09/08/2019 – A few dips

With a quick morning dip in Lake Geneva to wake me up, I got the 9:25 ferry over to Evian with Les Gets just a few hours in sight.

The ferry was quick and I was soon pedalling uphill into the alps. It was only a short ride of 35km but with over 1000m of elevation gain it wasn’t going to be easy.

The twists and turns seemed never ending but it wasn’t too bad, the gradient was fine and the scenery was fantastic.

One slight issue was that my bike computer app decided to take a ‘shortcut’ down a ’cycle path’ designed to ‘save time’. I’m sure this route would be fine on a mountain bike but was a bit tricky on a road bike.

Soon enough I arrived at Chalet Bluebell in Les Gets where I’ve been skiing for as long as I can remember. Having only been here in the winter, it was a surprise to see how stunning it was in the summer. There was even a little lake to have a swim in.

After 2 days resting up and catching up with Rob and Jane, I followed the col de Corbier towards the Sion Valley with fresh legs. Another breathtaking climb (literally) and descent followed with endless switchback roads proving a lot of fun on the way down.

The Sion valley in Switzerland followed which meant I could get the kilometres in and make up some distance. Along the way, I found a stunning lake and chowed down on some food after another quick dip (I seem to be spending more time swimming in lakes than cycling).

Suitably tired, I found a campsite and went straight to sleep. With a big day ahead of me, I set off at a reasonable time. A short flat section to get the legs warmed up then a 1400m climb up the Simpson pass.

This was tough. Just an unrelentless never ending climb up to 2000m in the air. The only saving grace was that I knew that what goes up just come down and since I was ending up at a lower altitude in the evening that I started at, it was going to be a quick afternoon.

After reaching the summit and treating myself to a pizza, the view didn’t disappoint.

A fast ride down dropping 1700m into Italy followed. I was really looking forward to Italy but sighing a few minutes of being there, I was starting to wish I was back in Switzerland.

The roads were awful, there weren’t any real cycle paths and it felt like the humidity sky rocketed. Nevertheless, Lago Maggiore was calling so I fuelled up on Oreos and put my head down.

It should be noted that the scenery was still incredible, being in a valley with mountains thousands of meters above you is really quite something. It just would have been so much nicer if the Italians (and the British) took a leaf out of some of the other European nations books (Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, literally every other country that I’ve been in so far).

The campsite for the night overlooked Lago Maggiore which was stunning, it was just a bit of a shame that the weather didn’t quite live up to the scenery.

Regardless, it really has been spectacular cycling through the alps the last few days. I’m not sure my legs will be thanking me but it’s set to continue on for a while yet.