Spring in the Alps

Warmer weather returned to the Alps last week and with our Winter guests skiing in Verbier for the day I ceased the time to cycle the climb to the beautiful mountain village of Champex du Lac. This is an amazing road, super quiet at this time of year and 13km, 1000m of climbing you arrive in the village which is round 1500M in altitude. The lake was still frozen, however the temperature in the valley has been pushing 18 degrees! Even the descent was warm in the midday sun.

Yesterday we had guests skiing over in La Thuille Italy , half way up the Petit St Pass. With the top section closed I opted to drive down to Morgex via the San Marco Pass to take a look at this col before cycling it later in the year. Definitely a good decision as the San Marco is super steep in places and the 12kM 1000M descent left the van brakes overheating. However With a warm up ride from Pre St Didier and the cycling the San Marco and onto the top section of the Petit St Bernhard, this will make a great day out later in the year. For yesterday I took the easier(?) option of cycling down the Aosta valley to Introd and then taking the 25km climb up through the Grand Paradiso National Park climbing up to 1950M altitude, way above the snow line. After the first 10km the climb lessens and its fairly gentle albeit its strange cycling along with cross country skiers at the side of the road! Needless to say it was a chilly descent back, but a great day out with nearly 4 hours in the saddle, 80KM and 1500M of climbing.

4 weeks until our trip to Lanzarote and then its head down for the Marmotte and the Etape.

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.

The Etape entry is in!

Well its been a while since the last post.

What's been happening? Just back from Lanzarote and managed to get out on the bike every other day. Great bike friendly roads, but the wind is a constant challenge. Now back in Chamonix and set for the ski season.

Last wek saw the mad dash for the Etape entries on line and after 20 minutes of trying, the entry for the Modane - Alp D'Huez Etape is in. We've got around 8 of us from Chamonix with confirmed entries.

The challenge now is to keep motivated through the winter with regular turbo sessions and the weeks we don't have guests in the Chalet a group of us plan to head down the Valley from the snow and ice to get some miles in around Annecy lake etc.

Marmotte entries open sometime in December which will be the week before the Etape. So the plan is ow to ride both, the Etape looking much easier than the Marmotte.

So the schedule now looks like Time Megeve on June 12th. Next year the start is in Sallanches and takes a more challenging route over the Col de la Colombiere with the longer route then taking in the Croix Fry, Aravis and Saises before the finish in Megeve.

Following weekend is the Les Carroz, then Morzine, Grand Bornand then the Marmotte.

I think its 29 weeks to the Etape. Meantime Skiing beckons!

11 days in Provence and the slowest ascent of Mt Ventoux?

Just back from a fantastic 11 days based in the Mt Ventoux region with Ridestrong bike tours helping guide one of their bespoke groups. Fantastic area with quiet roads at this time of year. The Mistral was blowing through which made Ventoux challenging for the guests and ice had formed on the top masts. Definately intend a revisit early next Spring for some pre etape training!

Col de Joux Plane

Famous for Floyd Landis' superb enhanced performance in the Tour de France, well, it was the complete opposite for me yesterday! Bonking 3/4 of the way up it was not my best day on the bike this year - not quite sure what went wrong as I'd eaten but you live and learn! At least the views over to the Mont Blanc massif were as spectacular as ever!

Dropping down to Morzine which is already a ghost town compared to Chamonix. I think their Summer season must have ended at the start of September whilst in Chamonix town is still fairly busy with visitors.

Next week its off to Mont Ventoux region with Ridestrong Biketours for 10 days. Looking forward to getting onto Ventoux and hopefully the weather will be a bit warmer down there!

Podium!

Today was the Megeve hill climb of 400M over 7.8KM, the last in a series of 3 hill climbs in the region over the past few weeks. Amazingly by competing in all 3 I managed to come 3rd in my age group in the series competition! Happy with that!

Summer has returned this week with day time temperatures getting up to the mid 20's but its chilly in the mornings. This time next week its off to Mont Ventoux and the Avignon guiding for Ridestrong Bike Tours

We've got our last guests of Summer in at the moment - very special guests as its the marketing team from Berghaus who very kindly kit us out in outdoor gear. The good news is that they are looking to expand into cycling wet weather gear so watch this space.

The training schedule with cyclecoach.com is going well and this will take me up to the end of November which will include a couple of weeks in Lanzarote before we go into the super busy Winter season. Etape rumours are still looking at Modane to Alp D'Huez which takes in the Telegraph, Galibier, Lauteret and then Alpe D'Huez. We're hoping to check it out in a couple of weeks.

Meantime we're pushing on with the WInter marketing campaign with and looking how we are going to advertise for next Summer with our Bike tours. Never a dull moment!

September already .......

Yesterday was the annual Houch'Hard race here in Les Houches up the Vaudagne road - a 7km climb with a gain of around 300M. Disappointingly I was only 7 seconds quicker than last year coming in midfield with 19M 55 secs. Don't know what went wrong as I've gone up the climb in early 20Mins in training.

In the post race cool down we had some excitement with my mate John Kehoe locking up his back wheel into a hair pin and somersaulting into a ditch! Luckily no broken bones or bike.

Today I've started a 12 week training plan with cyclecoach.com . The plan was for 2 3/4 hours steady long ride but turned out longer than planned. I added on 30 mins to account for the downhills, however my estimate went wrong somewhere and after cycling to Samoens and back I ended up with 3 3/4 hours and over 100KM. Anyway - felt good after the race yesterday and with a horrendous forecast in Chamonix for tomorrow it was good to get some early September sun with the barometer pushing 24 - ideal for biking.

So the Tour rumours have started and looks like Alp D'Huez is on the cards with the Etape likely to be Modane to Alpe D'Huez. Hopeing to check out the route in around 3 or 4 weeks when hopefully we'll have a clearer idea. We're keeping at eye on Steephill and Paris.Thover for the latest rumours so we can ride the Etape route before the snow arrives.