With our honourable BLeader incapacitated – perhaps for the summer – Peter T and Peter D have taken control of biking Thursdays for the interim til Stephen is back on 2 wheels.
With a number of apologies, some sound and others more flimsy, four of us turned out at the Evenness at 10am on the morning of a really fine and warm day, shorts weather!
Attending – Mervyn, Ivan, PeterD, PeterT
PeterT had booked a table at Gilly on their sunny terrace for 12.30pm. The plan then was Bonmont (not the full top), Gingins, Givrins, Genolier, Le Muids, Bassins, Le Vaud, Burtigny, Gilly and home. This is quite a challenging ride for 4 non-E bikes and sadly it did not allow time for coffee stops at some of the watering holes we passed along the way.
There were many agricultural vehicles out and about, some very large. We were overtaken near God’s Crossing by a large muck spreader. One comment was that it was like being overtaken by the Daily Mail. There were quite a number of bikers about, many of whom were on racing road bikes and who had little problem overtaking us.
All went well until Ivan stopped to pick up what might have been his brake block but found it was a spurious reflector. He then missed the junction at Givrins and we needed to reassemble at Genolier after guiding him back by phone.
The hill of La Joie Clinique is (after Bonmont) the “low” point of this ride and it is pushed back into dark recesses of one’s memory. But having passed it we were up in the fresh spring air as the day started to warm up.
We had fabulous views out over the Lake to the Alps on the road from Burtigny before dropping down to Gilly. Altogether the riding was brilliant as was the weather and the scenery even if our legs were a bit sore after all the climbing.
An excellent and refreshing lunch was devoured at around chf25 for three courses and some fine beer and great service, al fresco on the terrace. I was glad that I had remembered to bring a sun hat, and we all carried factor 50 cream.
All too soon it was nearly time to be off, so we called ahead to our BLeader who had spent the morning at Nyon hospital and was now at home. He invited us to call in at Arnex to check out his new BOOT and sample his home brew in return for our commiserations and moral support. We ambled back at a leisurely pace with some fabulous views to Mt Blanc. Sure enough the BOOT was real and the ale was too. Stephen seemed in good cheer, as was Kate. We shall have to help ensure this stays that way over the coming months. Merci for the fine beer Stephen.
I logged 63km and 780m denivellation from Coppet.
