The Irrational Decision to Ride in a Storm

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It’s worth noting that after my historical post was deleted from a group chat I aborted my run with that group. The reasons were rational, rather than emotional. Something else came up and by the time that something was over the run had started. I also expected it to rain very heavily and storm.

Yesterday the forecast was similar but I chose not to just sit at home and miss out. I could see that a storm was coming for 18:50 and again a few minutes later. I thought “If I wait too long it will be cancelled and I will have had a second day in a row without sports. That’s why I got dressed and cycled to the shop. I said “I expect the ride is cancelled”, and it was.

For the ride home I took the long way round. From Nyon to Duiller, from Duiller to Trelex, to Gingins, towards Cheserex and Tranchepied before heading back down with Signy back to Eysins.

During the ride I could feel tiny hail stones falling on me and my fear wasn’t the cold, or getting wet and covered in mud splatter. It was that the hailstones could become bigger and do real damage.

I saw someone, on an e-bike, sheltering from the rain and hail but I kept going, first because it was tiny, and second because there was no real shelter anyway.

Another reason for cycling in the nice, refreshing storm is that I spend a lot of time in a minergie building, that as we type is heated to 29.8°c. This means that I am sweltering twenty four hours a day. They have health warnings for cars, but in my eyes, a minergie has the same oppressive heat, and yet it qualifies as a home.

The rational of cycling in the storm was that it would cool me down nicely. It might even cool me so deeply that when I got home the minergie oven, as I call it, would feel comfortable, rather than oppressive. The reality is that my body needed a break from the heat of the apartment that was designed for a winter that hasn’t existed for a decade or three. It was designed to trap heat. In a heatwave that design feature means that you go from May to Octobre in 27-30°c heat.

They spoke of canicules, and breaks from the canicules, but in a minergie building there is no respite from the unbearable heat. Once it’s hot, you’re cooking until Autumn, I hate that design flaw. I hate that the engineers and architects didn’t plan for summer.

The problem is serious enough for [architecture schools in Switzerland](https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/2026/article/rechauffement-comment-la-formation-en-architecture-evolue-29318598.html) to update the learning plan. I can’t believe that professional architects didn’t read around the subject, and think about this until now. It was in plenty of documentaries and other sources over many, many millennia.

I wasn’t worried about the storm because the air was warm, and if the air is warm then rain, even if it contains tiny hailstones, is refreshing, and a welcome break from the heat. I turned on the fan as I wrote this. I’m sitting, not doing anything, and it’s 30°c according to an Aranet sensor and 28.2°c according to Netatmo in another location in the same room.

There is a debate in France and Switzerland about air conditioning, but for me that is an absurd solution for three reasons.

The first reason is that air conditioning a building with a poor design wastes a huge amount of energy. Small changes would provide more resilient improvements. Shutters, blinds, aerating at night.

That’s the second reason. The night are cool, down to 19-20°c. This means that by opening windows fully, and allowing the cool air to cool the structure at night, you cool minergie ovens enough, for them to charge during the day, and then lose it at night.

The third reason is Human error. A neighbour left his south facing window fully open to the morning sun and the balcony heats to 40°c or more, as does the interior of the apartment, if you aerate and keep the wrong windows open to the sun. Shutters are key to controlling heat. If you run AC to fight against the sun, then you’re wasting energy.

During a heatwave walking from fountain to fountain, and cycling from fountain to fountain are rational things to do. Outside there is a breeze, and if you’re by a wood, with a stream, then you have the cooling of evapotranspiration.

Failing that storms are great. One of the things that struck me, as I got nearer to home is that I was riding through puddles but the water splashing from the puddles onto and into my shoes was warm. Puddles were filled with tepid water. The roads got so warm over a series of weeks that when it rained the roads had enough heat energy to heat puddles, and puddles were hot enough for me to notice.

I have never noticed that before.

The next step, after yesterday’s ride is to clean and maintain the bike properly, to ensure that I get rid of grit and grime. People avoid the rain for a reason. The rational approach is to use fountains, rather than clouds, for cooling. This won’t be a persistent habit.