Day 5: On the Edge of the Alps - Avoriaz 1,800m
Yesterday we drove to Morillon where we were to stay for two nights.
Spectacular scenery as we got closer to the high Alps, with lots of snow still on the tops (and some of the middles) BLIMEY, they’re big. Met the rest of the group we intended to cycle with. All of them were much too young, much too fit, much too eager and they couldn't imagine what a couple of pensioners were doing on a bike, ’cause even their parents who are obviously much too sensible for such things aren’t anywhere near collecting their pensions yet. This was meant to be easing us into the Alps with a climb to Avoriaz via Morzine. Avoriaz is a ski station that has been used at various times in the past as a TdF mountain stage finish. 1,800m high and featuring quite a lot of 8% climbing. We set off as early as we could and paused on the climb when we got the opportunity of a bit of shade because it was ridiculously hot again reaching 38 degrees in the valley. We climbed for 2 hours 14 minutes excluding roadside breather stops. Like some other French climbs there were marker posts every km telling you how far to the top and the average gradient for the next km. We are not sure if they are all that encouraging because when you have passed one the next seems a long time and too many hairpin bends before it comes into view. At the top it was as desolate as ski stations always are in the summer, but the views were great and we could actually look down at some snow. We relaxed with drinks and snacks at the top and a picnic lunch back in Les Gets after a speedy downhill drop. The others said that when they looked down on us as we descended we appeared to be a 2-man (probably ought to be person) bobsleigh team, and we should take it up in the veterans category. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
Day 6: First Proper TdF Cat1 Alpine Col - Colombière 1,618m
The organised group ride for today was to “to give you the experience of a multi-cols day in a TdF mountain stage”, taking in Colombiere (Cat 1), Aravis (Cat 2) and Les Saisies (Cat 1). The last of these was optional, but even without it there was a fierce third climb to the hotel.
We did not even give this a brief consideration as a day out on the Greenspeed trike. Not only would we be physically done in we would be nowhere near the finish in daylight. the Col de la Colombière would be enough for us thank you very much. So we took the car to La Reposoir, climbed Colombière, then descended back again to collect the car and drive to Aravis to meet the others for lunch and then drive on to the hotel. We were really glad we had not done the third climb, it had a wickedly steep start (1st gear in the car) giving out to melted tar and loose gravel, then a section of “trous en formation” where the road was broken up and would be really bad to cycle over on the trike, and finally a stretch where the road had been totally ripped out prior to being relaid. Back to Colombière: We had been warned that the final 3km were 13%. No worse than the climb to Hardy’s monument on the Dorset Coastlet, but a heck of a lot longer. So we took it very steady with pauses and drinks climbing through trees until breaking out above the tree line into rocky terrain. We had also saved our ‘secret weapon’ hub gear as a final low gear, but were very pleasantly surprised to find in fact that the final 3km was at an average of 10% with some 13% sections, but not continuously 13%. Of course if we had not been expecting worse this would have seemed super tough in itself. But our final bottom gear had been saved for another day. As always, there was loads of sunshine and fantastic mountain scenery, including from Aravis a stunning view of the Mont Blanc massif including Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc summit itself coming in and out of cloud cover at its top. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
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