In which Sid and Doris have a long day through alpine scenery and beside Lake Geneva, meeting a motorcycle policeman, finally stopping at Montreux in Switzerland.
Doris wrote earlier about how the duo would manage the days to the Great St Bernard Pass. Plans changed so we would knock out a short day for the convenience of a rest-day, wash-day, no-cycle day with a two night stay in Montreux.
That means that two shortish days must be combined. Sid hasn’t been publishing the distance and heights but this ride from Chaux des Crotenay, in the Jura, to Montreux deserves a note. At 111kms it is a bit longer than usual, while 1274 metres of up is also hors categorie, at least for S and D.
You can tell there is up-ness because we see our first ski hire place, our first ski lift cabine and a few logging trucks.
The morning is spent climbing to the Col de Landoz Neuve at 1,126 metres then dropping past the border and into the next valley for lunch at a mountain lake. The afternoon is spent climbing out to Col de Mellundruz at 1184 meters, to lose it all down to Lac Leman.
As we approach the Swiss/French border (a low dry stone wall) we are sorry to see the French customs van leaving, so there is no ceremony other than our taking a picture and riding on down to lunch. The yellow dot marks the border, each country has its office.
At Le Pont the Truite Cafe has many cyclists and definitely the best bar accessories of the trip so far. The bi-plane has a nine cylinder radial engine. This is correct. To keep a radial smooth you need an odd number of cylinders as the firing order goes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8 always skipping a cylinder and firing the next. It is a great bar decoration.
And the model of the Caprice lake steamer puffs smoke from the funnel. Lunch is taken slowly so that Doris’s battery gets an extra kick.
The ride down through farmland to the lakeside conurbation is frustrating as the routing software prioritises empty but hilly country roads over progress to the lakeside ride. We eat some consolatory almond squares and set off again.
Coming through Lausanne we pass the International Olympic Committee building.
The IOC is a proud contributor to the Annual General Conference of the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport. Perhaps things really have changed, and besides if your benchmark is FIFA you’ll probably look OK.
Once we get to the lake we run by the railway and then through what were once villages, now all strung together. The lolly stop shows that lakeside vibe.
Moving quite quickly D looks down at the handle bar mounted phone/map and accidentally runs a red light. Sid sees that and reckons there is time to get through before the crossing traffic can hit him. In this he is correct but the whole event has been spotted by a Swiss motorcycle policeman.
A kilometre later he pulls us over. Sid and Doris are immediately contrite and apologetic. He gives a very high quality telling off “it’s hard enough for me to stop these mad drivers from killing you even when you obey the rules” and sends us away with a well-deserved flea in our ear. Diplomatic Sid thought it better not to ask for a photo.
The Eden au Lac is just 100 metres further on.
After some modest mountain bothies S and D are going posh.