Groundwork Athletics Inc.

I have uploaded a bunch of photos at the end of  the post.  So we started in Geneva yesterday and rode 121km (about 4.5 hous riding time) to Martigny, Switzerland.  Our group consists of: 2 doctors(three if you count our support driver), a lawyer, a dentist, a contractor and me.  Basically you can get in an accident, get your teeth and body fixed up and sue at the same time!!!  We were all fired up to leave, packed our support vehichle and sent him on his way and were going to ride 2 minutes down the road to take a group shot at the French border.  Six of us roll out and exactly 28.3 seconds into the ride one of the guys shreds a cable.  Haha.  What a start, luckily there was a bike store close by and we got it fixed.  We headed along Lake Geneva for about 70km of the day, taking some back roads as you cannot ride on the highway over here.  It was really cool having the lake on one side, corn fields on the other, mixed in rolling through some small Swiss towns.  We got rained on pretty hard for about the last 60km but it wasnt cold so it was all good.  The day was actually supposed to be only 110km but we through in a 5 km climb and descent–unintentional of course–poor map reading!!  It was a neat feeling as we rode into Martigny as the Tour de France riders had come on the exact same road earlier this year.  The Tour actually started a day out of Martigny.  We had a decent pasta dinner that I could barely keep my eyes open at as I am jetlagged still!  If you ever come to Martigny it is surrounded by mountains and apart from the road we came in on it seems to me the only way out is up.  That describes our planned ride today–90km into Aosta, Italy with two big climbs 18km and 25km.  The weather this morning is much nicer than yesterday-clear blue skies.  I must say this is a beautiful place…

Tour starting line in Martigny.  We are starting there today.

Tour de France sign in Martigny

Start at the French border in Geneva.  After the mechanical!!

Hotel in Martigny after day 1