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Fin

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Today was the last day, back round Lake Geneva to Geneva.  First up was Château Chillon. As it was early, there was just me and a bunch of Japanese tourists to enjoy the fantastic setting.  I then took a wrong turn and ended up doing a bit of a detour, luckily the way back was along the bank of the Rhone which made it a rather picturesque section.  After I got back on the proper route, I faced a block headwind for c80km and with 500km already in my legs, it certainly wasn't what I needed. It was another hot day and my bidons were empty - but luckily the next town was Evian de Bains the home of the mineral water and it was free on tap from the source.  After another 20k or so I was really feeling it but an expresso lakeside at the medieval city of Yvoire perked me up and I actually cycled like a proper cyclist for the final run in to Geneva.  The sun was still out so I went for a drenching at the Jet d'Eau and then dived onto ...
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Châteaux, Olympics and Jazz - Nice

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After yesterday's climbing,  today promised to be much more of a relaxing affair with a flat 100k half way round Lake Geneva to Montreux. After I got out of Geneva, the road along the lake was stunning and the first photo opportunity was the headquarters of UEFA - not open to the public but I had a nose around at the James Bond baddie modernist architecture. I think I may have got too close to Michelle ' Bloefeld ' Platini as a security guard came out to usher me away. Next up was the Château de Prangins which is still owned by a real life Baron (not Claire). The route cut inland and passed the TV Director of the Tour de France's favourite scenery, fields of sunflowers. The Châteauxs came thick and fast with the next one being Château de Morges . After taking a cycle path along the bank of the Lake I lunched at the Olympics Museum in Lausanne.  The 'cafe' was more like a Michelin starred restaurant wit...
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Sunshine & (Heavy) Showers

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After a relatively easy day yesterday I decided to take the long route back to Geneva. I started off along Lac de Bourget which was stunning in the sunshine. After admiring the art deco architecture in Aix Le Bains the climbing started. As I was feeling good on the fairly gradual climb up to Cusy  I decided to take a detour and climb Le  Semnoz which reaches 1,700m after  11km at 8%.  The legs stayed feeling good and I managed not to be overtaken by any riders although Benoit very nearly caught me at the top. He lives at the foot of the climb and was in training for the Etape next week. I was careful not to do a Porte on the decent and got to Annecy in one piece. It was 30°C by now so I took Neil Bowman's advice and did a bit of lake swimming which was marvellous. After a late lunch in Annecy, the day got trickier. After dropping my phone, Google Maps didn't want to work and I took the best part of an hour to g...
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Day 2 - Allez Allez

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After carbing up at breakfast, it was an early start to beat the peleton to Chambery, 110km away.  I soon caught up with a group of riders who turned out to be riding from Amsterdam to Barcelona. Nate from Seattle was their co-leader and we had a good chat whilst rolling through the Swiss countryside.  As I was in a race to get to Chambery, I left them just before we got to the mighty Rhone which I followed until getting to the first food stop of the day at Seyssel. It's  a beautiful town with a very good patisserie where I got chatting to Chris from South Africa - no, not Chris Connon, but a climber guy who was heading to the Grand Colombier.  I then did my best Vasily Kyrienko impression rolling along the valley onto Chanez, supposedly the Venice of the Alps. It was v nice but don't think it gives the real one anything to worry about.  Then, it was 20k along the banks of Lac du Bourget which was v pleasant.  I was secretly ...
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