The Double Group Ride Morning

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On Saturday morning, for the first time in weeks I had no running plans so I decided to cycle to Geneva for the 8am relaxed ride to Crans. Since I live near Nyon I set off at 06:50 and cycled towards Geneva, arriving with plenty of time to spare. I then cycled with the group towards Crans. It’s at this point that I saw that I had half an hour before a second group ride.

I saw someone riding with a TDC jersey so that’s when I committed to riding with Tête de Course from Nyon up the Jura, and back down. I already had 51 kilometres in my legs.

I made sure to have a pain au chocolat and coffee before setting off with the group. Some of them were fresh, and I wasn’t quite as fresh. Luckily I had plenty of water and electrolytes.

There was one problem with my readiness. I had too few snacks with me, so I managed to hold on for most of the ride. Eventually I bonked right near the top. I bonked within two kilometres of the top so for a steep gradient I stopped, and walked. I was desperate for sugar, but because I was so far back I couldn’t ask the group for help.

When I got to the top of the climb I found that no one was there so I cycled back down solo and decided to stop at the Signy Shell station to get a snack or two. One of those snacks was a pralinato ice cream, which I ate while sitting in the shade.

It’s the first time that I bonked on a climb, and that I felt that I needed to walk, but I cycled 120 kilometres with 1800m of vertical gain. The ride to Geneva was at 27km/h average.

What got to me wasn’t the distance, but the persistent climb up the Jura with the second group. This weekend I had no plans, so I didn’t get snacks. That’s why I found myself cycling up the Jura with just one gel. If I had had two or three gels, or other “snacks” then I’d have refuelled and continued.

I suspect that I was dropped/forgotten because it was cold in the Jura, compared to the canicule Léman side. This isn’t a problem. By this point the route had loaded on my Garmin device and I know the way home from everywhere around here. I’ve cycled, run, walked and hiked in plenty of places.

I was struck by the number of people camping in the forest yesterday. One or two people had tents that linked to their cars, and others had a group of tents.

Of course, due to the drought people could not have fires due to the risk of forest fires. I think it would be nice to hike to one of these places, sleep overnight, and then continue.

When I set off in the morning I had no plans to do both rides, but serendipity made it possible. I also didn’t expect to do the full loop but I did. I ran out of energy but with better planning I would have coped with this amount of climbing, as well as the distance. This was a demanding ride.