SkiBike Tour 2013-14 - 3 Days Off
Posted: Tuesday, 25 February 2014 by Mark Kinnon in Labels: 2013-14 Tour, D.I.Y., France, SkiBike
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After yesterday's excellent ride with Wayne and Lucille I went back to St. Jean d'Aulps to gather together my kit and enjoy a final debrief. Then it was back to Geneva to unload the car and prepare my travelling kit for next week's adventure with Avalanche Skibikes in Bulgaria. It took quite a while to sort through and make sure I had everything I am likely to need, there's nothing worse than arriving in destination without your boots, eh Lucille?
The second challenge was to get it all to fit into an oversized wheeled suitcase and still weigh less than 20 Kg. This was achieved by wearing my boots and salopettes on the flight. The next challenge was getting from Geneva base camp on the border with France right by the customs post to the airport. It's too close for taxis to be interested, even if you book, they don't always turn up and there's no direct bus service either.
So my only option was to put in a bit of a yomp, this involves walking through a road tunnel underneath the airport runways, all very sneaky and exciting. A good Samaritan with a minibus stopped and drove me the last kilometre or so.
Geneva airport has a tiny French sector, complete with their own easyJet check-in desks, annoyingly they are for French internal flights only, so I headed through to the main area where the queues were enormous. It was airless and roasting hot, stood in my salopettes, I was sweating like a rapist.
easyJet manage their cattle well though and I was at the gate with time to spare; even so, you really have to be at the airport a whole two hours before your plane flies, long gone are the days when you could rock up with 30 minutes to go.
If the weather stay reasonably clement I will ride a push bike to work for the next few days, wow wheels and tyres are going to feel odd for a while, as will that pedalling malarkey.
Whilst I have been away most of the UK has been subject to extreme rainfall and consequential flooding of low lying areas. Just down the road from my home Whyteleaf has been inundated; the main road completely closed for nearly 4 miles and pipework installed by the fire brigade to pump out the deluge. All quite extraordinary and it is a great relief that I have always been fortunate enough to live in properties on a hill.
Tomorrow I snap back to reality and have a few days work to complete looking after the technical needs of a medical conference. Once that is done and dusted the fast pace will resume as I get a taste of Bulgarian freestyle skibiking, wowser.
The second challenge was to get it all to fit into an oversized wheeled suitcase and still weigh less than 20 Kg. This was achieved by wearing my boots and salopettes on the flight. The next challenge was getting from Geneva base camp on the border with France right by the customs post to the airport. It's too close for taxis to be interested, even if you book, they don't always turn up and there's no direct bus service either.
So my only option was to put in a bit of a yomp, this involves walking through a road tunnel underneath the airport runways, all very sneaky and exciting. A good Samaritan with a minibus stopped and drove me the last kilometre or so.
 |
| My only option was to put in a bit of a yomp |
Geneva airport has a tiny French sector, complete with their own easyJet check-in desks, annoyingly they are for French internal flights only, so I headed through to the main area where the queues were enormous. It was airless and roasting hot, stood in my salopettes, I was sweating like a rapist.
easyJet manage their cattle well though and I was at the gate with time to spare; even so, you really have to be at the airport a whole two hours before your plane flies, long gone are the days when you could rock up with 30 minutes to go.
If the weather stay reasonably clement I will ride a push bike to work for the next few days, wow wheels and tyres are going to feel odd for a while, as will that pedalling malarkey.
Whilst I have been away most of the UK has been subject to extreme rainfall and consequential flooding of low lying areas. Just down the road from my home Whyteleaf has been inundated; the main road completely closed for nearly 4 miles and pipework installed by the fire brigade to pump out the deluge. All quite extraordinary and it is a great relief that I have always been fortunate enough to live in properties on a hill.
 |
| Pipework installed by the fire brigade to pump out the deluge |
Tomorrow I snap back to reality and have a few days work to complete looking after the technical needs of a medical conference. Once that is done and dusted the fast pace will resume as I get a taste of Bulgarian freestyle skibiking, wowser.