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Re: The French Connection!
he is a very good rider .
he is a very good rider .
The French Connection! now with Alpe d'Huez pics and vid!
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Re: The French Connection!
day 4
got a call from Sheldon, some of you may know him from the Forest of Dean area, he's pretty handy on a bike to say the least and he's out here with his wife Mandy, i got the call to go riding with them, so i met them at 9.30am at the super morzine lift. the pain began, my legs felt a bit crap after the abuse of yesterday on the col de joux plane but i knew i'd be on for a decent ride as Sheldon knows the area better than i do.
we followed more of the Pass-portes du Soliel route than i have ever done before, morzine to les linderet to chatel to morgins to champoussan to croset to les linderet to montriond then back to morzine.
epic 65km ride, no specific downhill courses just really cool bits of mostly singletrack to link up the towns, 1st mechanical of the ride was when Sheldon got a puncture on "puncture alley" as we came in to linderet towards the end of the ride so we took the opportunity to have a drink!
i only have a couple of pics, as i was busy riding! so i'll add them in a mo, the first is a panoramic of morgins, the second is sheldon after a jump (i miss timed the pic!) and the third is a reminder that i should put on suncream!! :facepalm:
day 4
got a call from Sheldon, some of you may know him from the Forest of Dean area, he's pretty handy on a bike to say the least and he's out here with his wife Mandy, i got the call to go riding with them, so i met them at 9.30am at the super morzine lift. the pain began, my legs felt a bit crap after the abuse of yesterday on the col de joux plane but i knew i'd be on for a decent ride as Sheldon knows the area better than i do.
we followed more of the Pass-portes du Soliel route than i have ever done before, morzine to les linderet to chatel to morgins to champoussan to croset to les linderet to montriond then back to morzine.
epic 65km ride, no specific downhill courses just really cool bits of mostly singletrack to link up the towns, 1st mechanical of the ride was when Sheldon got a puncture on "puncture alley" as we came in to linderet towards the end of the ride so we took the opportunity to have a drink!
i only have a couple of pics, as i was busy riding! so i'll add them in a mo, the first is a panoramic of morgins, the second is sheldon after a jump (i miss timed the pic!) and the third is a reminder that i should put on suncream!! :facepalm:
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Re: The French Connection!
day 5
after the last few days i felt like i have beasted myself abit so i thought i'd take it easy, but that never really happens does it. the day started with me converting the Patriot back to its normal set up of single crown fork and air shock, the reason for this is i have used the ST4 for 2 days and the patriot for 1 day, and morzine kills bikes! and as i have been doing more pedally riding the ST4 was getting used so this rebuild means the patriot can get used more. once this was done i had lunch at the local burger bar and then met up with Carl and Sian, they said they had a good route to show me.
the pain begins, as the lift on the Le Pleney is out of service we rode UPHILL to Les Gets, yes you read that right, UPHILL to Les Gets, off road, steep gravelly climbs that in places both Carl and Sian rode away from me like it was nothing. it reminded me of day 2 when i said on a climb with them, i am quite surprised at my climbing i seem to be doing ok, little did i now at the time they were taking it easy! today was a wake up call.
once in Les Gets we took the lift up the Chavannes side of the valley and initially we dropped down the start of the downhill course but then veered off up a gravel track and continued to climb for about 2 km, then things started looking familiar, we were on the Col de Joux Plane, pain, loads of pain! we continued to climb until eventually we hit one of the most amazing steep technical rocky dangerous bits of mountainous singletrack i have ever done! it was awesome! i have no pics as i spent most of the time hanging on for grim death! :shock:
then we had some gravel track fast descending followed by a steep drop in to a gully run, rocks, roots, off camber, technical, only one dab so i was quite happy with that followed by a fast descent back into Morzine where we hit Bar Robinson for a Mutzig
Also there is a Harley Davidson event on in the town, apparently there are about 5,000 bikers here, not to mention stalls, rock concert etc, it's pretty busy! it's 11.20 here at the mo and i can still here the live music and i'm 1/2 a mile from it! the main event tonight was a guy called johnny galagher
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIESqcZ2Nws
he was really good
anyway, here's some random Harley pics from the day, oh and yes, the "boss hoss" bikes have V8 engines in them!! :shock:
day 5
after the last few days i felt like i have beasted myself abit so i thought i'd take it easy, but that never really happens does it. the day started with me converting the Patriot back to its normal set up of single crown fork and air shock, the reason for this is i have used the ST4 for 2 days and the patriot for 1 day, and morzine kills bikes! and as i have been doing more pedally riding the ST4 was getting used so this rebuild means the patriot can get used more. once this was done i had lunch at the local burger bar and then met up with Carl and Sian, they said they had a good route to show me.
the pain begins, as the lift on the Le Pleney is out of service we rode UPHILL to Les Gets, yes you read that right, UPHILL to Les Gets, off road, steep gravelly climbs that in places both Carl and Sian rode away from me like it was nothing. it reminded me of day 2 when i said on a climb with them, i am quite surprised at my climbing i seem to be doing ok, little did i now at the time they were taking it easy! today was a wake up call.
once in Les Gets we took the lift up the Chavannes side of the valley and initially we dropped down the start of the downhill course but then veered off up a gravel track and continued to climb for about 2 km, then things started looking familiar, we were on the Col de Joux Plane, pain, loads of pain! we continued to climb until eventually we hit one of the most amazing steep technical rocky dangerous bits of mountainous singletrack i have ever done! it was awesome! i have no pics as i spent most of the time hanging on for grim death! :shock:
then we had some gravel track fast descending followed by a steep drop in to a gully run, rocks, roots, off camber, technical, only one dab so i was quite happy with that followed by a fast descent back into Morzine where we hit Bar Robinson for a Mutzig
Also there is a Harley Davidson event on in the town, apparently there are about 5,000 bikers here, not to mention stalls, rock concert etc, it's pretty busy! it's 11.20 here at the mo and i can still here the live music and i'm 1/2 a mile from it!
the main event tonight was a guy called johnny galagherhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIESqcZ2Nws
he was really good
anyway, here's some random Harley pics from the day, oh and yes, the "boss hoss" bikes have V8 engines in them!! :shock:
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Re: The French Connection!
day 6
it started a bit dodgy! i got the Patriot out and headed for the lift, got to the top and the forks felt funny, bugger, blown the dampening cartridge :x went up the second lift anyway so i could hit the road descent back into Morzine from Avoriaz, i know, mtb on a road downhill but it was the quickest way back down to get the ST4! thank god for taking a spare bike!
so headed for the lift again, the lift attendant looked at me funny, i said "Le Velo est mort, cette velo ok" it's probably the worst french he's ever heard but he understood!
so off i go again, heading for the mossette lift then onto Morgins, then a climb out of Morgins to Chatel, where i had dinner by the lake followed by a lift out of Chatel and then continued climbing until i was high enough to descend back into Morgins. then the usual route back via Champoussan to Crosets via the downhill course, up to the Mossette and down puncture alley (where i did puncture!) then up to the Chatel bike park to get a downhill run in, back up to the top and down to Les Linderet, picked up the Avoriaz express lift to check out the massive harley sculptures i had heard about then nailed it back down the road to Morzine and overtaking 2 cars aswel hairpins, love them!!
after this the evening was spent fitting some new (to me) forks to the patriot that a friend of Carl and Sian had for sale, these forks will save me killing the ST4 on this type of really rough terrain, after all it is an XC bike! although it has been awesome this last week
anyway here's some pics of a wooden harley, a straw harley, me on the St4 on puncture alley and a panoramic going up to the mossette from the swiss side, also if you look closely at the pic of morzine from the lift, my van is dead centre in the pic
day 6
it started a bit dodgy! i got the Patriot out and headed for the lift, got to the top and the forks felt funny, bugger, blown the dampening cartridge :x went up the second lift anyway so i could hit the road descent back into Morzine from Avoriaz, i know, mtb on a road downhill but it was the quickest way back down to get the ST4! thank god for taking a spare bike!
so headed for the lift again, the lift attendant looked at me funny, i said "Le Velo est mort, cette velo ok" it's probably the worst french he's ever heard but he understood!
so off i go again, heading for the mossette lift then onto Morgins, then a climb out of Morgins to Chatel, where i had dinner by the lake followed by a lift out of Chatel and then continued climbing until i was high enough to descend back into Morgins. then the usual route back via Champoussan to Crosets via the downhill course, up to the Mossette and down puncture alley (where i did puncture!) then up to the Chatel bike park to get a downhill run in, back up to the top and down to Les Linderet, picked up the Avoriaz express lift to check out the massive harley sculptures i had heard about then nailed it back down the road to Morzine and overtaking 2 cars aswel
hairpins, love them!! after this the evening was spent fitting some new (to me) forks to the patriot that a friend of Carl and Sian had for sale, these forks will save me killing the ST4 on this type of really rough terrain, after all it is an XC bike! although it has been awesome this last week
anyway here's some pics of a wooden harley, a straw harley, me on the St4 on puncture alley and a panoramic going up to the mossette from the swiss side, also if you look closely at the pic of morzine from the lift, my van is dead centre in the pic
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Re: The French Connection!
day 7
a rest day?
today was about leaving Morzine, and i'd just like to say at this point that Carl and Sian at Ride Morzine have been brilliant, i'd thoroughly recommend them, the chalet and the whole set up.
i headed out of Morzine in the direction of Alpe d'huez although i discovered a slight issue once i got to my destination hotel, i thought i had booked a hotel about 5 miles from Alpe d'Huez, more like 10miles and right at the top of Les Deux Alpes, i haven't quite sussed out what i need to do to watch the tour on thursday, i may have to drive then ride, watch then ride back to the van. there is NO CHANCE of getting on the mountain with the van, if i ride the whole way there early in the morning and climb Alpe d'Huez then ride back and climb Les Deux Alpe i'll physically die! :shock: i have a little booklet i have been given so hopefully i can work something out, apparently there is a way of descending to Bourg d'Osians (the foot of Alpe d'Huez) from there then climbing the mountain, then descending it to Venosc where i can get a telecabine most of the way back up to Les Deux Alpe where i am staying, either way it will be a long hard day in the sun.
there are cyclists everywhere, roadies galore as you'd expect! not to mention the Crankworx races and the Mega-Avalanche have just finished. i took a quick blast on the Demon to have a look around, Hope/Mavic/Fox/Giant etc, they are all here
here's a couple of pics from the drive up, as usual my satnav took me the most direct route (can't seem to change that) but this time it took over a high mountain pass rather than the main road but it turned out to be well worth it
day 7
a rest day?
today was about leaving Morzine, and i'd just like to say at this point that Carl and Sian at Ride Morzine have been brilliant, i'd thoroughly recommend them, the chalet and the whole set up.
i headed out of Morzine in the direction of Alpe d'huez although i discovered a slight issue once i got to my destination hotel, i thought i had booked a hotel about 5 miles from Alpe d'Huez, more like 10miles and right at the top of Les Deux Alpes, i haven't quite sussed out what i need to do to watch the tour on thursday, i may have to drive then ride, watch then ride back to the van. there is NO CHANCE of getting on the mountain with the van, if i ride the whole way there early in the morning and climb Alpe d'Huez then ride back and climb Les Deux Alpe i'll physically die! :shock: i have a little booklet i have been given so hopefully i can work something out, apparently there is a way of descending to Bourg d'Osians (the foot of Alpe d'Huez) from there then climbing the mountain, then descending it to Venosc where i can get a telecabine most of the way back up to Les Deux Alpe where i am staying, either way it will be a long hard day in the sun.
there are cyclists everywhere, roadies galore as you'd expect! not to mention the Crankworx races and the Mega-Avalanche have just finished. i took a quick blast on the Demon to have a look around, Hope/Mavic/Fox/Giant etc, they are all here
here's a couple of pics from the drive up, as usual my satnav took me the most direct route (can't seem to change that) but this time it took over a high mountain pass rather than the main road but it turned out to be well worth it
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Re: The French Connection!
day 8
today was all about a recce for the Tour on thursday
i got the Demon out and took my bigger camelback as i was expecting rain in the afternoon, it never came which made the bag unnecessary which was then really frustrating lugging it about! i headed out of Les Deux Alpes down a great descent, the rode i had climbed in the van to get here, sort of scary in places as i was so high up with only a 2 foot wall to stop me going over the cliff edge. it's about 14km to Bourg d'Osains which is at the base of the climb to d'Huez, it was really quick and loads of fun and i decided to stop for a Latte in the town centre and got chatting to a couple about the tour
then came the climb, initially i was only gonna climb some of Alpe but i got into it as there were loads of riders on the mountain and it's like mountain mayhem when you all share the same pain, the atmosphere was great, loads of campers already on the mountain and encouraging the riders, i was going ok, nicely spinning up the mountain on the inside ring (31T as it's a duo) in 1st/2nd/3rd this kept pace with the majority of the roadies around me which i think wound up a few of them
i stopped several times to catch my breath and also to get photos as i wanted to blast the descent in one hit.my target was to ride atleast 2 hairpins each time otherwise you'll be stopping too much, this gave me a sensible target to aim for and if i was going ok i'd do an extra one.
about half way up i stopped to get some water from a drinking tap, another chap stopped, he was covered in blood, he'd crashed going down into the back of a car, teeth, nose, chin :shock: but he had to ride back to the top as that was where he was staying, brave guy.
i carried on after chatting with him, he seemed ok, as usual with us cyclists he was more concerned with his bike.
as i got nearer the top the crowds got deeper as did the amount of riders. i rolled into the main village where i was happy to see food, drinks at which point i stuffed my face with everything i could see and buy!
then it was time for the descent, i put on my gilet to help with the wind against my chest aswel as my Go Pro to film to descent, in all honesty i took way too many risks, especially bearing in mind the guy i had chatted to previously but i wanted to get a really good blast in. the video is uploading so hopefully i can link it here later.
one of the best rides i have done . . . ever
anyway here are some pics from the day
day 8
today was all about a recce for the Tour on thursday
i got the Demon out and took my bigger camelback as i was expecting rain in the afternoon, it never came which made the bag unnecessary which was then really frustrating lugging it about! i headed out of Les Deux Alpes down a great descent, the rode i had climbed in the van to get here, sort of scary in places as i was so high up with only a 2 foot wall to stop me going over the cliff edge. it's about 14km to Bourg d'Osains which is at the base of the climb to d'Huez, it was really quick and loads of fun and i decided to stop for a Latte in the town centre and got chatting to a couple about the tour
then came the climb, initially i was only gonna climb some of Alpe but i got into it as there were loads of riders on the mountain and it's like mountain mayhem when you all share the same pain, the atmosphere was great, loads of campers already on the mountain and encouraging the riders, i was going ok, nicely spinning up the mountain on the inside ring (31T as it's a duo) in 1st/2nd/3rd this kept pace with the majority of the roadies around me which i think wound up a few of them
i stopped several times to catch my breath and also to get photos as i wanted to blast the descent in one hit.my target was to ride atleast 2 hairpins each time otherwise you'll be stopping too much, this gave me a sensible target to aim for and if i was going ok i'd do an extra one.
about half way up i stopped to get some water from a drinking tap, another chap stopped, he was covered in blood, he'd crashed going down into the back of a car, teeth, nose, chin :shock: but he had to ride back to the top as that was where he was staying, brave guy.
i carried on after chatting with him, he seemed ok, as usual with us cyclists he was more concerned with his bike.
as i got nearer the top the crowds got deeper as did the amount of riders. i rolled into the main village where i was happy to see food, drinks at which point i stuffed my face with everything i could see and buy!
then it was time for the descent, i put on my gilet to help with the wind against my chest aswel as my Go Pro to film to descent, in all honesty i took way too many risks, especially bearing in mind the guy i had chatted to previously but i wanted to get a really good blast in. the video is uploading so hopefully i can link it here later.
one of the best rides i have done . . . ever
anyway here are some pics from the day
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Re: The French Connection!
some people have parked their vehicles about 2 weeks in advance, gone else where ready to come back the day or so before, one couple i spoke to had been there 3 days already, he rode his bike down in Bourg d'Osians each day to get food etc. but then they were on the first hairpin so only about 2 miles and a short but steep climb.
the atmosphere was great and there was already some music blasting from speakers, mainly from the Dutch, those guys look well up for it!
some people have parked their vehicles about 2 weeks in advance, gone else where ready to come back the day or so before, one couple i spoke to had been there 3 days already, he rode his bike down in Bourg d'Osians each day to get food etc. but then they were on the first hairpin so only about 2 miles and a short but steep climb.
the atmosphere was great and there was already some music blasting from speakers, mainly from the Dutch, those guys look well up for it!
Re: The French Connection!
I'll get there one day, though I have been promising myself that for years.
jonnyboy666":1e65x2fp said:some people have parked their vehicles about 2 weeks in advance, gone else where ready to come back the day or so before, one couple i spoke to had been there 3 days already, he rode his bike down in Bourg d'Osians each day to get food etc. but then they were on the first hairpin so only about 2 miles and a short but steep climb.
the atmosphere was great and there was already some music blasting from speakers, mainly from the Dutch, those guys look well up for it!
I'll get there one day, though I have been promising myself that for years.
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