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Reflections of a Tour Leader (or New and Interesting Car Parks I Have Known)
By Paddy Before I went on the 2006 BAR Wing Ding I was aware that the usual tour leader and Swiss resident Jed (Jeremy) would not be available to lead us up and down the mountains due to work commitments. Not a real problem for me as this year Rose, Ray, Vicki and I had decided to do our own thing and simply use the Wing Ding site as a jumping off point for our own exploration of the Swiss countryside. That was until I got a phone call from Vic Little, who had previously volunteered to be the Tour Leader (TL), to explain that he was unable to take part this year due to the hospitalisation of his fiancée. I was asked if I would mind acting as TL this year. Hmmm…quite a daunting task, especially if you are as geographically challenged as I can be from time to time. Although I have been to the region about 10 times over the past 6 years, I hadn’t really paid any attention to where I was going, I had simply tucked in behind the other bikes and enjoyed the scenery as we swept along to goodness knows where. Ok, but with the latest super-fast recalculation capabilities of my new Garmin 2820 and the routes provided in Garmin-friendly format by Jed, what could go wrong? Also I happen to own a superb set of German-made Swiss Alps motorcycling maps, and I would have the opportunity to review things the night before to double check the route and make sure everything was tickety-boo.
However… I forgot the maps, thought I knew where I was going when clearly I did not. The Garmin was not the intuitive user friendly biker guide I thought it might be, but simply tuned into an infallible computer that took everything literally and didn’t understand what I wanted it to do - damn machines! So, what actually happened? Well, having all assembled at the site, I explained my misgivings to Jed. I wasn’t really happy being placed in the position as TL especially as we had planned to do our own thing this year. However, as I am the type of person who is willing to step up to the plate, I decided that I would do it for the greater good. I didn’t want people who had travelled a long way to take part in the Wing Ding being disappointed at the last minute by being left to their own devises every day. So the itinerary for Day 1 was decided upon, a trip over Pas de Morgins and into Thonon-Les-Bains for some shopping at the Cora supermarket in France, before retuning along the lakeside of lake Geneva
Initially all went well with a stop at Châtel to view the fountain in the lake and get a quick drink before arriving at the supermarket for shopping and lunch. Where it went wrong was leaving the supermarket where I managed to take a wrong turn from the roundabout, resulting in a detour through a hardware store car park. All because I was looking at the Garmin instead of paying attention to the road. I must admit this actually knocked my confidence a bit and by the time we stopped at Evian-Les-Bains only 10 minutes later, I was feeling kind of fed up and miserable. After all I was responsible for getting everyone from A to B and I got it wrong. Anyway, apart from the inevitable piss take that was bound to come in the bar that night, Day 1 was over.
Day 2 was going to be a trip to Gstaad, and this is where the trouble really started. The Garmin, as good as it is at getting you from A to B is not very good when you plot a circular route from A to B and back to A . It simply recalculates the route almost as soon as you set off and tries to get you back to A even though you have still got a long way to go to get to B. So as the Garmin went into electronic flip flops, telling me I was off route and trying to get me to do a u-turn, I was trying to remember just how we had got up to Col de la Croix and on to Gstaad previously. Inevitably this led to a couple of apologetic and confidence-eroding turn-a-rounds, the second of which involved trying to manoeuvre the half-tonne Wing with Vicki on the back in a slow u-turn whilst on a 20° incline and on a particularly steeply cambered road. And then it happened, a momentary loss of concentration and the bike just toppled sideways tipping me out of the seat and trapping Vicki’s left leg beneath the pannier/rear crash-bar. What a disaster. Fortunately Vicki was OK, bruised and sore, but OK. Once the bike was picked back up (thanks everyone) and we got on the right route, things went well for the rest of the trip except that the “military route”, a hoped-for part of our return leg, was closed and so we missed out on this spectacular detour.
By the end of Day 2 I felt really under pressure. I had had the ignominy of bikes through car parks, multiple u-turns, a dropped bike and an injured wife to endure and we weren’t even half-way through yet. Still, at least an easy day was planned for Day 3 with a short trip to the top of the Grand St Bernard (GSB) pass in the morning and a free afternoon. Day 3 dawned and at 10 am we set off. I have been to GSB on at least 10 or 12 occasions, it’s probably one of the few roads in Switzerland that I actually know and yet, due to the cock-ups of the past 2 days I wasn’t convinced I was going to get this one right either. Once we were out on the road and heading for the pass all I could think was that the turning for the pass was coming up soon and I best not miss it. All I could imagine was a packet of Wings missing the turn and heading inevitably towards the dreaded GSB tunnel with no prospect of a recovery until we hit Italy. However, The turn for the pass came into view, I indicated right and we all got off heading in the right direction. Hurrah! The trip back went well and actually a bit of my confidence was now restored. Day 4 and what a surprise, Jeremy had managed to get some time off work and had taken up post as TL for our trip to Zermatt. I simply slotted in at the back as tail man and off we went. It was great to relax at the back and just follow the crowd. At Zermatt we did the touristy thing on the cable car the whole way to the top of the glacier on the Kleiner Matterhorn. All this took quite some time and we missed the main pack’s departure for camp so we set of with me leading just a small group this time back to the site.
On Day 5 I took the lead to Lac d’Emoson and Jeremy got on the tail, and not a bad effort either, in fact he was so impressive he earned his first ever Wing Ding certificate…aww, bless. On the way to the barrage we were stopped by a friendly local cop who told us that the road was closing shortly as a cycle race was about to take in this particular stretch as part of their race shortly. So, we didn’t have time for much of a stop at the barrage, a quick coffee and we were away again this time with Jeremy in the lead and me bringing up the rear. Lunch in Champex and then a quick scoot over the go-kart track back to base. And here endith the 2006 Wing Ding OK, so what have I got out of this one: 1. There is no substitute for local knowledge. 2. The GPS is good but it’s no substitute for common sense. 3. If you want to follow a circular route on a Garmin GPS, turn off the auto calculation facility. 4. There is no substitute for local knowledge. And finally, would I do it again? Oh yes, definitely, but next time, I’ll bring the bloody maps.
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