02 Lake Neuchâtel – Geneva (119km, 968m)

You are now at post Nr. 02 out of 10 for this tour.
If you want to read the post of that trip in order, voilà:
00a Freiburg – Barcelona preparation
00b Freiburg – Barcelona READY to go
01 Freiburg – Lake Neuchâtel (206km, 1200m)
02 Lake Neuchâtel – Geneva (119km, 968m)
03 Geneva – Lyon (167km, 1585m)
04 Lyon into the Cevennes – on climbing and descending… (157km, 1885m)
05 Lac St. Martial – Tarn (187km, 2900m) Prototype of THE cycle touring day
06 Tarn – Carcassonne (203km, 2683m) – A long day in 3 dimensions
07 Carcassonne – Casteil (148km, 2635m) Arrival at the ‘base camp’
08 Walking over the Pyrenees and cycling down into Spain (110km, 2671m) – reality checks
09 Hot as hell. Tortellà, Costa Brava, Canet de Mar (145km, 1468m)
10 La Final: last 48km to Barcelona & recap. What a tour…

A rather easy day here! And a short blog post…

I had the idea to spend a night either in Lausanne or in Geneve anyway. Lausanne would have been too short (60km); Geneve at a relaxed distance (120km).

The ride was divided into two parts: firstly from my campsite through some hilly terrain to Lausanne, and then from Lausanne along the Lake Geneva to Geneva.

Part 1: After getting up I packed my stuff (took a while), had some spare food from the day before for ‘breakfast’ and headed off. Between the Lake Neuchâtel and Lausanne you find already some softer folds of the pre-Alps and Jura. Those had to be crossed. These 60 km were pretty tiresome and I overestimated my completed distance at any given time by sometimes 50%. So, the lesson after 2 days was: climbing means half the speed/double the time.

At some point the climbs turned into descends. Arrival in Lausanne. The air seemed to be notably more Mediterranean (even though we’re still far from it); the city is located on a steep slope.

However, I did not dive too much into the architectural and historical features of Lausanne, but instead put the emphasis on culinary experiences:

Part 2: The trip continued southwestward along the Lake towards Geneve – another 65km – under headwind that turned out less bad than expected; that menu (depicted above) had such reviving effects that all went quite smoothly.

Pretty!

Arrival in Geneve:

I arrived around 19h and had plenty of time to stroll around the city and sort out everything in the hostel I had booked.

From here i was just 1 daydistance from Lyon.

Strava: (click)

Author: Malte Cyclingtourist

Hi, I'm Malte, cyclo-hedonist, endurance traveller, occasional bikepacking-racer (mostly road) – www.cyclingtourist.com – Strava: Malte Cyclingtourist – Instagram: @maltecyclingtourist View all posts by Malte Cyclingtourist