GIN Bikers – June 18th 2026

Sometimes comments made can catch up with you. The response to this week’s outing resulted in a plethora of e-bikers….well 5 to be exact….and yours truly on a traditional bike. In order to survive the course I outlined a relatively flat but fairly long route to give pure muscle power (myself) a chance against the electronic revolution. PeterT retorted that this seemed a little flat and was it worth him taking the new e-bike and perhaps his earlier non-e model would suffice. This generated a reply that there could be more hills than imagined and that no excuses would be accepted for falling behind. As you can imagine there was only one participant who seriously fell behind when the few hills were climbed. The Bleader was suitably lampooned.

Five e-bikers relaxing before relaxing on the ride

Anyway, I get ahead of myself. PeterT, RichardF, Mark2Ts, Mervyn, Paul and Stephen met at the earlier time of 9h at the usual Everness Hotel. The weather forecast was for a warm, humid day getting warmer throughout the day to reach a balmy earlier 30Cs in the afternoon. Hence, an early start seems sensible. The “flattish” route had been circulated:

“The plan is to enjoy some of the routes we covered last time but in the opposite direction. We’ll follow Route 50 through Arnex, Borex, Grens, Gingins to Genolier where we’ll cut down on Route 7 to Coinsins. From there we’ll take the route 488 all the way to Mont sur Rolle before returning on the Route 1/46 to Prangins for lunch at the Aérodrome. After lunch a gentle return home by continuing on the 1/46.”

It was good to have the full compliment of new e-bikers present (Peter, Mervyn and Mark) as well as a more seasoned e-bikers: Richard, who managed to get away from domestic heating/cooling technical problems, and Paul whose initial participating email had gone astray in the ether or Stephen’s inbox, but persistence won out.

The Swiss cycle routes are really well-planned and are usually excellently signposted as we discovered two weeks ago, although sometimes requiring eagle eyes. They take interesting paths through countryside and towns mostly keeping away from busy roads. This outing followed a coherent joined network of cycle routes and allowed the Bleader to relax as no-one could get lost if the routes were followed religiously. GIN outings are never so simple. The start along the route 50 went according to plan with the pack staying together and making excellent progress. These routes don’t always follow the shortest route and Richard had to be discouraged from taking a perfectly logical but unplanned deviation in Chavannes de Bogis, which by chance would have gone past his home and the ability to check on heating/cooling work progress. Another possible deviation to the plan presented itself when a tempting cafe terrace in Gingins could have lost at least a couple of riders. In the event, the wisdom of going a little further to our usual stop in Givrins was accepted. Peter was still in birthday celebration mode and kindly offered the drinks and croissants. Discussion seemed to concentrate on a new language of battery residual, handlebar dampening, saddle bag attachment, mud guard fitment, etc. After an application of thick, zinc based, Australian sun screen to many of the noses present, the peloton moved on. Shortly after there was some disruption to progress as Peter was successfully attacked on the head by a stinging insect, the latter apparently unimpressed with a head on collision with a speeding e-biker.

First signs of the free spirit of GIN membership was seen as we approached Vich. The unofficial leader at the time chose to ignore the route 488 sign and go via the direct route. Happily, his small deviation and the official route soon converged and we were back on track. The route from Vich through the vineyards of La Côte is delightful but at times difficult to follow the signage. It was on one of these undulating tracks that the Bleader was left behind and happily the e-bikers overruled the suggestion not to stop and wait. The crossover route from Mont-sur-Rolle to the route 1/46 was not obvious and, once on the 1/46, road blockages and poor signage made navigation through Rolle difficult. Peter decided to take matters into his own hands and left the pioneering group to head directly to the restaurant along the Route Swiss. The rest of us eventually regained the correct and now known route. A less express, but more scenic, path to the Aerodrome Restaurant. We were only shouted at once as we crossed a work site when we should apparently have taken a more devious path. However, we could outpace the slightly irate foreman…..

Peter was already supping his beer when we arrived at the restaurant. More beers were ordered. It’s been several years since we’d eaten at the Aerodrome restaurant but the quality and quantity of the food was excellent, as was the price. Richard could unfortunately only stay for the beer but the rest of us relaxed into either a large salad plat du jour or pizza or a selection of 3 pastas. The usual light aircraft traffic had been suspended due to the G7 meeting in Evian. We caught up on Paul’s latest literary offerings as well as a diverse range of other topics including what AI would say about the GIN Group. See the crazy answer here. Coffees rounded off the meal and water bottles were filled with cold water for the return home.

Menu du jour and pizza

Two satisfied customers and one on the adjacent table suffering from a blow out

Paul with lots of ice and lots of pasta and observers

Out from under the shade of the restaurant blind, the heat of the day was really starting to be felt. Paul made a direct line for the Nyon station on the Route Suisse and the remaining 4 of us made, as it turned out, probably an even more direct line for the Nyon station, as the 1/46 goes right past it. The Bleader left the group as the 1/46 passes the road to Arnex over the motorway and the rest found their most direct routes home as well.

Another enjoyable GIN Bikers outing with good company, great scenery and an enjoyable meal. Maybe a little less heat and humidity would have been appreciated but I, for one, am not complaining….better than the drenching of last time. In total, from Everness to Everness, 61.7km, 750m elevation, average speed 20.4km/h.