I arrived in Fontana on the western edge of Lake Geneva midday yesterday and after getting a bit of a tour of the area and some food, I had a chance to relax before a late afternoon bike ride. Riding anywhere here involves some degree of a climb away from the lake and we did a gentle climb and rode through some beautiful countryside and small towns for about 14 miles.
Today I rode on my own and decided to ride around Lake Geneva. While I had been warned that there were 3 hills on the way out of Fontana for this ride (known locally as the 3 bitches), I wasn’t really clear that the entire route would be peppered with challenging hills. I think I a glad I didn’t have a full appreciation of how challenging the ride would be before I took off. The first 2 hills are appropriately named. I made it up the first, but had to walk a bit of the second and the third was not so bad. I was trying to follow the map on Ride with GPS but it wouldn’t keep up so I ended up riding a route that had even more steep hills than was necessary. I had to stop for breath a few times and had to walk up the end of one more hill. I tried to expand my hill riding skills by slowing down, using higher gears and focussing on slowing down my breathing. By the end of the ride, I was doing better.
I stopped in Lake Geneva for some food and rested for about an hour. The hills on the south side of the lake were less steep but there was a significant headwind. I was exhausted and exhilarated when I completed the ride. I thought I would need a nap but didn’t.
We went to a community pot luck in the park for dinner and then out to a bar on a pier for after dinner drinks. There are very interesting communities around Lake Geneva and I saw a huge banner declaring Trump the winner of the 2020 election – tiring.
I will do a less challenging ride through the countryside tomorrow before taking off to head south. I am having dinner in Chicago with a friend and then will spend the night somewhere north of Indianapolis. I will meet a friend for coffee near Indianapolis Friday morning before arriving at the last destination on my journey mid-afternoon
When I wake up in Nashville on Tuesday morning, I am really not sure how I will structure my days. I scheduled 2 sessions with my personal training for next week so that will help. I will need to collect my mail from post office and sort through it to find perhaps 3 or 4 real pieces of mail, get groceries. Then I will work to find a group of compatible cyclists.
Tamara Unleashed 