Mayday mayday. Normally a call for help – but happily no infarctions or other incidents occurred on this first bike ride for a while and the first with our BLeader for 2 years (he recounts).
There should have been eight of us but sadly Drew had to pull out so we were the Magnificent Seven instead of a Great Eight. It was indeed a magnificent day and we all assembled at 10 am at the Everness. Attending Stephen (Bleader), PeterD, Ralph, Ivan, E-Paul (who had biked out from Geneva) and E-Richard, with me (out on my 3rd ride of the year).
Stephen has adapted his bike to accommodate a leg that does not (yet) bend quite enough, after his knee replacement. A fascinating but simple additional pedal and crank attached to the original pedal crank.
I found an example on the internet that looks similar to the one he has on his bike.
There was a feeling of good cheer in the team, a shining sun, a lunch at Coinsins and only a Bonmont in prospect to spoil the pleasure.
We set off gently through the woods and over the Versoix River to Grilly. Talk of a coffee at Crassier morphed into a coffee at Givrins after achieving the Bonmont goal. We traversed Divonne and headed up towards Bonmont passing Tranchepied. The angle increased as did the effort. E-Bikers sailed up the hill while 5 of us struggled up. Ralph complained that his bike was designed more for flat and downhill riding, but he made it. The temperature was perfect.
After a period of self congratulation we headed off down for a Givrins coffee. Except that our BLeader took an executive decision to forego coffee in favour of earlier beer at Coinsins. We freewheeled down in the warm morning weather and turned into the carpark at the Coinsins restaurant. Being 1 May there were quite a number of diners in place already.
There followed some excellent beers and we all chose the steak frites, except Richard who chose the sausage but with frites not rösti. Much discussion still about Trump, the state of the world and growing vegetables. Paul had just returned from Indonesia and was still jet lagged, but he was energised by the wonderful sub aqua and temples he had just experienced. Ivan was recovering from a bad knee accident playing basketball but now seems on the mend. Stephen seemed relaxed and indeed cruised the whole route with his offset crank. Richard back from 3 months in S.Africa seemed good to be back.
After coffees we all heading back to Gods Crossing, with first Paul turning left to the Nyon train, then Ivan breaking off to his home.
A really pleasant ride with a Bonmont that looking back did not seem too hard, and a great lunch outside on the terrace under a substantial sunshade.
I recorded about 50Km and 500m denivellation.
