Friday 16 Sept: Day 8 Briancon to Barcelonnette via Col d'Izoard and Col de Vars.

Friday 16 Sept: Day 8

Briancon to Barcelonnette via Col d'Izoard and Col de Vars.

This morning we said goodbye to our hosts Jacques and his lovely family who took excellent care of us for three nights and dropped down from their home that is in a valley up behind Briancon and started our journey towards Barcelonnette.

It had rained overnight and the prognosis was for a wet and cold day on the bike. As we started up the climb out of Briancon towards the Col d'Izoard light rain began to fall and as we made our way up the climb it became steadier. Having started out at 7 degrees it got progressively colder as we made our way up the mountain.  Chris & Brandi went on ahead while Geoff stayed with me through the length of the climb which was close to 20km with 1150 meters of climbing.

1 km from the top there is a refuge (hotel/restaurant) which is where Geoff and I found Chris, Brandi, and Agnes our driver sheltering from the cold and wet.  By now the temperature had dropped to just 2 degrees and hot drinks and food were well received.  Once everyone had changed some gear and put on extra layers it was back outside for the final km to the top and then the descent.

Geoff & Brandi took off down the mountain while Chris and I stopped to take in the view, albeit hampered somewhat by the low cloud and rain.  The view down the mountain is spectacular and in some ways it was enhanced by the wet and low light level. I checked the Garmin (my best friend) and the temp had dropped to 0.2 degrees.

It was a cautious descent as we were wary of how steep it was a
nd how wet the road was. 5 or so km's down it got easier and Chris and I were able to enjoy the ride and let the bike run a bit more.  All in all its a 30 km descent and as we hit the bottom the weather started to clear. We enjoyed the ride along the river gorge through tunnels and small towns to Guillestrie where we stopped to have lunch and warm up in the early afternoon sun.

After a lunch of pizza we were back on the bikes and straight on to the start of the Col de Vars. This is another 20 km ascent with 1100m of climbing.  Geoff and Brandi went ahead at their own pace while Chris rode with me to keep me company from the bottom to the top. The ride passes through a number of small towns and some serious ski resorts.  Once at the top we regrouped for the descent which was a joy to ride with the dry road and lovely open country. 

When we hit the valley floor we had a fast team time trial down the valley to our destination of Barcelonnette, a quaint small town with narrow streets and a lot of character.


As is custom, dinner included a review of the day and the chance to nominate who should ride with Mon Amie Le Marmot on their bike the next day. The worthy recipient was Brandi who is actively hunting the KOM jersey on this trip. Her dedication to eating beetroot at every opportunity has us all believing this is the superfood of champions.

Another great day on the bike with just over 112 km's covered and 2400m of climbing. According to friend Garmin I burned 2700 calories for the day and my heart rate spent the day in Zone 3, nudging into zone 4 for just 3% of the time. While always last up the hill each day seems easier and everyday is enjoyable. 


John Green

Day 5 Lanslebourg Val Cenis -> Briancon

Sept 13th  Day 5   

Lanslebourg Val Cenis -> Briancon (Val des Pres)    138.8km
Time: 7:08:22     2,836m

Leaving Lanslebourg the road descends constantly for 40kms as we drop to the bottom of the Telegraph - thats right 40kms descending at up to 60kms hr. Although most of the descending was more like 3okms hr with some peddling - but the kms fall quickly away.

A local rider catch us near Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and we hook up with big smiles. Suddenly we are there - the bottom of the ascent of the Telegraph. A stop at the bottom to remove clothing and stuff them in the back pocket which is now bulging.

The Col du Telegraph is really part of the complete climb of the Galbier. It’s more than 7% for most of the 12kms, and there is no real respite until you get close to the top. Brandi, Chris and myself climb together.  At times Chris is ahead but a couple of slingshots brings Brandi back up and then it is her that is setting the pace and finally takes the col to raise her hand in triumph.

I pop back down a couple clicks to give John some company for the last part of the climb. It’s actually quite busy with a large group of Dutch riders and a 4 rather overweight South African’s (turns out they have won a all expenses paid trip to ride on the tour de france cols by competing in a draw during the tour de france. Air France has paid for 4 of them to come over and ride. Guess they might go home a few pound slighter but maybe not as they begin the carbo loading immediately and a couple beers slip down while we exchange All Black and Springbok banter in the cafe)

The high wild country of the Col du Galibier beckons and after our apple tart and short black we decend through Valloire and begin the mythical passage of the Tour of France. At 2645m the pass is the passage between the northern and southern alps. (the TDF has used it 53 times and many reputations have been won and lost)

Leaving Valloire the road immediately climbs into double figures accentuated by a block head wind. I stay with John to provide some cover but this skinny little white boy can provide not much wind shelter - only more encouragement.  It’s long steady climb climb with gradients around 7-8% of most. The head wind doesn’t help. At the right hand zag at Plan Lachat I leave John as he takes a break to refresh from our trusty support vehicle (Agnes at the wheel) and head out in search of the other two. It is a hard 7kms chase through the upper valleys passing again the dutch riders who escaped john and myself after Valloire.

Finally in the distance one of our tribe appears but it is not until 1km from the top that I can pull up alongside. You all good i’m asked ?  - but it is another couple hundred meters before there is any spare breath to answer with any words. Of course the last km is one of the hardest and when I pick up John for company again we are entertained by an English women who is stopping every km for a short rest before going the top

The col is cold but everyone takes their turn to snap a pic with the sign and Kiwi riders mix with English and Dutch and moto riders from countries unknown, before we drop down to the resturant a km below the summit on the Briancon side for coffee and tart.

The other three have scoffed omelets and coffee before John and I arrive.

Clothes on for the descent to Col du Lautaret. I’m riding with Brandi - giving riding speed for the corners when whoosh, whoosh, whoosh  - three English riders whizz past. The invitation is too great and without a word I go into full attack mode.  Can’t let them english folks away with that.  Its a hard chase down bumpy steeply descending Galbier - but one of the riders is quite close and its up accelerating hard out of each corner - braking late and hard accelerating again - up off the seat pounding hard downhill - the speeds  - I’m not sure its too bumpy and to much happening to look but picking between corners we are up over 6okms hr.

The last hairpin I accelerate out of on the wrong side and pull alongside and glance over.  A huge smile breaks over his face and i beam back. A half km later we break and burble to each other over ho much fun we just had.

The other soon join us on the col and we are off towards Briancon. John and Chris rip say down the wide open roads while Brandi and I descend a little more slowly. A shivering attack slows her for minute but the temp is increasing rapidly and the warmer air sees us stripping clothing. Its 41kms from the col to Briancon and 1348m of decending

In total we have had 80km and 1978m of descending during the day. A small  matter of the Galbier (34kms of ascending in between)

We arrive at the Mountain Cycle shop of Jacques (well known in Queenstown - he works at Outside Sports during hs winter) and the bike are serviced by Jacque personally before we climb out of town into the Val de Pres and our sray for the night with our hosts. Lauren and Jacque with daughters Chloe and Salamie in their house (built before NZ was discovered)


Riders for those who don’t know are John Green (Inv) Chris Yeats (West Coast) and Brandi Beauvais (ex Steamboat Colorado)

PS All photos so far are on flickr

Day 6 and 7 Val de Pres

Day 6 and 7
Val de Pres

Rest days.  On the first day - based out of the ‘house of Jacques’ john rides 40kms just to keep the legs fresh, Brandi does 20km of that and Chris makes use of the local swimming pool to pound out 52laps.

I take the George Bennet approach and do 7/8ths of sweet f all and snooze my way through the afternoon.

Dinner in the old town complements the day.

Day 7  Val de Pres - Col de Granon
The plan is to drive for a hour or two and ride the Alp de’Heuz but Jacque has a plan.
Lets go and ride my favorite climb - the hardest local hill. It should be more famous.

So we modify the plan and head out to climb the Col de Granon. 11kms from the bottom to the top at 2415m with average gradient 10% i.e. that makes honest climbing but now everyone has legs and none of us find it hard. Sorry Jacques.

It’s a fantastic climb with great views out over the French Alps (although a little chilly on top)

Chris is making his way slowly through a herd of sheep on the road - not realizing that one of the sheep is a patou  -  a sheep guarding Pyrenean mountain dog who takes umbridge with this rider passing through his flock and bites Chris hard on his buttock (well more upper thigh than buttock) But it is a good bite and one tooth left a sizeable hole.  Brandi does some running repairs at the mtn top from her homeopathic supplies in her pack.

We rug up from the car and descend once again into the heat of the valley floor.

A quick stop at  coffee shop on the way home and we lay a smorgsboard of fruit, bread , avocado  and juice sitting in the sun outside the house

Perfect French based riding, but it changes tomorrow as we head south again over the Col d’Izord.

Photos can be found on  flickr

Day 4: Bourg St Maurice -> Lanslebourg

Day 4: Bourg St Maurice- Tignes- Val d'Isere- Col d'Iseran-Bonneval sur Arc - Lanslebourg
86km- 2200m climbing- 5:20 riding time.

Starting from Bourg St Maurice around 8.30am after competing for breakfast with a large number of German motorcyclists, we rode gently down the road to the foot of "the wall" as Geoff described it and started the day's climbing. The road was comfortably wide with a steady gentle gradient and it felt easy compared to yesterday's suffering on the Col du Pre. We stopped a couple of times for re-grouping and eventually arrived at a lovely bronze statue, the Iron Lady  at Lake Tignes. Two British motorcyclists also stopped, showing off their TV dinners and coffee and tea flasks they were carrying and kept us entertained with a bit of cheek and banter and promised to give us a flick if they saw us further up the road.

We carried on through a few more tunnels for an early lunch stop at Val d'Isere, which is a ski resort set in a beautiful location. Geoff guided us to a small cafe where we all wanted to eat everything we saw, but most had a ham sandwich and John also ordered a lemon tart, which he ended up giving mostly away. I had a pastie-style thing with ham, tomato, cheese. Delicious. A compulsory stop occurred after lunch at a large beautifully-built wooden motorbike- see photo.

The weather by now was pleasantly cool and so began the 20-odd km climb to the summit of Col d'Iseran. The landscape was spectacular as we ground our way up the switchbacks. Each corner produced another awesome vista and took our minds off the effort (almost). A young Spanish guy came past me and I made the fundamental error of trying to stay with him. He gradually pulled away and as the altitude increased, so my motivation decreased. We re-grouped at the top (2770m), and ran into a nice guy called Gerry from New Mexico who was riding the same route as us to Nice but he was on a titanium mountain bike (with fat tires) carrying all his gear including tent. The bike must have weighed  well over 20kg. He must be developing legs of steel.

Also at the top we saw the "flying hairdo", a French-looking mature guy who rode without a helmet (lest it affected his hair we surmised) and who we had passed numerous times during the day after our various stops. It started to feel bad passing him all day but he seemed pleased when we saw him at the summit.

We stuffed in a bit of food and drink, wrapped up and shot down the hill to get warm. A hot chocolate at Bonneval went down well after a lovely but cold ride down. More than one of us felt that their bike had developed problems but it was just a rough road.

A team time trial took us down the valley with Brandi almost blowing us all into the weeds without even realizing it- the boys were panting heavily on one small climb- and we arrived for the night at Lanslebourg. Agnes as always was perfectly positioned all day in the support car to offer anything we wanted and do the shopping for everyone.
A great day.

Day 3 Saint Gervais -> Bourg Saint Maurice

Sept 11th  Day 3
Saint Gervais -> Bourg Saint Maurice  115km


nous avons commencer notre jour a Saint Gervais après rester chez Agnes la nuit avant.  Elle a preparer un très bon repas avez une plat régionaux, une grande salade vert et un desert formidable.


We had a short cycle thru Megève on our way to the first col of the day  -  col de Saisies.
Before reaching the bottom of the climb we had wee ride thru a Sunday french market full of treasures.

Our trusted guide geoff hunt lost his way and took as through a closed road where we proceeded to carry our bikes over a barricade onto a freshly poured concrete bridge (not so fresh as to leave footprints pas de problem - onward. )

We had a nature break at the bottom of  the col de Saisies where I found  nice sport behind a wooden building. There was a beautiful view which diverted my attention to the stinging nettle which was about to touch my bottom (ouch) - luckily to as just a touch and go.
I surely thought i would be out of the running for the marmot now. (the award for the clumsy or exciting or silly act of the day)

The col de Saisies was a really good warm up for the day [1600m] 15km average 6-8 percent gradient  our decent was quite nice, photo op at mont blanc. Before the town of Hautlauce John found himself going too hot into a very sharp left hand turn and was off his bike by the time I rolled through unable to stop. Luckily Chris was there to assist. 

When they showed up where Geoff and I were stopped we sat a little blood on his forearm and then he opened his jersey showing a red line where he did a little dance with the guard rail and and was lucky not to loose his right nipple.  John is a real trooper.  Smelling of lavender which I poured on his wounds he continued.

Rolling along through Hautlauce then Beaufort then lunch destination above La Lac Roseland via col de Pre.  Funny thing out this col, Geoff never seemed to mention much about it. We found it pretty relentless.

A series of switchbacks of 7 to 10 gradient. Chris ahead, geoff riding with me and John next.  I was about 1/2 km from summit [thank the stars above] headed for the lunch spot and Geoff rode back down to accompany John on the rest of his climb.  What an amazing feat as just riding it once was enough at a time and Geoff rode it double.

I’m at the resturant greeted by Agnes and Chris with a beautiful table that Agnes managed to commandeer for us on a busy Sunday afternoon.  Chris had already had a pastry and fresh water at the table.
Thank you very much!  60 some odd km before lunch - not bad.  And the lunch was the best ever
Geoff and John arrive and we proceed to order desert first because after all life is short - eat desert first N’est Pas?  Best fresh blueberries tarts, chocolate chaud and expresso with jambon and saucisson sandwiches   yum yum

And we are off to a beautiful decent of which I even did ok,  then over the barrage Roseland then again a climb of Cornet de Roseland  which Geoff and Chris tempo rode.

 I again found my self in the middle between them and John.  The descent into Borg Saint Maurice starts wind and open with flowing corners but then drops into a series tight dropping hairpins  - fantastic before rolling out of th vally direct into one of the largest towns in the Haue Savoie Another great day riding

To cap of the day - I was awarded the Marmot award for the stinging nettle attack
By Brandi

Day 2: Samoens to Saint Gervais

Day 2: Samoens to Saint Gervais via Cluses - Le Col de Colombiere - La Clusaz - Col des Aravais - Flumet - Megeve - Sallanches - St Gervais

After a fun night in Samoens where we had nice meal out it had been an early night in anticipation of a big day to tackle the famous Col de la Colombiere. There was a mix of apprehension and excitement at breakfast for those of us doing this ride for the first time. After what had been my biggest day on a bike the day before I was particularly wary of what lay ahead.

As we prepared to leave the hotel at 8:30 I had the dubious task of attaching our new found friend - Mon Amie the Marmot to my stem so he could accompany me for the day. I was able to situate him just nicely so that he could watch my speed and the gradient on the Garmin for the duration of the day. His presence must have helped as I'm pleased to say that I managed to complete the various descents of the day with out over cooking any corners or taking any undue risks.

We hit the road at 8:30 and travelled through the valley before descending into Cluses where the climbing began. From here we worked our way up the Col de la Colombiere climb - 19.5 km of climbing with a vertical gain of 1120 m. The roadside markers countdown the climb - telling you how far to go to the top, the gradient for the next km, and the elevation. These are great motivation to keep going and keep you focused. The individual sections varied from average gradients of 6% to 10% but at times the gradient exceeded 12% but fortunately not for too long.

We stopped at the top for coffee and a small snack. It was busy up there as not only were their a lot of other cyclists, motorcyclists, and tourists, but the route was part of a Ironman race that had started at Lac Montriond early that morning and involved the competitors doing a cycle leg that include the Joux Plane, the Col de la Colombiere, Col des Aravais, and Les Hauches to Chamonix. They were to follow that up with a marathon run through the mountains that included 2000 m of climbing.

After coffee and the photo of proof we took off down the descent to wind our way down to La Clusaz for lunch. After that it was straight on to the Col des Aravais which was a lesser climb of just 10 km in length and 570m of climbing.

From there we descended down to Flumet and then along the valley to Megeve and along to Sallanches so we could make it to the bike shop before they closed. A quick top up of protein bars and protein powder and we were back on the bike to St Gervais where we are spending the night as guests of the wonderful Agnes who is our fabulous driver for this trip.

Unfortunately we caught a passing shower for the last 20 mins of our ride but after a long hot day that wasn't all bad.

We had a wonderful home cooked meal and a chance to reflect on the day. My companion for the day - Mon Amie the Marmot - was ceremoniously passed on to Chris for his efforts at lunch time where his eyes were bigger than his stomach.

All in all, another great day where we completed 112 km of riding with 2450 m of climbing. It's an early night as tomorrow's we have a number of good climbs including the Cornet de Roseland.

John

Day 1 Thonon to Samoens Day 1 2016

Thonon-Les Bains D902 -> Bioge -> Gorges and the Pont du
Diable -> Montriond -> Morizne > Samoens 84kms  Elevation gain 2209m

The Ride today
After the standard departure picture we left Thonon-les-Bains on the journey south
Destination Nice some  - 700kms away and many thousand of meters of climbing.

A easy spin up the valley of the Dranske River in the Gorge Diablo. Its uphill climbing - but it is only a 3 % grade. We sit comfortably on 22km/hr with only a altitude gain of 100meters or so in the first hour. But the next couple hours are somewhat different.

Before Morzine we turn left towards the lac Montriond and beginning climbing seriously at the lake edge.  On the horizon above I show John and Brandi the destination - those grassy paddocks way up there.  See that chairlift  - we go the top of that.

The road zig and zagged its way up - never below 9% and more often 10 and 11 and 12%. Chris is long gone and we don’t see him until goat town (Les Lindarets)
This town is full of goats that stink and the shit runs in the streets with the water. Lovely!

A further 4kms up through mossy forest with Brandi John and Geoff cresting the main drag to Avoriaz together.  A further 2kms brings us the to 1966 built wooden ski station of Avoriaz.

A quick chat to some ‘old french folks visiting the ski station for the first time in 30yrs’ and the 13.4km descent to lunch in Morzine beckons. Smooth flowing roads  - although a little rough in places. The first descent in the Alps so everyone is beaming. We stop a couple times to let Brandi catch up and cool her brakes off and then its free falling again into town.

Salad Ceasar seems to be the choice of the day for lunch in one of the few restaurants open.

Soon its time to head out again to climb the col de Joux Plane (this was used this year in the Tour de France as the final descent into Morzine (won by Ion Izagirre from Movistar)

The Col de Joux Plane ascent is a deceptively tough climb as it starts with a real kick from Morzine town centre. i.e. from 0% directly to 10%.There are a couple of easier sections that give the legs a quick break and the main climb ends at the top of the Ranfolly chair-lift before a flat last 2km to the lake. Lovely scenery  - riding up through a skiing area - chairlifts disappearing in all directions - the skiing looks awesome.
From the top great views of the Mont Blanc Massif - although a little hidden by clouds

Col de Joux Plane is 10.9km Average Grad 6.5% Vertical climb of 711m

John wins the award of the day - a small soft toy marmot that he is expected to display proudly all day tomorrow attached to his bike.  (He had a moment with a truck as he approached Samoens - both him and the driver got a fright but both survived to tell the tale.)

Another perfect day of riding in the Alps with temp ranging from a cool 15 degrees in the gorge earlier to 30 degrees on top of the Joux Plane.