I skipped the hotel breakfast, instead settling for a brioche aux raisin. Bought some tat and on the way out of Aix, I found a Decathlon sports store where they put new brake blocks on my bike descending mountains on Tour days does nothing for your brake blocks). The drive was 140 miles of virtually all motorways. As I approached Geneva, I reached customs, passport in hand but the only thing they were interested in was making sure I bought my road tax for CHF40.
The drive out of Geneva was stunning with glimpses of the lake and the Alps behind it, with no snow the mountains are very dark and foreboding but for a while at least Mont Blanc was towering over everything, showing off its snow capped peak. The landscape didn't change that visibly once in Switzerland, the towns were slightly more regimented than French ones and where French church spires dominate the landscape, Swiss one seems rather reluctant and are very narrow and almost awkward.
Past Lausanne and at one point we appeared to be on top of a mountain as the views down to the left were impressive with another lake dominating. We had a period of 5 lengthy tunnels in a row all of which meant trying to re-adjust your eyes in the bright sunlight.
Probably around 1pm I reached Bern and my hotel, checked in and set off with flag to find the course.
For a little bit of background, Bern is the capital of Switzerland and is the fourth biggest city in the country. The German spelling is Bern but the French add an 'e'. The country is divided into cantons, of which by chance Bern is in (and the capit of) the canton of Bern! The very impressive historic old town in the heart of the city is a Unesco World Heritage site and quite frankly I can see, it is a large area of very wide, cobbled streets, with tall town houses on either side, culminating in a bridge going over the Rhone (yes it's back again). To be honest I wish I had the descriptive skills to do the city justice but I can see why it is in the top ten cities for quality of life in the World. I haven't even mentioned the view of the mountains in the distance.
Now the confusing bit of the city, the language. Officially the language of the city is a Swiss variant of German. However, the most popularly spoken language is an Alemmanic Swiss German called Bernese German. Glad that's clear. Luckily most seem to speak a sort of English and I know enough to say please and thank you (plus order a hot chocolate) in German but you're never quite sure as they seem to throw in Italian and French when it suits.
For the record, yes I saw Toblerone and Swiss Army knives for sale.
The hotel (National) is very nice, though the list of instructions did seem long. My room is on the fifth (top) floor and the lift stops at the fourth (though I use the stairs anyway). I do have my own bathroom but it is down the corridor but I am the only one with a key.
The part of the course that i was aiming for was a short sharp cobbled climb just before 2km to go. I found a great spot on the curb and started chatting to a kiwi couple who were living in London and seeing the Tour for the first time. They were very nice and made the afternoon move along. Gary and Jamie (new friends) arrived but decided to take up a spot slightly further up the climb. Just after another visit from the caravan, five Colombians decided to stand in front of us (us being me and the
kiwis). Now I think we can all agree that it is not on, to simply stand in front of people who have been waiting 3 hours (or tres horas). There was a lot of huffing and puffing from various people in the crowd but no one seemed like they were going to do anything about it....I think we all know where there is going so let's just say that my first attempt at saying tres horas over and over and waving my hands didn't work. Then the kiwi girl tried to ask them nicely but I got involved again when of them proposed that we could swap if we wanted and stand in the road rather the curb. I said something about not wanting a proposition I wanted them to move. To which one of the group turned to 'proposition proposer' and told her to ignore me....grrr, the result of all this was that after much glaring and finally comment from others around me they did eventually move but i don't think they ever thought they were in the wrong
Before the shenanigans kicked off, I did get remembered by the BBC reporter who is following the race, though he did ask me where I joined the race, when I said that he interviewed me on stage 2, the bloke who was with him described me as hardcore (I'll take that).
Anyway, the riders came through, making a short nasty climb look surprisingly easy and they were off to contest the sprint. There were a lot of riders that had either been dropped, burned out or had mechanicals and these came through a little while after. So we had a good few minutes from start to finish.
It had been a blisteringly hot day in Bern and after another long period in the sun, we stumbled into the first bar we found for a coke (beer for them). It was only after we had cooled off a bit and realised our surroundings that we realised that the Blue Cat bar was probably not a normal bar that we would have gone in, maybe later in the evening. However, it had cold drinks, air conditioning and the Tour on the TV so who cares.
Bern is a lovely place to hang out and has that street bar culture that Europe does so well. Even at 10pm it was very warm as I made my way back to the hotel. By the time we even thought about
dinner it was too late so we ended up in McDonalds where in Switzerland they do a veggie burger which really wasn't that bad.
So tomorrow is the second rest day before for the final big push and the point in the race where they will need to have a go if they want to beat Froome. For the fans it's a day to recharge the battery, not have to drive and spend a bit of time getting organised. I have a friend, Chris arriving tomorrow, so with new friends, Chris and another couple of guys I know from Bagshot who are up the road in Morzine (up the road as in when we are in our next hotel in the Alps) it's turning into quite the little group as we hit the Alps.
Stats
Miles driven - 2600 (yesterday's number was wrong again, sorry)
Countries visited - 4
Cheese of the day - none eaten all day
Best drink to quench a thirst after watching cycling - iced tea
Number of times I swore at the Colombians - None
Number of ticket machines, including car parks- 7 (sigh)
Cow bells purchased on trip - 2 (small)
The Rhone
Typical view of the architecture
And again
Again
The sun just dips away
Kittel drifts in after a late puncture
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