The French Connection! now with Alpe d'Huez pics and vid!

jonnyboy666

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summer holiday french mission! :D :cool: :mrgreen: :twisted: <- all these faces fit!!

anyway, the mission started on saturday night, the 11pm ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, coming from southampton this is defo the ferry to use as it cuts out a long drive to dover and it costs the same! ferry was nice and chilled, managed to get a couple of hours sleep then we docked in Dieppe at about 4am french time, as i felt ok i drove for a while, till about 8am then stopped for a kip, 3 hours flaked out in the back of the van, perfect! vans are great! :D then got my foot down and got to morzine at 5pm so for 550miles i'm quite happy with that!

at the chalet i was met by Carl and Sian who have been running chalets in Morzine for a long time as well as other places, this time as none of my usual riding buddies could come i have booked into a chalet filled with other people so i can ride on my own or with them.

here's some pics from the trip down, sunrise, dead flies and arrival :D
 

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Re: The French Connection!

first day riding after an awesome breakfast was up 'super morzine', a gondola lift followed by a chairlift to the top of the mountain, it was hellishly busy because the lift on the opposite side of the valley (le pleney) is closed meaning that most people are going the same direction as me. the first section is just referred to as the 'traverse' a mile or so of track to get you on route to the next lift if you're going to the swiss side of the resort, i think i was the only person not wearing a full face helmet and enough armour to go into battle in the 1600s! not that i'm down on armour but most of these guys are doing at best uk trail centre type riding, whereas i look a bit XC because i still run a triple chainset on the bike and i'm only wearing shinpads/gloves and helmet! so with that said i roll of the lift and proceed to overtake nearly all of them, why? because they are weighed down with excessive kit and are running single ring set ups with road cassettes on the back and even they have to pedal up every now and then! :facepalm:

so off i go down the first section, and let me say this now I AM NOT A GOOD DOWNHILLER! i can't jump very well and i'm not that quick on bermed switchbacks, overtook 2 downhillers, for me this -> :D for them this-> :facepalm:

frankly i have never seen so much hesitation and fear of commitment on a trail, frankly it's just not that hard out here, think coed y brenin but the downhills are longer and you won't be far off but some people out here (and i mean the tourists) are riding like arthritic pensioners!! although when you see someone good that's really cool as some people out here do make things look effortless.

on i go to the Mossette lift, this lift takes you to the highest point in the area, at the top, you look one way over france and the other way it's switzerland, i was heading to Morgins which is a fast tack peppered with rocks and plenty of corners and by this time i was out of sight of any other rider mainly because at the top of every lift there was so much faffing it was unbelievable! this section can easily find speeds of 30+ mph which is awesome off road :D when i got into Morgins i considered doing the downhill course but frankly i never liked it so i carried on up the lift and then dowhilled in to Champoussan (probably spelt wrong!) on to another lift which seems to take forever but throws you out on a great but of trail where you're riding on a cliff edge before descending into Croset via the 4 cross track they have which is fun. at this point i decided to do the Croset short course downhill, so on another chairlift and straight back down, lovely rooty steep downhill with just enough parts to make you worry about filling your undies with the brown stuff! after this i went back up to the Mossette from the Swiss side and proceeded to descend 'puncture alley', it didn't have me today! it's fast rough rocky fireroad with some good options for jumps in places although i have seen people really hurt themselves on this downhill because even though it isn't a specific course, in reality it's just a means to an end for getting around people let off the brakes and carry too much speed and lose control, collar bones, legs, i have seen both broken here. :shock:

after that i had felt some rain, i knew it was coming having seen the forecast so i decided to take the chairlift to the Chatel bike park for one downhill, again caught and passed 2 out 3 downhillers ;) it's a cool descent though, the trail is about 2 metres wide but rough and quite steep with loads of switchbacks. after that i headed back down to the bottom of puncture alley to pick up the Avoriaz express to descend 'gravelanche' as the rain had started, i chose this as the safest option for getting back to the chalet as the dust turns to clay very quickly here and the roads get very slippy.

As i got the chalet there was a huge crack of thunder followed by full on proper rain

perfect :D

here's a few pics
 

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Re: The French Connection!

looks nice, im sure I read somewhere that wd40 was good for the bugs
 
Re: The French Connection!

jonnyboy666":3thcrfhu said:
managed to get a couple of hours sleep then we docked in Dieppe at about 4am french time

:LOL: Sorry Jon couldn't resist !

Looks like you are having a great time and wish I could do something like this , maybe when my 2 boys grow up a bit more :cool:
 
Re: The French Connection!

I'm not jealous, no seriously, I'm not; well, maybe just a little bit... :mrgreen:

...and I've just come back from a long weekend in the Brecons too :facepalm:
 
Re: The French Connection!

Kinda reminds me of Lake Tahoe, where I am going in a few weeks. But-Real Men ride up the hill, too :) Seriously, though, looks like fun, more pics, please!
 
Re: The French Connection!

Gravy Monster":182sshkw said:
jonnyboy666":182sshkw said:
managed to get a couple of hours sleep then we docked in Dieppe at about 4am french time

:LOL: Sorry Jon couldn't resist !

Looks like you are having a great time and wish I could do something like this , maybe when my 2 boys grow up a bit more :cool:


oh god, faux pas or what! for the record, the boat docked, not me!! :LOL:
 
Re: The French Connection!

FairfaxPat":1gigye8l said:
Kinda reminds me of Lake Tahoe, where I am going in a few weeks. But-Real Men ride up the hill, too :) Seriously, though, looks like fun, more pics, please!


i'll do my fair share of climbing, Morzine is a downhill Mecca on this side of the pond and while i'm not a specific downhiller i do like it, over the next few days the road bike will also be coming out for the climbs, i intend to do atleast 2 big-ish road rides in preparation for going to Alpe d'Huez next week to watch the Tour, i'll be there for 5 days including the stage there and i intend to climb the mountain atleast once, i also might be meeting up with another sort of retro rider, kev duckworth who used to be on the forum alot is now more of an enduro rider and he's down there for the mega avalanche so we were hoping to get a ride in.

still want to hit fairfax though Pat, was hoping NAHBS would be on the west coast next year but it's in Charlotte NC so couldn't be further away! i'll get there though! :D
 
Re: The French Connection!

I'm seriously jealous of your trip to the Tour-take some pics there, too-please...
 
Re: The French Connection!

You havent lived until you have done some of the Julian Alps on a 12 spd Peugeot Tourer...
 
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