Yesterday I went on a bike ride with a Xiaomi Smart Band 9 and a Fairphone 4. I wanted to see two things. The first was to see if the GPS track would be accurate for the entire ride, as well as how much battery power would be squandered in the process. I was happy with the result. After a two hour bike ride I had depleted about 20 percent of the battery since I unplugged that phone in the morning.
I saw that there is a hike taking place nearby. I would have really liked to join it but I would have been participant eleven with a limit of ten people. I wanted to participate because it would have required walking to Nyon, and taking the train de St Cergue to St Cergue and then walking for a few hours, before taking the train back down and walking home. Both my carbon footprint and my travel time would have been small and the environment would have benefited.
Today I filled in a survey with the premise “Impact of automated vehicles on walking” and it gave me an opportunity to share my views on this topic. The short version is that I’d rather see more bike sharing opportunities, and more safe routes for pedestrians between villages and towns, than self driving cars.
The reason for this is simple. It takes a few seconds to unlock a publibike, six minutes to get to Nyon Station, and then catch a train.
Yesterday I thought that I would get breakfast for free before the ride but I didn’t. As a result of this I went for a bike ride in a fasted state. I considered having pasta for dinner the night before, even as breakfast but didn’t.
The result is that the energy stores I burned off on the two previous rides were not replenished and I started with an energy deficit. The result of this is that I was looking for a place to stop long enough to take a few energy gels I had with me, to fuel at least partially.
For two days I rode twenty five kilometres, which, by my standards, are quite small rides. Today I rode with a group and for a while I was fine but then, when I climbed from Nyon towards Duillier I began to feel that I was fatigued. I slowed down and I couldn’t keep up with the group, or more accurately, the group had better acceleration and once you’re dropped you have to make more effort.
I like to cycle but I don’t like the idea of having my bike stolen. I loved using a foot scooter but I find that e-scooters are frustrating because we can’t go above a certain speed. For months, or even years, I have been considering using Publibike bikes for shopping and getting to the train station but didn’t because a bike costs 3 CHF for half an hour, and ten centimes per minute to use after that.
This year I have spent 350 hours hiking and walking according to Strava. In contrast I have spent just 44 hours cycling. If I had spent as much time cycling as I did walking then my cycling fitness would be higher than it is at the moment.
Part of me wishes that I had spent more time cycling but another part of me spends less time cycling than walking because finding safe cycling paths is not so easy in a place as densely populated as the Arc Lémanique.
Yesterday I was watching the Tour De Romandie Morges to Morges stage and I was struck by how much of the route I am familar with. It’s not just that I’m familiar with the route that I road with the group, but that I’m familiar with parts of the full tour. Over the years I have ridden between Geneva and Aubonne so many times that I know many of the roads well.
Yesterday 60 people went to Morges to cycle the Tour De Romandie Morges stage ahead of the race today. There were two loops, a 90+ kilometre loop for an average speed of 29km/h on the flat and another loop for an average speed of 25 km/h on the flat and a distance of 57 kilometres.
When I got the GPX for the 90 kilometre loop I considered doing that loop, until I considered that with an average of 30 km/H I would be tired, especially since I rarely cycle 90km loops at the moment.
A few years ago I went for a ride and noticed that people were standing by the side of the roads and there was little traffic. I eventually realised that it was for the Tour De Romandie and that I was riding at least an hour ahead of the race. It was a strange and interesting sensation.
Tomorrow I plan to repeat that experience with a slight difference. I saw that there was a mixed bike ride tomorrow ahead of the Tour De Romandie Feminine the next day.