Raid Alps 2024: Day 1 Arrival in Bonne

Day 1 If Day 1, per our ride guide, was meeting up with our cycling mates in Bonne, then Day 0 was when we arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, and took ground transportation to our hotel. Bonne is located in east central France, a few dozen km south of Geneva, and another couple of dozen kms from Italy. Something that continues to amaze me about Europe is how close you often are to several other countries. We'll be cycling through two regions of the country, the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, and the Alpes-Cote d'Azur. If you look at a topographical map of the country you'll see the French Alps coloring the lower right, or SE corner of the map. 

 

Our route this week will follow the mountain range from north to south, from the border with Switzerland to the Mediterranean. The region is home to many of France's famous winter playgrounds, and in summer a great place to hike and cycling. The annual Tour de France regularly includes routes and climbs in the Alps, including the iconic Alpe d’Huez, which we'll climb on our 4th cycling day, Saturday. 

The towns we'll be overnighting in, Bonne, Praz sur Arly, Brides-les-Bains, Allemont, Briançon and Barcelonnette, are all smallish and generally catering to the winter ski crowd. I expect we'll be staying in one-off boutique hotels, like last year. Some of the towns are lower down, in the valleys between peaks, and some further up the slopes. The highest we're likely to ride is about 3000m, not extreme, but enough to challenge our wind. As I lamented last year, we won't have much time to explore these villes, though I'm expecting Carrie will. 

We chose to arrive a day early at the Hotel Baud in Bonne to help us settle a bit and catch up from jet lag--and to begin to acclimatize to the higher altitude of the Alps. Our whole group of riding companions will have arrived by Tuesday, 10 of us from Madison, plus a couple our group rode with last year, Bill and Linda of Reno, Nevada, and a pair from South Africa.

We ruinited with our guides Ewa and Constantin over breakfast, a joyous reunion over a delicious petit dejouner. Constantin: “You’re looking good, John” (unspoken: “for the oldest member of the group”). I think I carry that distinction once again. This was Carrie’s continuing introduction to the group, both cyclists and guides with whom I traveled last year, and cyclists new to the Euroslackers but known to me, but not to Carrie. Also Carrie’s introduction to one of the big draws for her: the wonderful food. Here’s our menu from the morning:

For those unable to read the fine print in French, it included locally produced and sources hard and soft cheeses, cured meats, local honey, homemade jam and yogurt, and, of course, flaky, crusty baguettes and croissant, with individually rolled and wrapped logs of butter, plus pain au chocolat.

 

Coffee drinks made to order and served in the traditional shallow bowls was gilding on the Illy. 

As was the case last year, we spent the first hours in Bonne finding our way around the hotel, then ventured out to explore a bit of the town. Pat, Murray, Chip and Tom joined Carrie and me for a walk around town, choosing to leave the main drag to climb uphill, to see what we could see. We found ourselves in a hamlet called Haute Bonne, aptly named as it was uphill and above the main town of Bonne. 

We found an example of the ubiquitous war memorial, this one to locals lost in WWI and WWII. 

A derelict vehicle whose riveted on nameplate called it a “utility vehicle,” this one without the “sport.” 

And this local variety of guidance for chien:

A trip to local grocery, where it was fun to look at all the varieties of food we’d never see in the US.

then meeting our bikes: most of our group rented from the tour company, as traveling with a large bike case complicates transfers. Echappee provides excellent bikes, with hydraulic disc brakes--essential for the mountain descents--and gearing low enough to facilitate cranking our way up the climbs. 

We each sent a set of detailed measurements of our own bikes from home so the tour staff could reserve a bike of the right size and approximate a fit that would work for each of us-- but we each needed to make tweaks for the best riding position, and to mount our preferred accessories, in my case pedals that fit my shoe cleats, my GPS-based computer, and front and rear blinkies. Cyclists can be pretty fussy: nothing like an uncomfortable riding position to aggravate aches and pains over an average of 70 miles and 9000 feet of climbing per day. I predict many or most of us will continue to make small adjustments as the week proceeds to try to get our wheels just right.

Constantin and David, the 3rd of our guiding crew, set up what I consider the nicest bike shop I’ve ever seen, and prepped each of our bikes to our specs. 

Mine was just right, and so I installed my gear, then suited up with the rest of the Madison group for a shakedown ride. 

Our evening started with a group meeting to prepare us for the start of our tour in the morning: formal introduction to our team of guiides,

general safety (“we drive and ride on the right-hand side here in France;”),

distribution of our luggage tags, gear bags, and tour jerseys. Then a lovely dinner, with beautiful courses, but lost on this bottom-feeder. 

A bit too late in the day, per the European fine-dining style, when my first wish is to sleep early to be rested and ready for the first day of riding, and the reason we’re here: attacking the Raid Alps!