Monday 11th September
Oops. According to my ride planning I was meant to go over three cols today. Instead I discovered that Le-Grand-Bornand is simply a town you go through as you descent from the Col de la Colombiere. While the Tour has been through and indeed finished in the town it cannot be counted as a col or climb. Therefore, today's two col ride was plenty of fun. The first climb today up the Col de la Colombiere was a category one but offered plenty of steep sections particularly towards the top, and particularly with a dodgy back brake that dragged against the wheel (my laziness yesterday with not bothering to get it fixed was remediated this afternoon with a quick visit to the bike shop in Chamonix). The climb was very scenic and enjoyable with plenty of hills, forest and alpine meadows. The descent down the other side, through Le Grand-Bornand, was very pretty too with chalets dotting the landscape (there must be very strict building codes as there was not a single non-chalet style building anywhere). This made for very pleasant cycling. The climb up the Col des Aravis from the town of La Clusaz was also a lot of fun as it was a category two so I was not bothered by my dodgy brake. The summit was funny though. The views were not particularly special, however the summit was ridiculously busy and over-developed with a couple of restaurants and gift shops. The mystery was solved when I began my descent towards Flumet. This road was very beautiful with classic sets of hairpin bends with sweeping views down the valley, followed further down the valley by an attractive road high along the wall of the Gorge de l'Arondine. It was an excellent way to finish another perfect Alps ride.
The weather forecasts predict poor weather (one even advises snow) for Wednesday and Thursday so tomorrow I am up early and off to do the Col d'Iseran in the valley about 1.5 hours south from here. Should be good.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad