Sunday, June 12
40km in 7 hrs/real MOUNTAIN biking
I rode past Eric's place, picked him up, and met up with Laurent and Philippe from Lyon. 9:45 on a beautiful warm, sunny day we started the slog up the road towards Ornon, then the 4WD track until we hit Basse Montagne ("low mountain"), 900m higher. we then had a real steep slog up a hiking track for 45 mins, with bikes on backs (and I see now that having a lighter bike would have been much less of a hassle!).
we got to the plateau and into the mist/wind and huddled up/in a mountain hut for a lunch break (and a hot cup of coffee, due to the gas stove that is left there for people to use).
after putting all our clothes on we got back on the bikes and rode through the thick fog (20m vis) on rocky, muddy single track until we reached the Lac Fourchu at 2066m. riding round the lake proved much easier in these conditions with Laurent's GPS (the lake is surrounded by marshlands, which are not conducive to biking!), as the track wasn't always well marked.
at the far edge of the lake, we were back on the well-marked track and had trouble wiping the huge grin off our faces (the rolling, undulating, fun, rocky, tricky, mainly downhill single track being the reason!), until Philippe got 2 flat tyres at 1 minute interval.
We hit the edge of the plateau (at about 2000m), and the edge of the mist, and started riding down the 1300 vertical meters we had left by more sweet single track through fields and into a chute of "S" bends that looked like they were made for bikers (smooth, wide, and for some, banked turns). The view on the surrounding mountains, small villages, valleys, glaciers and roads was breathtaking! we got to the village of Oulles where Laurent changed his brake pads, then hit the famous Malène descent in the forest. I actually surprised myself this time, riding a good 2/3rds of the steep, leef-covered hairpins (50, 60, 80???). from the bottom of that it was a full-pelt, 30km/h, 175 BPM, 5 minute ride back to the car via the "flat" forest track.
If you're in the area and like biking, it's definitely one to do. While the bike-carrying part was a bit of a hassle, once on the single track around the lake you can hardly even remember it. as for the 1300m single-track descent... 'nuff said!
I rode past Eric's place, picked him up, and met up with Laurent and Philippe from Lyon. 9:45 on a beautiful warm, sunny day we started the slog up the road towards Ornon, then the 4WD track until we hit Basse Montagne ("low mountain"), 900m higher. we then had a real steep slog up a hiking track for 45 mins, with bikes on backs (and I see now that having a lighter bike would have been much less of a hassle!).
we got to the plateau and into the mist/wind and huddled up/in a mountain hut for a lunch break (and a hot cup of coffee, due to the gas stove that is left there for people to use).
after putting all our clothes on we got back on the bikes and rode through the thick fog (20m vis) on rocky, muddy single track until we reached the Lac Fourchu at 2066m. riding round the lake proved much easier in these conditions with Laurent's GPS (the lake is surrounded by marshlands, which are not conducive to biking!), as the track wasn't always well marked.
at the far edge of the lake, we were back on the well-marked track and had trouble wiping the huge grin off our faces (the rolling, undulating, fun, rocky, tricky, mainly downhill single track being the reason!), until Philippe got 2 flat tyres at 1 minute interval.
We hit the edge of the plateau (at about 2000m), and the edge of the mist, and started riding down the 1300 vertical meters we had left by more sweet single track through fields and into a chute of "S" bends that looked like they were made for bikers (smooth, wide, and for some, banked turns). The view on the surrounding mountains, small villages, valleys, glaciers and roads was breathtaking! we got to the village of Oulles where Laurent changed his brake pads, then hit the famous Malène descent in the forest. I actually surprised myself this time, riding a good 2/3rds of the steep, leef-covered hairpins (50, 60, 80???). from the bottom of that it was a full-pelt, 30km/h, 175 BPM, 5 minute ride back to the car via the "flat" forest track.
If you're in the area and like biking, it's definitely one to do. While the bike-carrying part was a bit of a hassle, once on the single track around the lake you can hardly even remember it. as for the 1300m single-track descent... 'nuff said!
Labels: bike, epic, france, mountains
