the timer move forward a second at a time and the odometre mark the distance travelled. The speed and cadence sensors will automatically activate when they detect that the wheels and pedals are moving.
The device automatically pauses when you are stopped and starts again when you are moving again. If you stop for an extended period of time you can power off the device and then power it on again when you resume the journey.
When you complete your journey stop logging the ride by pressing the power button and then holding the menu button at the front of the GPS for a few seconds, until you see the metres back at zero.
Online service synchronisation
The Cateye Stealth Evo+ and computer software make it easy to synchronise to three services by default. These are the Cateye cycling atlas, Strava and Training peaks. As the people I cycle with and share trip information with are using Strava I sync to this service first and then to others. I export the data file from Strava and import it to Sports Tracker almost flawlessly. Cadence data is not transferred.
Strengths
I have used a number of mobile phones and sports watches and this is one of the fastest devices that I have dealt with. I really like that the heart rate monitor and speed and cadence sensors are on almost instantly and I love that the device is so simple and intuitive to use once you get the hang of it.
Weaknesses
The key thing to remember with this device is that it has two modes/menus. Cycling and Setup. All of your navigation is done via the front button. I wish that I had set it up via the computer rather than via the menus on the device as the computer interface takes seconds.
Conclusion
While the Suunto Ambit 3 is my primary device for all sports the Cateye Stealth Evo+ has replaced it for cycling. I like that it provides a dedicated hardware solution that is easy to install and small and light to carry and potentially install on another bike. Integration with Strava works flawlessly so I am happy to keep using this product.
The first time I climbed up to La Barillette on a bike it took me two and a half hours. This time it took one hour and sixteen minutes. I was going so slowly that I had to work to keep the bike upright. Since then I have gone from a mountain bike with tyres that weren’t pumped enough and soft suspension to the same bike with slick tires, hardened suspension and higher pressure in the tyres. I then swapped that bike two or three years later and tried the same climb. I struggled with the road bike as well. I had to stop at least two or three times. I also found that clipped in pedals on such steep gradients are a hindrance because you can’t stop until the flatter bits.
This time I wore normal shoes and I set off from around Nyon. I cycled up to the start of the climb and i just started climbing. Above Cheserex I already had to stand on the bike to get enough thrust, then sit down, and then repeat. As I went up I saw two or three groups. One group set off just as I was getting to them and the second stopped where the first had been.
I like having a group in front of me. The group in front gives me a goal. It gives me a pace. I want at the minimum to keep up with them and ideally to overtake them. The person I used for pacing gave up within the first four to six kilometres. I then continued at my own pace as the other people were now a long distance away.
As I go up this hill I often daydream and my mind wanders to something completely different. It’s the closest I’d get to meditation. You’re making a physical effort but the body is so used to it that the mind has time to think of other things. I don’t remember what I was daydreaming about.
I’m used to doing this climb in the heat of summer when it’s 37°c or more. This time it was no more than 20 or so. I didn’t need to take two litres of water with me but I would have been happy with a rain coat and a third layer. The reason for this is that the beautiful weather I set off in turned overcast and cold.
As I got closer to the top I could feel the temperature begin to drop, and i felt the need to close the zips, to preserve heat. I even thought of putting my spare layer on. I continued.
When I set off you could see the top. By the time I got back down this is what it looked like.
When you’re climbing you know what your previous times were and during this time I got to a certain point where i saw that I was going to beat my previous best times by a nice margin so it encouraged me to keep going, but also not to stop and rest, and not to wait for two cars to figure out how to pass each other. I cycled through the grass to overtake them.
When I finally got to the top I saw people get out of their cars, smoke cigarettes and talk loudly. I had two Balistos and then headed back down. The view was so bad that I didn’t take any pictures.
As much as you think you suffer during the way up, which I didn’t this time, going down is the difficult bit. When you’re going back down you’re cold and you’re not doing much. You’re letting gravity undo the work that you just spent an hour doing.
My tyres have over 4000km in them so as i went down the hill I was slower than I needed to be. The surface was also wet and therefore could be slippy. I was holding the brakes for a good portion of the descent, to such an extent that I thought this was a good finger strengthening exercise.
Just before I got to the pond my rear tyre suffered a puncture. I can see two marks where I think a thorn or some other object punctured the tyre and deflated it within seconds. It didn’t matter as I had a spare tyre with me.
This winter I changed tyres frequently for the indoor trainer so the process has become automatic. What I especially enjoyed about changing a tyre on the side of a mountain slope is that you don’t have to worry about getting the floor dirty. Within minutes the tyre was changed and I could continue the descent.
This ride is unique because the night before I decided to do this climb we were discussing a via ferrata with two friends but they don’t have the equipment. The compromise was going to climb indoors but I didn’t feel like doing that because 1. the weather was nice and because 2. there are free sports to be enjoyed. I woke up that morning, opened the blinds and because of what a beautiful and warm day I saw it would be I decided to go for a bike ride and enjoy it. It felt so good to get on the bike after several days, or even weeks of not riding.
I was fully within the moment yesterday. I profited from the good weather, I set a goal and I achieved it, and I lived in the now, rather than later. This is rare for me. This ride, despite it’s physical nature, was relaxing.
Yesterday I tried cycling to the Vallée de Joux and succeeded. A few weeks ago I cycled up to St George and I saw a sign that said that the Col De Marchairuz was less than 6km away so I decided to try it. When I succeeded that I saw that getting to the Vallée de Joux would be possible.
On Sunday due to the weather I thought that I would go for a small 30km loop to avoid the bad weather and rain. I felt fresh when I got back to Nyon so I decided to go further and I headed towards the Col De Mollendruz but took a wrong turn and arrived in Bière. As I felt tired I changed course and headed back for home.
The Col du Mollendruz variant
Yesterday I went for the Col De Mollendruz. I headed from Nyon to Rolle and from Rolle headed up to Perroy before heading across to Aubonne. From Aubonne I headed up towards Ballens and then east towards Mont-La-Ville. This route is nice because you climb more gradually than if you do the Col De Marchairuz or go via St Cergue. A gentler gradient makes it accessible to less experienced cyclists. Mont-La-Ville is the start of the Strava segment to get to the Col De Mollendruz. From this col there is an easy descent to the Vallée de Joux.
From Le Pont du La Cure the gradient is slightly positive for about 30 kilometres. You then cross back in to Switzerland and head for St Cergue and back down to the plains. The circuit is about 104 km.
If you’re looking for a variant of this you could choose to go from St Cergue to Arzier and back down and if you still feel full of energy you could head towards La Faucille and head back down from there.
A ride to revisit when the leaves turn
This bike ride would be nice to do when the leaves are turning because you pass by the vineyards and ride through forests. It is also interesting because by taking the bike you are going slower than by car. You notice that some buildings are from the 1700s, you see that others are from the 1800s. You also see that there are long stretches of road with very few cars.
There was a time when I would change the rear tyre regularly. I was changing from an indoor trainer tyre to a road tyre and back regularly. I developed my skill at this art and then the pandemic occured and I stopped changing tyres as regularly. Recently I went for a 74km bike ride and when I checked the tyre a day or two later I noticed that the rubber was gone and the fibres were showing. I went for one last bike ride, and then I swapped the old tyre for a new one.
Tyre fibres showing through as the rubber has been torn away
Frequent Changes When I Used Zwift
Swapping tyres, once you know how to do it takes a minute or two, with the right tools and right level of experience. It took me 15 minutes. It took that long because I haven’t replaced a rear tyre in three or four years so the right habits had to resurface. When they did the process was quick, and painless.
In the past when I changed tyres I pinched my fingers, or hurt myself in other ways. This time I didn’t even draw blood. That’s a smooth and efficient tyre change.
Wait Until Punctures?
I intended to wear it through until the first puncture. The tyre damage was clear. I swapped it. It’s better to swap the tyre at home, rather than have to swap and inflate the tyre on a bike ride with a tiny pump rather than the proper home bike pump.
What’s Next?
The tyres that I have on my bike have been discontinued so I have to choose which tyres to replace them, several thousand kilometres from now. The rear tyre is brand new, and the front tyre looks fine. Indoor trainers ruin tyres because they wear them out unevenly. The bottom is flattened but the sides are fine. The front tyre is fine.
Good For Another Two Years
if I ride like I have been riding then I’m good for another two or three years before I need to swap the tyres. I’m using continental Grand Prix 4000 S II tyres and they last for three or four thousand kilometres before needing a swap.
And Finally
I’m tempted to shop for new tyres but it isn’t urgent, as tyres can last for years, or thousands of kilometres before being swapped. By the time I need new tyres new technology will have come out. I can also buy new tyres when the price goes down. At the moment they’re 10-20 CHF more than at their low point.
Yesterday I went for a walk, during which I listened to two podcasts via AudioBookShelf, but that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is that the seasons have changed. The snow has melted and there was a brief interlude in rain so plenty of people went out for bike rides. So many in fact that I seemed to be one of only two or three people on foot.
This makes me happy. I like crossing people on bikes because they usually don’t have big dogs, and they pass by within seconds rather than longer. They also tend not to take up the entire width of the road.
For some reason when couples walk they take the entire width of the road, as do families, and other groups. They’re not morbidly obese. they’re average. They could take as little space as cyclists and I do.
I should be cycling too but my bike lives half an hour from where I live at the moment, by car. It lives there because that’s where I went for bike rides several times and I felt that by transporting my bike, back and forth, in the car, I was damaging it, so I left it there. I never repatriated it because winter was coming so it made little sense. Now that summer is back it could make sense to repatriate it.
In reality I should prepare it for Spain. I should dismantle it, and take it to Spain, for a Spring service, before coming back to Switzerland, and use it, freshly serviced.
The difference in service price between Spain and Switzerland is 70 euros compared to 300 CHF. I could also take advantage of the slightly better weather in Spain to go for bike rides.
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