Day 1

Our Mill guys arrived in Geneva and were treated to hearty first night feast (carb fest) with the entire Fireflies team.

The following morning with the sun shining (rain had been forecast) and after the trials and tribulations of deciding what to wear, rain gear, leg warmers, ear warmers (they did say ear warmers!) They left the beautiful shores of Lake Geneva and entered the Alps.

Adam, Chris and Neil faced their first ride - a 143km ride from Evian les Bains through to the beautiful lake Annecy and the small village of Talloires.

Their first mountain - the Col de Joux Plane is a 1st category climb; with Adam and Neil going great guns, Chris was struggling and worried he hadn’t put in enough training hours but took the climb too fast! Adam joined former Mill colourist Paul Harrison on his ride up the mountain!

When our intrepid trio finally reached the top it was incredibly cold, cloudy, in fact you couldn’t see anything of the mountain – so they wrapped up before the descent. Once they got under cloud level they blasted their way down and at quite a speed! The path was covered in loose gravel, which made it very tricky and dangerous at times but everyone made it down safely.

They went on to stop for lunch with Chris ordering and I quote a “jambon/fromage baguette”, Adam with a ham and cheese and Neil managed to confuse the waitress but did get a salad Nicoise – apparently he was very hungry!

A little stiff and achy for sitting down they embarked on the next leg of their journey, heading on to the second mountain of the day and riding in peloton format so moving along with some ease compared to earlier. Their next mountain – also a category 1 - the Col de la Colombiere – incidentally both mountains have featured in the Tour de France – was ‘a daddy’ of a mountain the first AIP of the ride and Chris especially was not looking forward to it.

He did the sensible thing and took this one slower, 17 kilometers long uphill and 15 ft 20 m high!

This time our Mill boys packed together, and it was now really cold, really damp and a hard ride so by the time they hit top they were all hot and sweating, so naturally when they stopped they were freezing. With a change of warm clothes and some hot pasta inside them, they started to descend, well Chris and Neil did, and as unbeknown to them they left Adam on the mountain…

Finally and happily, reunited at the bottom they made their long and last ride of the day to the hotel.

Naturally they all ate like horses and crashed out, all in all a really good day (apart from Chris and Neil abandoning Adam!).

Stats from the guys:
Top speed: 45 km
Climbed: 9,300 ft
Distance: 100 Miles