I was told about an organized tour of Lake Geneva sometime in June. A Yahoo search turned up nothing. Anyone know of a website, or maybe I have the wrong name for it?


Also, would anyone be interested in training for it togather? From what I hear it is either broken into a small section, or you can do the whole 170km in one day. (I want to do the latter.) And really, it sounds more painful that it actually is.

What sort of climbs are there?

I've done 85km (around Lake Macquarie (NSW, AU)), with some not-insignificant hills, but 170km sounds fairly daunting. I've also done about the same with full touring gear (plus towing kids) - but only after a few weeks of touring more-and-more distance every day.

Kinda interested.

cheers,
(Mr)Wibble

http://www.cyclotour.ch/

There is cyclosportive on June 1st around Lake Geneva. One route is 180K's complete. There are shorter, one starts in Evian (120k) and one starts in Geneva (60K). I did the mountain one last year which is 120K.

The route around Lac Leman (Geneva) is really flat. I think 200 meters is the offical height profile.

The sign up is via datasport.com.

Thanks so much.


I'm totally signing up. The price is cheap (compared to what I'm used to paying for centuries in the US), and you get a jersey to boot. Heck, the price of a jersey at the store is 80chf!

For the slow people. Join me, with only 6 weeks to go, I doubt I'll be able to train up to my usual racing pace. So I'll just be cruising at a comfortable, yet efficient speed. And for girls with bikes..... COME ON! In 3 months of living here I have only seen 1 women on a road bike. Utterly pathetic I tell you!

and you even get free pasta and a free massage (with alot of waiting time) afterwards.

You might be interested in this thread: Bicycling, long-distance, mass-participation rides. Which has some info about the Cyclotour du Leman. Plus, I put together a webpage here with the help of hillseeker, listing all the cyclosportifs that are in or near to Switzerland that we could find.

I did the Cyclotour du Leman two years ago, the full lake tour version. I also did the ride twice more last summer not on the race-day. I can testify that it would be hard to find a flatter 180km ride in Switzerland, or anywhere else for that matter really.

The free jersey is nice, but I can't guarantee that it will be an attractive one. The event is normally sponsored by the newspaper 'Le Matin', whose color is a garish orange, and the shirts are made to advertise them. However, this year's may be better.

I'm planning to ride the race again this year, and I know a couple of other people who may do it, too. Maybe we should all get together for a big pasta supper the evening before the ride Last fall, we organized a group ride though the forum to do the lake tour at a more relaxed pace with plenty of stops, we got 6 willing participants (including one female) who all had a good time. Maybe we could do something similar this year.

I agree with you about the lack of female riders - it is a shame that the Swiss girls don't seem too interested.

I'm totally up for both. Maybe come May I will organise a pre-ride, ride.

Well i have already signed up for the full 180km ride, I have a new road bike for this event, So I will be trying for a fast time,

However like ChrisW says we will have an event later in the summer that will be at a much more relaxed pace there were 6 of us last year and this time i hope there are a few more, both men and women. Watch this space as you are more than welcome to come


Sam

Lauren,
I have noticed the same thing, no women riding here, except for 2 women I saw last week who were riding super fast, looked liked racers to me. If you are interested in riding a bit slower, send me a PM, although I am in Geneva (looks like you are in Lausanne). We could meet half way and then do some climbing.

I'd like to do the cyclotour as well. Does anyone know where I can rent a road bike? I was thinking about just doing the 60k ride, but I can't get my bike here in time. Planning to just bring it back on the plane on my next trip.
Thanks

I just received the flyer in the mail. I am considering signing up again for the mountain course, 120k's about 2500 meters climbing so not brutal Anyone else considering doing it?

The logistics are to either stay near the start.....or take a very early train from Lausanne, I stayed near Nyon last year, which worked ok.

Hi dakman,
Nearly all of the other events like this that I plan to do this year are mountainous ones, so I've decided to do the flat version of this one. I look forward to hearing how the mountain version goes. Let me know if you want to come down beforehand and do some training on the course - they are our local hills, so I'd be up for training with you.
Chris.

Lauren, if you're organizing a pre-ride ride, send me a message! I don't know if I can do 180 km after a long winter of only running (mostly my butt is out of shape but I did the 20km run and endurance is not a problem) but I would like to find some riding partners and the tour of the lake at an easy pace sounds like fun. I just need to adjust my cycling shoe which is making the outside of my left leg hurt.

Is anyone doing the Printaniere? in the Chablais?

BTW there was an article in the 24 heures about a group of racing women, but they made it clear in the quotes that it was for young, fast riders, bent on competition. Not quite my cup of tea. I have an American friend who also rides and I sometimes go with her. Would be fun to organize something some weekend.

Lauren, I just moved here from Canada and am living in Chexbres, 12 km from Lausanne. I would love to have some girls who are not too competitive to train with, and I am considering jumping in and doing the 180km on June 1 even though I haven't ridden over 100km in the last year. Can you let me know if you organize a training ride between now and then, and if you'd like to get a few rides in on a regular basis?

Rachel.

To Rachel and Lauren, I'm another female cyclist in area.

My husband and I just moved here in February, and I finally was able to bring my bike out of storage a few weeks ago. So have only been riding since then. I've been trying to get back into shape (it has been over a year since I have riden frequently), so definitely a bit slow.

I have been trying to ride every other day to get back into shape, and now I feel like I can ride everyday again. Yay! Would love to do the lake ride but dont think I'm quite there yet. Am willing to try though, because I love challanges. Unfortunately, I'm only up to about 30km a ride with some good hills. I'm from Southern California and am very used to climbing mountains, but I dont have enough strength to do that just yet. On flats, I know I could do 100km. Dont think I could do much more now I havent done a century (~160km) in 2 years.

So would love to meet up with anyone who wants to go on a casual ride and get fit. Would really love the company. I live near Coppet. Am available anyday and anytime (because I dont have a job just yet).

170 Km at an average 25kmh would result a 7 hour trip.

That is without stopping. The best I did that kind of trip in was 8.5 hours, because the last 50km really hurts. Pros will do the trip in half the time.

My average speed is around 30 Kmh reaching around 45 Kmh on flat areas, but I doubt I could keep as high during more than 2-3 hours,

I went once with some girls who wanted to do the lake tour.

I had to wait for them as they rolled at under than 20 Kmh average.

There were not climbs on the Geneva-Lausanne-section, I guess maybe there would be some at montreaux, and by experience, the bike paths on the french side are less good than the swiss and in some places there is no bike path and you have to cross the french towns sometimes with a lot of traffic, usually many french cars that come back from Geneva.

When we reached Lausanne ( from Geneva ) after more than 3 hours then they gave up and decided to go back by train ....