Running of the Bulls

I'm willing to bet that riding through Geneva feels the same as it would if you were running from the bulls in Spain. Just picture the bulls as buses, cars, and motorcycles though. Our ride took 11.5 hrs all together with 8.5 hrs of actual ride time. We rode 123 miles and I crashed and ended up under a car at mile 115. Read on for the rest of the story.

We got up this morning about 6:30am to have the biggest breakfast we could stand for our long day of riding. We walked outside around 8am and it was still about 39 degrees. The first part of the ride was freaking cold and we got lost in downtown becasue of construction. It was pure madness for about 45 minutes till a nice lady saw me looking at the map and pointed me in the right direction.

Once we got moving and out of town it wasn't so bad. We were riding along the lake on a bike path for a ways and things were nice and pleasent. Then we got to France. You would think the country with the biggest bike race in the world would be set up to have a nice place to ride a bike, but we bascially road on a freeway till we got back to Switzerland again. Then the bike lanes reappeared and life was less stressful.

We grabbed a pretty terrible lunch because we got sick of trying to find pizza (I really wanted pizza). We got back on the road and put in some good time before the next stop. We took a bio break in a vinyard and snagged some grapes. They were pretty good but all the grapes over here have seeds, and I'm over grapes with seeds by now.

About mile 80 my bottom side was really starting to feel it. We stopped to take a break and stole some apples this time. The apples were so delicious. So crisp and sweet and juicy. It reminded me of when I was kid. We used to take fruit all the time and to this day I don't really enjoy apricots.

I pulled (rode in front so Cyndie Belle so she could draft me) till about mile 100 then I let the freeloader take over. From mile 100 on things were pretty tough and uncomfortable. My shoulders were hurting becasue I didn't fit on the bike very well. We finally pulled back into Geneva just in time for rush hour. Fantastic! There is lots of railways throughout town and I've been super causious when crossing them before, but I think I was just mentally fatigued and not paying attention. My front wheel fell into the rail way and I went down fast and hard and slid up under a car waiting to go at a red light. Cyndie was right behind me and rode over my bike but she kept it together (good girl). I hit my face on the ground and the rear axle of the car (that's how far under the car I was). I just walked away with some more scabs. Something my body is very used to at this point in my life. I crawled out from under the car as fast as I could and just wanted to find Cyndie and make sure she was okay. Once the driver realized we didn't speak french he just hopped back in his car and took off. I wrecked up the borrowed bike pretty good. Hopefully I can give him some money and we'll be square. It was a super old bike and he didn't use it so he probalby won't care. Cyndie tried to get me to take the bus the rest of the way, but I told here "No! I don't quit, I'm finishing this ride". I rode that broken bicycle the rest of the way and finished. This isn't our exact route but it's very similar.



We were going to ride tomorrow but since the bike doesn't really work now I came up with a new suggestion. We're going to do nothing with our last day here. That's right, nothing. We're going to sit around and drink tea and coffee (yes, coffee). Walk down to the local market and get some lunch. Maybe take a little walk. Maybe not. We want to take the time to refelct on the whole trip, remember what we've seen, and what God has tried to teach us. God has been very great to Cyndie and I and were super thankful we could do something like this. You learn a lot when you see different cultures and we just want to take the time and relax. Yep the adverntures are going to relax... On that note I'm out. I need to google how to relax. I'm not to experienced in that arena.