Training Begins!

Okay, its been a while! Ski guests wanted to visit Annecy this week so managed two laps of the lake (80kms) to kick start the training regime. Another 3 weeks of Winter guests in the Chalet and can then turn attentions to the Summer. Ebntry accepted for the Marmotte and the Etape, and first event likely to be the Time Megeve Cyclosportive - still space on our Time Megeve weekend! This Year the event starts in Sallanches rather than Megeve, taking in the Col de la Colombiere used in the Tour de France the last 2 years.

Lanzarote in 5 weeks for some cycling, sun and recovery from the manic Winter, and back here in Mid May when the mountain passes should start to open.

Aiming for some Marmotte/Etape reconnaissance before the Time Megeve.

Tour du Mont Blanc

Great weather returned this week and on Wednesday I finished my last section of the cyclists Tour du Mont Blanc to complete the circuit of Western Europe's highest peak. This involved a 90KM, 2200M of climbing. Down from Megeve through Flumet and then over the northern side of the Col de Saisies via Crest Voland. Once over the top I descended down the southern side of the climb to Villard sur Doron and then ascended again to the top of the Saisies on the main road and finally descending towards Flumet via Notra Dame de Bellecote. There are four routes over this climb and the ride covered all of them. Next time I'd climb back over on the Villard su Doron route and this road is much quieter and on a hot day is shaded most of the way up.

All eyes are now on the Houch'hard climb on the 5th September which is our local race. There's also the small matter of launching our new bike tours website!

3 Countries, 155km, 3200M of climbing and saddle sores!

Just after 8 am from Chalet Annabelle a bit later than planned but the sun is just trying to show itself over the Chamonix Aiguilles. Its a chilly start for this first half of the Cyclists Tour of Mont Blanc, and the steady ride up through the Chamonix Valley (1050M altitude) to Argentiere and by 9am I'm over the first climb of the day, the Col de Montets (1461M). Arm warmers and gilete for the descent and 10 minutes later I'm over the border and in my second country of the day, Switzerland.

It's a steady climb after the border over the Col de Forclaz (1530M) and then the 65KM an hour descent all the way down to 470M altitude to the town of Martigny and it's only 10am!

From here it's he true start of the Grand St Bernard pass. It's definitely not the steepest pass in the Alps by any means, but the length of it certainly takes it's toll which gives it a HC catergory status. It's over 40KM from Martigny to the Summit at over 2400M and gets really interesting when the Grand St Bernard Tunnel road cuts off and 6km from the summit the road turns to virtually single track for the final climb. You'd recognise this part of the climb from the original Italian job where the coach ends up hanging over the edge at the end of the film. Its also supposed to be where Hannibal took his elephants over the Alps.

Thankfully today the temperatures are only in the mid 20's and after a mammoth 3 hours from Martigny I'm finally over the summit. Definitely the longest 40Km of my life. I'm now in my third country of the day, Italy.

From here its a dizzy descent on smooth tarmac for around 10km's before joining the main road and descending another 30+KM into the Aosta valley. The final section for today is the 35KM ride up through the Aosta valley to the Spa town of Pre St Didier. This is rolling for the last hour or so and is a great way to end the day.

Pre ST D is the start of the Petit St Bernard pass - more on that one soon!

So back to Chalet Annabelle through the Mont Blanc tunnel with Jude taxi.

Reflecting on the day, its great to cycle through 3 countries, and with around 100 Miles in the bag its a great day out. This took me about 7 hours actual cycling.