Le Saleve

Today I rejoined the cycling club from yesterday for a real ride - 72 km around (and partially up) the mountain Le Salève. Apparently there were about 80 riders - everyone was allowed to go at their own pace and start anytime between 8:30 and 10am. I started at 8:30 am (we actually got underway closer to 9), and went with two ladies and a man who I met yesterday. The first 35 km was basically uphill (not very steep though) - but we slowly made our way around the mountain. You can see our route here - it doesn't show all of it at once (I still don't know why) but if you scroll you will see all of the pieces. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&start=1&num=200&msa=0&msid=116979252322631580965.00046a1c0fabd81bf92d4&ll=46.156886,6.198177&spn=0.092986,0.207367&z=13

From the top we had a nice view of Geneva - if you look hard you can see the Jet d'Eau! At the halfway point they fed us snacks and drinks as well. Along the way there were checkpoints where you stamp your "passport" - and then when you get to the end you show your stamps and you get a certificate =)



You can see the guy in our riding group at the checkpoint - the "brevet controle".



We rode at a fairly relaxed pace, which was nice because I've never gone up a mountain before (even if this mountain is considered more of a hill compared to the other mountains in Switzerland). All in all we covered about 600 m of vertical distance. You can see the terrain profile in the last picture. It's just a picture of my phone - I don't know how to display this information on a real computer yet!

We finished around 2:30 and along with my certificate they gave me a pair of socks as well (or I could have chosen a water bottle or a fanny pack). The route was marked as well - they had placed signs all along the route at 6am this morning. A pretty good service, considering I paid 30 CHF to join their club and 15 CHF for today's ride. The next ride is on Saturday, and I don't have to pay for it because we will all go as a group (ie no signs, or snacks, or certificates, or socks!). But the following week is another go-at-your-own pace ride. Thanks to the relaxed pace, I'm not totally dead now! But I have to sleep early because I'm going to be at work at 7:40 tomorrow. The World Health Assembly doesn't technically start until 10am, but my supervisor has to be there for 8, and she offered to take me and show me around, as long as I don't mind the early start. I'm sure it will be well worth it! The Director General of the WHO speaks at 2pm I believe, and I hope to be able to see it in person, but if not everything is webcast on the WHO intranet. Everything you ever wanted to know about the WHA and more can be found here: http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha62.html