Geneva to Nice — Day 1
Got away at 6am as planned and after about 20km of misty alpine pastures, I reached the foot of the Col de la Colombiere. It was nice and cool, with tree cover most of the way up. Slow and steady, keeping an eye on the power meter, ticking off kilometres by the roadside markers, I got to the top feeling like I hadn’t spent too much of my energy for the day.
From here the rest of the day was spent descending to the foot of the next climb and so on, first for the Col de L’Aravis, which had wide turns, not too steep and busy with other cyclists for distraction, this one felt okay too.
Next up the Col des Saisies, climbing steeply back up from the foot of the Aravis descent via a narrow bridge and a few switchback hairpins. This felt steeper and my legs were getting fatigued from sitting in the saddle pushing my smallest gear up gradients of 8% and more. Stopped for a break about half way up and when I set off again I came up on another rider taking on the route through to Nice. We rode to the top together, a little slower than I would have otherwise, but I think this was a really good idea given how the next climb nearly finished me off!
I stopped in Beaufort for a coffee and a sandwich before tackling the climb, 20km of ascent at an average of 6%. It was really hot by this stage but the hill wasn’t getting any smaller by me sitting in a cafe so I put on my big boy pants and set off. It was really hard. Unlike the Colombiere where I felt I had a sustainable pace, this time I was really dragging the pedals round, noticeably fatigued. I had to stand up more often to loosen the legs out, and eventually when I passed the 10km sign (half way) I stopped for a break. continuing on I came pretty soon to the lake, which is absolutely stunning and I wished I’d known to push on and stop there instead. Took a couple of quick photos but carried straight on up, wanted to get it done by this stage.
No tree cover from this point, so no shade whatsoever. I had enough water and food but it was still really slow going. Stopped again 5km from the top, had a banana and a drink, and when I got going told myself this was the final push and I’d keep riding to the summit. Didn’t quite manage that… at 2km to go I felt a bit light headed, had a drink and tried to eat another banana but that wanted to come back up so I reluctantly stopped again about 1.5km from the summit. Final final push and I got to the top. Took a few minutes to compose myself and then enjoyed a cracking descent without the threat of another climb at the bottom.
Did I mention it was hot? I sweated through ten 750ml bottles on the bike, plus one before setting off and another 2l of water after I stopped, so more than 10l of water in the day. I didn’t pee between 7am and 6pm!
