Post 11 Winding Down

It’s early Tuesday morning, the final day of our official biking tour. The final items of clothing, both biking and street, are being thrown into suitcases. Our next scheduled departure is not for another great col or even a ride around Lake Annecy, but rather for the Geneva airport.

As our biking tour ends, I’m experiencing very mixed feelings. For me, it’s been a great trip. I challenged myself, but also viewed it as a cycling vacation and not a training camp. The official part of the trip was pretty much as I expected. We’re in the Alps. The climbs were hard, but not beyond capacity. After so much planning, preparation and training, it seems strange to have it coming to an end. Yet, I’m ready to be home, even if it’s only for a few days before I start traveling again for Cal Poly.

I cannot speak for everyone, but right now I’m pretty tired, both mentally and physically. A vacation is supposed to take you away from the everyday; from your work and daily routine. This cycling trip actually did that for me. It’s hard to think about work when you are descending down Alpine hairpin turns at 35 miles an hour. It took every bit of concentration I could muster; no time to think about what’s happening at the office. So from that perspective, it was a personal success.

A trip like this, however, more than about the cols climbed or the pace lines back to the hotel, is more about the human aspect of a common experience. On the rides, and over our daily AHH’s, we talked about how we felt, shared family stories, yelled at cows, and laughed a lot. And like any family, we did not always agree. That’s the nature of a common human experience. We will all remember this cycling adventure differently. And we’ll all have our own stories to tell.

Post Note - My travels continue for a few more days. Rosey has joined me and we are spending a little time in Switzerland with family. On the way to La Mont sur Laussane,  shopped in Eschallens for a great lunch and, of course, a beer. A post script with a few soon with a few more notes and some odds and ends.