French Alps 2026 – Day 0

French Alps 2026 Day 0: Packing Up and Heading Out

We’re doing it again! This time I’m meeting Harald in Geneva; he arrived in Germany this morning while I’m starting my own journey, which lands me in Geneva on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday, assuming we’ve both done our time zone math correctly, we’ll meet up at Geneva Cornavin station and start eight days of riding through the French Alps. The route is not set in stone, but preliminary planning that Harald spearheaded has us on the Col de la Madeleine, Col du Glandon, Col de la Colombière, and Col des Aravis (and many others). These are some of the most famous mountain climbs in all of cycling!

For this one I’m bringing a modified version of the Chumba Terlingua that went to Norway this summer and Colorado last year. Gone are the panniers, the camping gear and the knobby tires. Instead it’s set up in “hotel touring mode”: lighter, a bit more aerodynamic, and rolling on fast, comfortable smooth tread tires. The overall layout is a lot like our 2024 trip through the Swiss and Italian Alps, except we’re both on different bikes.

Harald has a mountain bike stashed at his parents’ house in Welzheim, and he’ll be adapting that for the trip. I’m not sure he’s ever done a trip this long on it, but he’s done some serious climbing with it. Last year in Switzerland he rode a bunch of the territory we had originally planned for 2024 and skipped because my knees were acting up. So the bike has seen legitimate action!

Yesterday afternoon I finally broke down and packed the bike into the EVOC bag. That took an hour or so. I threw a bunch of other stuff in there too (tools, bags, whatever fit) hoping it would all come in under the 50lb limit. It weighed in at 52lbs. Some of that had to come back out and go in my carry on duffle, which now contains a wild assortment of bike parts, tools and clothing.

Good neighbor AJ let us borrow his car and Liz drove me to the airport Monday (Labor Day) afternoon. We tried to top up the tank at a Kwik Trip, but lines were long and many pumps were out of service. Sort of an ominous start to be honest!

It was hard to say goodbye to Liz and the dogs and two days of travel and prep feel a little daunting right now. I could be having afternoon coffee on the deck and making dinner with Liz instead. But it’ll be worth it. Overall it’s a short trip, and once we get rolling things ramp up fast and time will fly!

Now it’s Minneapolis, Amsterdam and finally Geneva. 50lbs on the dot!