176km Tour de Lemand around the lake of Geneva, Swiss

Friday morning at 6am my wife an me was starting towards Swiss to the Tour de Lemand. The start was at Villeneuve, which is located close to Lusanne. We had about 600km to drive. Just before we reached the Swiss boarder we had a stop to get some lunch. After we continued and arrived at the gym at 3pm.

Jean-Luc, or shortly called Lulu, was already hardly working. I signed in and set up my sleeping area at the gym. Not many runners had arrived and there was plenty free space. Well, honestly space was not a problem anyway. Only 24 runners had signed in and the gym easily could provide place for 10 times more people. At 5pm, just before the dinner, we had the first briefing. Lulu introduced all runners briefly. Besides “solo”-runners there where teams of two. One of them takes the bike, while the other one runs. Also a constellation – one biking the entire course and the other one runs is possible. After he explained some details regarding the marking and the rules. This was mainly in French language, since only two solo-runners where not from Swiss or France. The most important information where told also in English, just for us. After the dinner was served as buffet. It had noodles, salad and fruits. Exactly at 9pm the light of the gym was turned off. Some still were sitting in the front room and talked, but most of us slept early, since the breakfast was already at 5am.

Even the briefing in the morning was only at 6:30am and the start at 7am, most of the runners waked up at 5am. The last preparations were done, we had breakfast and waited for the start. Lulu already broadcast that it will have 28°C during the day and only 12°C at night. That meant that we should have something long at the evening. Therefore, it was possible to give up some drop bags. They could be put into some bag till the start. Unfortunately, the aid stations are 20km apart from each other.

Just in time at 7am the race started. For the first seven kilometers we still had three bikers which accompanied us. Maybe Lulu was afraid that some of the runners made a wrong turn and continued at another race. This took also place today and some of the runners want to start there got big eyes when we passed. Maybe they where afraid that the missed their start time. Besides, this guided part was also to get used to the marking. It was similar to Trans Europe, Transe Gaule and other multi-day-races. Small red stickers with black arrows and in addition there are pink sprayed chalk arrows. During the night there are also reflecting arrows, so there are easy to see. But even without the the marking it was an easy course. The lake was always on the right side. In addition there was also a roadbook and the course available as an GP-File to download it on the watch or mobile. The course took us through small villages, besides the lake front, on biking tracks next to the road, and on small roads. The lake front in Genf was specially nice. There we also can see the Mont Blanc. In summary the course was very diversified. With about 1000m altitudes on 175km it was also quiet flat, at least for Swiss. If a aid station was reached there was a huge variety on snacks and drinks. Never mind if sweet or salty there was something to find. To drink there was Coke, water, water with juice, tee and coffee. Some aid stations also offered noodles and soup. For supporters there was not much to do without “waiting”. Since there are only a few runners the field spread fast and the distance between the runners where huge. I had a good run. I started slowly and moved on well. After kilometer 65 I suddenly had some problems and my stomach troubled me as often before. I tried to figure out what I can eat and drink and slowed down a bit. Interestingly eating was not a huge problem but the drinking. After 100km I could not drink anything anymore. I kept trying till I passed kilometer 130, but it did not work. Actually it was the other way around, more and more coming out. I recognized that I was quiet dehydrated, so I decided to stop at VP6. There were 45 kilometer to go. Under normal conditions that would not be any problem at all. But not with these problems!

I had to wait only a few minutes till one of the supporter took be back. It was 3am, when I arrived at the finish area. I had first a shower and then went to bed. When I got up at 7am in the morning, only one runner had arrived. We waited for the rest of the runners before the award ceremony started. It was planed to be at lunch time, but got delayed. After my wife and I drove immediately back, since we had a long way to drive.