K&E Global: Geneva to La Roche-sur-Foron

RGA Day 1 - Overview
Photos

Roundtrip Geneva to la Roche-sur-Foron via la Croisette & Cruseilles

Saturday, May 3, 2008

It was a perfect day for a tandem ride. Local weather forecast called for blue skies and light breezes the entire day. With our upcoming Routes des Grandes Alpes trip looming on the horizon, we decided that conditions were perfect to train our (especially Katy's) legs for the big climbs. Eric's idea of "training" is to climb the steep side of our local mountain, Mont Salève, to la Croisette and to continue ambitiously onward to le Petit-Bornand via Col Des Glières.

The ride from our apartment to Collonges-sous-Salève via Carouge and Croix-de-Rozon was nice and easy. The route is slightly uphill and the distance is just long enough for us to be warmed up before the climb. At Collonges-sous-Salève, we began our ascent. The first stretch of the climb took us to le Coin after which the real fun began... the steep climb along Route de la Croisette to Col de la Croisette (1,176 m). Having shifted down to our granny (22-34) gear at le Coin, we climbed at a steady pace of 6 kmh to reach la Croisette feeling fresh for more.

Eric greets Jason and Brian at La Muraz From la Croisette, we descended quickly to la Muraz where we refilled our water bottles with fresh cold water. Coincidentally, we bumped into Jason and Brian, who were out for their Saturday ride on their race bikes.

The next leg of our trip took us up a couple more climbs. First to Col le Parc (915 m) en route to Arbusigny (886 m) and then to la Chapelle-Rambaud (948 m). It was a very peaceful stretch with virtually no traffic on the road. Similar to our descent from la Croisette to la Muraz, the descent to Eteaux was quick. We passed a car along the way and widened the gap during the rest of the descent.

As planned prior to our departure, we continued toward la Roche-sur-Foron with lunch on our minds. After making ~3 turns around the city center in search of an establishment that serves food outside of lunch hours, we decided to have our 3rd kebab in a week's time.

Bicycle meter displaying our top speed of 84 kmh Because we had taken our time today with our climbs and because we left Geneva much later than planned, we chose to cut short the trip and leave le Petit-Bornand and Col Des Glières for another day. Our return trip took us around the south-western part of Mont Salève to Cruseilles. In order to reach Cruseilles from la Roche-sur-Foron, we passed by Col d'Evires (810 m) followed by another small climb up to Chaumet. From there on, we rode along a scenic D27 all the way to Cruseilles.

At Cruseilles, we turned off the main road and continued our journey home via Ronzier to Chosal. The descent from Cruseilles to Ronzier marked the highlight of this trip for Eric as we hit a all-time top speed of 84 kmh on a bicycle! Kudos go to Eric for expert handling of the tandem.

Altitude profile From Chosal to St Julien-en-Genevois, we attacked one last Col. Col de la Croix Biche (801 m). Then it was pretty much downhill all the way home to Geneva.