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.

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!

Passy Climb

Sunday saw the mass start race up the climb to Bay from Passy. Nearly 8km and 380M of climbing, summer has returned to Chamonix and its a hot morning. Different approach this week with over an hour on the bike before the race. It worked! People that beat me by 3 1/2Mins on the Colombiere last week only beat me by 30 seconds this week!

Thoughts now turn to the final race this year, our own local Houch'hard up the climb to Les Houches through Vaudagne on the 5th September. Also, getting some long miles in the legs for the upcoming trip to Mont Ventoux at the end of September helping to guide for Julie at Ridestrong Bike Tours.

This week in the Alps!

What's happened to Summer? We had snow above 2000M earlier in the week! Monday was a washout but Tuesday dodging the showers it was a blast from Servoz to Cluses and back, 64KM's in just over 2 hours! Wednesday we were concentrating our our new bike website for next year.

Thursday and its much warmer - decided to leave the van down in Sallanches and headed over the Col des Arreches towards the ski resort of Flaine before turning left and onto the col de Chatillon and descending into the Samoens Valley. Opting for a flatish ride today and ignoring the signs for the Col de la joux Plane for once. This is a great ride for avoiding too much climbing and before long after a loop through the Samoens Valley we arrived back at Taninges and the back road up the Chattillon avoiding the traffic. One car and 5 cyclists later we're descending the fast road down into Cluses and then back along the Sallanches Valley for a 2hr 40m 73KM ride in much warmer weather.

Friday is here again and with Sunday's grimpe (climb) race upto Plateau d'assy so its just short of 50KM's to the Swiss border and back over the 1461M Col des Montets in around 1hr 50M.

Sunday's race is only 7.5km ascending 390M similar to the race up the Colombiere last week, but its a mass start, eyeballs out race to the summit with someone no doubt finishing in around 15 Mins. I'll be happy with anything under 22 mins! Watch this space!