When you only got a triathlon base bar, there is no problem at all.
My Brake Levers/shifters are mounted where my hands grab the bar.

Darn, already signed up to go to the Robot Weekend at EPFL.

I fancy this for next year, though. A couple of questions, to those who've done it before: would it be ok to bimble along about 20kmh, enjoying the sunshine and the scenery, or is it all done at race pack speed? And could I use an electric bike, or are they excluded? (I'd do a short distance rather than the full loop, to allow for battery life and woeful lack of fitness).

Ta.

kodokan

I don't think that electric bikes are allowed - it kind of defeats the point of encouraging everyone to be active. Last year at the Journee Lausannoise du Velo there was a special event for electric bikes.

You can certainly bimble along at 20 kph. The first year we did it, we cruised at about 25 kph, plus had some lengthy stops. There weren't too many other people around our pace, but we enjoyed ourselves. The last finishers normally come in at around 10 hours total. There will be many more people doing the two shorter distances at that sort of speed than who are doing the full distance.

__________________
Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

I have to disagree with this. The only rule I would give is to never use aerobars when riding behind someone. The first picture in the original post shows a guy on a triathlon bike using his aerobars when leading the group - I see nothing wrong with that. I'm actually third in line in that photo, on the front of the tandem. I also had aerobars on, and used them when breaking the wind leading the group. We spent a lot of time on the front during the first 40km because most of the rest of the group didn't want to help out, a faster group then joined us from behind. After that, I didn't use the aerobars because we didn't spend much more time on the front (except to stay out of trouble when going through Geneva).

Of course, if you haven't practiced enough with aerobars then you certainly shouldn't use them during the race, but if you are comfortable and stable using them then I don't see any reason why not to when on the front of a group or when riding alone. As is normal, when approaching an intersection, or a challenging corner then you have to get off of the aerobars and have your hands near the brake levers, but on a straight road with no intersections then there is no reason not to use them if there is nobody in front of you.

I like to have clip-on aerobars on my regular road bike for longer, flatter rides not only because of the aero advantage you get when in them, but also because they give you a completely different riding position that gives your body a very welcome rest/change, especially your hands.

__________________
Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Yes, I see that makes sense. Shame, though - mine IS the active sort of electric bike, where I still have to apply force to the pedals to move. The motor on the chain then just helps out a little or a lot, depending on how steep the hill is. . But I know most electric bikes are hub-driven, where simply twirling the pedals in the air gets you 20 km/h with almost zero effort.

Oh well, I'll go back to looking at the SlowUp events then - just thought it would be fun to be part of big group and get a snazzy T-shirt.

Have fun, everyone taking part this year, fingers crossed summer will have actually started by then.

kodokan

__________________
'Chance favours only the prepared mind.'

For anyone interested in catching-up for a few drinks in the late afternoon before this event I have posted an event on the social calendar. Hopefully see a few of you there as it looks like this event will have a good EF turnout.

Cyclotour du Leman - pre-event drinks

Just two more days to sign up for the Cyclotour before the price goes up by 8 CHF (on Thursday, May 20th)! Seee info here, Datasport registration page here.

Just a quick tip for those struggling with the page being French as default. It is actually available in English but I didn’t find where to select the language so I just changed the “=fr” to “=en” on one of the sub pages links and voila… the whole site is accessible in English.

Or you could just click here:English link for Registration

See you at the start
Cheers

A friend asked me about the location of the food & water stations along the route this afternoon. I was about to tell him to look at the map on the official website when I realized that they haven't posted one this year. They have a link to a GPS plot of the route, but the feed stations are not marked.

So, I emailed the organizers, and they already responded by sending this map as a pdf, which I've turned into a jpg to post below. Hopefully they'll add it to their website soon - it seems like useful information. For anyone who has done the ride previously, these appear to be exactly the same locations as used in past events.

__________________
Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

Last day for the cheaper entries.

I've just signed up for the full 180km version.

See you there,
GS

I will be in Geneva for that weekend but I am not so sure about participating on the organised ride, wearing a jersey etc.

Is it possible to ride alon with them though ?

Here in Züri you can profit of the installations and arrangements they do for races when the race is not on.

I'm not sure what "installations and arrangements" you're hoping to profit from because there aren't many. There'll be nothing stopping you jumping into one of the groups of riders that come by, but I wouldn't try taking anything from the feed stations if you haven't paid your way.

Hey,

By popular demand I have amended the time for the drinks on Saturday to a bit later in the day (now 20.00) . The downside of this is that all the replies to date have been lost so if you could re-rsvp it would be much appreciated.

In case you haven't registered yet, the deadline for doing so is midnight tomorrow (Thurs, May 27, 2010).

10°/18°


Forecast for Sunday looks wet.

Looks OK according to MeteoBlue

In fact, not too windy, not to warm, and dry in the morning sounds practically perfect to me.

I want to ride Evian Lausanne but it is full. Anyone with an inscription they would like to sell??? Marc

For those of you leaving from Evian, beware that the English version of the official website has the wrong information! The French version lists boat boarding in Ouchy as 6:45 for departure at 7:00, then starting the ride in Evian between 7:45 and 8:30. The English website gives times that are 30 to 60 minutes later than this, which appear to be last year's times, and not the updated schedule for this year.

We all need to start doing our collective sunshine dance, because the forecast is not looking good: 15 to 18 degrees and rain. Fortunately, the current precipitation amount estimates make it look like it will be light rain, and not too hard, so as long as you keep pedaling hard then you'll stay warm enough. Here's my contribution:

__________________
Cycling in Switzerland | Photo blog (mostly travel pics from Switzerland)

I won't be participating this year but will certainly be dancing for you guys!
Enjoy the tour for me, please.

Did anybody got a similar message about jerseys not being available to pick up:

"
Bonjour,

Nous vous remercions de votre inscription au Cyclotour du Léman.
Suite à des problèmes de commande, nous ne serons pas en mesure de vous fournir votre maillot pour ce dimanche. Il vous sera envoyé personnellement fin juillet.

Nous vous présentons nos excuses pour ce désagrément et vous souhaitons un bon Cyclotour.

Salutations
"

I thought the jersey was part of the policy for the tour, maybe I should give them a call.