This isn’t where I was expecting to stop today
“This will make a lovely musette”
Jagoda laughs and turns back to the task in hand, helping Rich to try to somehow fix his tubeless tyre.
I put the ‘80s style leatherette purse back where I found it, hanging on the PET recycling bin, and sit back down on the floor next to Loic. I stare at my dusty shoes.
“Anyone got a boot?” asks Rich.
I fish out a couple of business cards, decide standing up is too much pain right now, so pass them to Loïc, who hands them on so that Rich can try to ensure his emergency inner tube doesn’t bulge out of his split sidewall.
“Oui! C’est par la” I shout as another rider almost misses the turn onto the track where we’re sitting.
It seems we were quite a long way ahead of most other riders when we had our enforced pit stop beside the recycling bins in Presinge.
This isn’t where I was expecting to stop today.
Loïc overseeing the repairs
We were only 30km from the finish line of the Gravelosophe Tour du Canton when an innocuous bunny hop onto the pavement led to an almost catastrophic tyre failure.
We’d started early that morning with coffee and chat at Le Reposoir. The views across the lake spectacular as always.
Lac Leman at sunrise
Following a short briefing about 100 riders set off on the off road tour of Geneva canton brilliantly organized by Velosophe and Le Casque Rose.
We started off in the “slower” group as none of us really wanted to be smashing it straight away – oh how that changed later in the day …
Almost immediately we were onto the trails towards the woods of Versoix.
Thankfully it was dry and hadn’t rained for a week or so before the ride, so the tracks were dry and quick.
It was all a bit stop / start for the first hour or so to ensure the group stayed together. Loïc commented to me how good this was for experience of riding trails in a peloton ahead of the Berne Gravel Race we’re preparing for in October.
And indeed – it’s really different from riding with a couple of buddies off road.
In the most part riders were courteous and respectful of each other’s space – but you always get one or two snaking corners or cutting inside you on descents – best to just accept this as a fact and smile.
The only bit of real “on-road” of the whole ride is when we run beside the airport. And this was where things got quicker.
The “faster” group had caught us, and Loïc overheard Damian (our group’s leader), saying he was now going to slow down to separate the groups again.
Our fate was sealed when we decided to hang onto the tails of the faster group.
We rode at a good pace - not too tasty - past CERN and into the vineyards of northwest Geneva.
This is where things get hilly.
The group started to string out on the first climb, but the four of us were well placed and managed to keep up as we arrived in Choully.
The trails through the vineyards are just amazing. A mix of all kinds of surfaces: broken tarmac, gravel, dirt, pieces of brick, footpaths through forests, old farm roads.
I knew the route and was dreading the climbs up to Dardagny and beyond to one of the high points (geographically, certainly not emotionally) of the route in the heart of the vines.
And here was where it all exploded.
A 500m long ramp at an average of 11%, quickly followed by another 400m at 10% left me looking for lower gears and gasping to keep up.
Kindly, my friends waited at the top. There were riders strewn all over the trails as the guys up front continued to smash it into the distance.
You can't see the sweat nor hear the heavy breathing
We were now four, and what followed was a set of brilliant descents, steep climbs, singletrack paths, technical sections and plenty of bumps.
After some incredible energy boosting and tasty rice pudding at the ravito stop we cracked on in the direction of the Salève.
Through the vineyards
Damian had put all his experience into this route, and it was awesome section after awesome section. We even rode across the edge of a ploughed field at one point. One more riding surface added to the list.
Bouncing around on one particularly steep and rocky descent in Choulex caused my bars to rotate slightly downwards so I ended up on the hoods in the style of Sean Yates from the ‘80s.
My hood position following on particularly rocky bumpy descent
But everything was manageable, until the fateful bunny hop and our unexpected stop by the bins.
Once Rich finally got his tyre inflated, we headed out towards some of the best sections of the whole ride in the forests of Jussy.
Here we experienced what felt like the true essence of gravel riding.
Riding at pace under the tree canopy there was sudden movement above us. A large red kite launched from a branch and swooped ahead, only five metres above our heads.
There was just us and the kite, flying through the woods, in almost total silence apart from the sounds of our tyres crunching along the trail.
It likely only lasted 30 seconds or so, this beautiful bird leading us on, but the memory will last an awfully long time.
Jagoda and Rich pulled us all the way home – by the end of the ride every muscle was aching, and not just in the legs.
A couple of Velosophe radlers and a massive plate of delicious pasta back at Le Reposoir took away some of the pain.
Rides don’t get much better than this – friends, bikes, nature, and every single surface you can think of (and some you can’t).
All thanks to Velosophe and Le Casque Rose. And to Jagoda, Rich and Loïc for being fabulous riding buddies.
What I’ve been listening to
boygenius – the record https://open.spotify.com/album/0e9GjrztzBw8oMC6n2CDeI?si=XmBPummnS023qoG8zo6ibA
A beautiful indie rock album created by the supergroup featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. Delightful harmonies, great lyrics, fabulous tunes. All round perfection.
Robyn – Dancing on my Own https://open.spotify.com/track/3KiCzO6XdIWcAtUZnjLIoX?si=28b3d5ef85d34e66
I often have this in my head when riding around – changing the lyrics to “cycling on my own”. If you don’t know this dance pop banger then give it a listen. One of my top 10 tracks of all time.