"Let's face the music and..."

So the time has come. What I glibly proposed a few months ago has proved more complicated in practice. Plotting the route on a PC then downloading it to a Garmin Gps does not necessarily require a degree in computer science. The Garmin Edge likes tcx files, a format unique to Garmin. It will tolerate the more widely known gpx format. Memory Map produces mno files which can be converted to gpx but not tcx as far as I can see. Routes and waypoints use ten times as much memory as tracks and track points but then there are courses and course points, which contain more information than trackpoints but use less memory than waypoints, in tcx that is. You are starting to get the urge to self harm when slowly it falls into place. NatWest are now beta testing a new patience testing program at their Loughborough branch. I swear the woman was about to say “Computer says no”. when she caught the malevolent look and thought better of it. ShuttVR advertise cycling kit but don’t actually provide any. But everything is now more or less place, I think.

Three days before departure is not a good time for a radical rethink of the route but I have done it anyway. Switzerland and the GSB have been abolished. Instead of going east through Burgundy from Auxerre I will go south through Beaune and Chalons. The line of the terrain is better with less climbing and easier stopovers. There is a big up and over to Chambery. Then it is a long steady climb up the Maurienne valley and over the Col Cenis which is lower than the GSB but still tops 2000 metres. This brings you into Italy further south than Aosta and gets you involved with Turin before joining the original route at Pavia. The full itinery is now at the bottom of the route page for anyone who is interested.

The bike stands ready The kit is in the saddle bag. The time for talk is over. And so is the time for portentous cliché. This is a bike ride not a scene from Henry V. Tonight Quorn, tomorrow Goring-on Thames. Not really a slogan you can run with.