BIKING 101 : GRAND SACONNEX, - FERNEY VOLTAIRE - GEX - MEYRIN - GRAND SACONNEX

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I just finished a 35 km bike ride. (I am naming this route as The Gex Loop, hehe).This is the first time I manage to ride above the 30 km mark after over a year swan diving in this sport. As I mentioned before, my usual will be around 20 - 25 km.

Actually, last week, I mentioned to a friend, Mr. AAT, that I want to try this new route, but only in the next few weeks time, since I and my love one wanted to familiarize ourselves with the new road bike. We wanted some time to built a bit of stamina too.

Yesterday, discussing about our next ride, I talked about the possibility of trying the Gex Loop with my love one.

Akula : Ala, total 35 km. Semalam kita buat 23 km. Tambah 12 km je. Lagi pun cuaca sejuk, tak panas.
Akula's Love One: Ok, no problem.
Akula : Lagi pun jalan landai, takde bukit. Abang dah riki.
Akula's Love One : Ok boleh la kot.

GRAND SACONNEX - FERNEY VOLTAIRE (FRANCE)

We started off at 11.00 am. Weather was cold, around 7 degress Celcius. No sun. Not much difficulties since this route was very familiar to us. A hill hear and there, the rest was easy.

FERNEY VOLTAIRE - GEX

The road started to climb from Ferney Voltaire towards Gex. Halfway riding uphill my love one started to interrogate me on my info gathering.

Akula's Love One : Wei Abang sayang! Kata LANDAIIII! Ni apa yang landai?

I offered an excuse.

Akula : Eh mana tau. Naik keter tengok landai. Elok je rata jalan ni.
Akula's Love One : LANDAIIIIII sangat lah ni kan.
Akula: Ok, ok salah riki. Sorry yek.

(Lesson learned : Object in the rear view mirror may appear higher than then they are. Especially road surface).


We rode uphill 12.6 km all the way to Gex. (With a lot of huffing and puffing, I might add). Took us quite a while.

GEX -MEYRIN (SWITZERLAND)

We took a little break when we arrived in Gex. (Actually, 2 breaks before we arrived in Gex. Gex was the third. Its over 12 km uphill ride ok. Non stop pedalling!).

Right after leaving Gex, on our way to Meyrin, there lies a huge and long hill to climb ahead of us. I changed the gear to the lowest setting available and seriously, it took all my effort and energy to conquer it. Mengah giler. Rasa nak tercabut nyawa. Napas terus pendek, tercungap-cungap. And my love one, although a bit behind, also managed to beat this monster hill. We high fived (tengah tercungap) on top of it. Happy giler!

Weather was damned cold! It was made worse by the fact that around this time, it rained. Sejuk giler! 2 more smaller hills along the route with the Jura Mountain Range on our right side and its all downhill all the way to Meyrin.

Easy.

On the downhill part of course.

MEYRIN - GRAND SACONNEX

We were back in Switzerland at the Meyrin border crossing. We took it easy, since we were nearing our destination. For information CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), made famous by Dan Brown's novel, Angels and Demons is located here.

We arrived safely at our home.

Conquering a 35 km ride for me is very special and a great achievement, since not too long ago, I was this 104 kg overweight, obese guy. Never dreamt that I could do this.

And I am proud that my love one finished this difficult route too.

Well, I am 41 years old, and I just cycled 35 km.