The day started quite bizarrely, Nico arriving at my house fully dressed in civvies under blue skies.  by the time i had nipped into the house to fill a bidon, he had transformed into a quientessential french cyclist: patisserie bag bulging.  there was as short debate about clothes to wear or not wear, both deciding better to be warm than cold; fitted nico's pedals onto "old faithful" and off we went down to bellevue.

 

Finally, on nico's first outing, we all managed to have a similar wardrobe: this was definitely a "could rain, could be sunny" sort of day.  nice little warm up ride round down to geneva, pushed the heart rate up a little on the rampe de cologny and off we went into the wilderness of france - which we knew immediately from the road surface in douvaine.  the four musketeers were feeling brave and strong and incredibly fresh...optimisitic looks at the speedo were showing cruising speeds of 40kms+. This was only to be dampened by the ever increasing realisation that there was "a wee bit" of a tailwind and like the law of gravity, "what goes up must come down", there is the law of cycling "if the wind's at your back on the way there, it'll be in your face on the way home".  good time was made all the way through thonon, some excellent navigating by gavin, who is really proving himself to be better than a garmin or a tomtom combined at steering these training runs and, before we knew it, it was time for the first "natural break".  proving he's lived in france too long, nico pulls out a nicely prepared ham, cheese and salad baguette (god knows where from?) to make the rest of feel like poor cousins with our bananas.   a passing train of cyclists caught our eyes so we saddled up again, only for them to disappear into the distance with nico chasing them down (this was to be repeated often during the day...).  By now, the grey/black clouds that we thought we were running away from had caught us up and starting spitting, not heavy mind, but enough to make you feel fresh.

 

on and on we rolled, ticking off the towns as they flashed by, before we knew it, we'd hit the border and, we hoped, some smooth as silk roads.  however this was not to be due to roadworks in st gindolph - must be similar to the pave in the classics - after a km or two of elbow jarring we were welcomed onto the smooth swiss roads.  after witnessing an international incident when a french farmer in his state subsidised mercedes had an altercation with a vaud driver as to who had the right of way on a one lane bridge, we were off and running on the home stretch.  unfortunately this also meant that the tailwind became a headwind, though, it has to be said not immediately. 

 

just before we passed through chillon, we spotted a bunch of eager looking cyclists and off nico went to close them down...little were we to know that they were "just below olympic standard" and, after trying to stay on their wheels for a few foolhardy kms , i think we were all quite glad (in a "wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy" way) when one of them had a blow out and they stopped to fix it.  I swear i have never seen calves like those on the guy on the storck bike - the last time i saw muscles like that was on popeye when i was a kid.

 

by this time (climbing out of montreux) thoughts starting turning (at least my thoughts starting turning) to lunch, in a big way.  i was now sick of clif bars (though the mint and white chocolate is the biz) and needed some proper food.  I was very glad when we pulled into the migros in lausanne and feasted upon some fruit, taboule and every cyclist's dream food: chocolate. Just what I needed. 

 

After this food stop it really was just a case of head down, keep going....all those familiar towns from lausanne onwards..st prex..morges...rolle...aubonne....on and on into the headwind...thankfully working as a team to make sure energy was saved and spirits were maintained.  I was eternally amazed at nico's picnic items that kept appearing - at one point when i was number 3 in the train and he was number 2, he nonchalantly opens a back of crisps and starts munching away: this at a time when i am blowing out my ears in the headwind to keep up with the train ...this man really loves his grub....

 

 by now we are almost home, certainly once we're past mies and coppet it no longer feels like a lake ride and more like a little sunday jaunt.  by now layers are being peeled off and water doused on my head to cool down, what a change from Evian!

 

After saying our goodbye to the two "tete de la course" riders (thanks guys) nico and i took a leisurely crack at the route de collex bossy - it has to be said this was not attacked in the same style as my usual commute home, but in a much more relaxed tempo.

 

All in all this was an excellent ride.  we were so lucky with the weather as we could have been pissed on the whole way round.  only rained for about 20 minutes (or so it seemed) and the headwind was (on reflection) good for us as this was the equivalent of riding a 5% incline for 100kms or thereabouts.  Very good practice for the big day, only 6 weeks to go (42 days!!).  Unfortunately, i've now got an enforced layoff until next Monday so i-ll need to play catch up when i get back.

 

GOOD NEWS:

 

I was on the etape website and had a look at the broom wagon times.  here's a link http://www.letapedutour.com/2009/ETDT/presentation/fr/itineraire.htm

to boil this down, if we can get our arses over to bedoin before 1455 (let's say 1430 to have a margin for punctures etc) then we will be okay to be allowed to climb ventoux and have three hours to do it.  that means, imagine we get across the start line by 0730 then we'll have 7 hours to cover 150 kms to the bottom of the climb (which I feel is manageable).  I really feel much stronger than this time last year and made and i know all of you can make it.  keep up the good work when i'm gone - good luck for your new arrival gavin and when i come back we should try the route forestiere behind nico's house - i know a reall nice run there that will take approx three hours and can involve either two or three climbs depending on how many smartie points we can earn with our wives  between now and then.