A beautiful morning saw us leaving reluctantly our excellent hotel in Lausanne. And it turned out to be a much harder day than we expected. First, the climb out of Lausanne was extremely steep – even worse than the bank out of Besancon – with extended sections at about 15%. Still, we made it and found coffee and outsized Jammy Dodgers at a cafe at the top. The view back to the lake over 300 m below was superb.

Then the second section was less steep, but always uphill on small lanes and into a headwind blowing about 25 mph. So even when the road was flat, or slightly downhill, we still had to pedal as hard as a 3% uphill gradient. But the scenery was stunning – we kept having to pinch ourselves – cycling high in the Alps, with jagged peaks all around!

In mid afternoon we found small towns again and a welcome cafe stop, having run out of water. Then we began the last leg to the campsite near Gruyeres. 28 miles had taken nearly four hours of cycling. But then we had done 825 m of climbing into a headwind! Just the Jaunpass tomorrow!

Helen’s track of the day: Arcade Fire, Wake Up- a stirring anthem to keep my spirits up today.