The one you’ve all been waiting for. Maybe not but here it is anyway…
There’s no denying that cycling is probably the most efficient human-powered form of transportation (when the ground is plowed!). I’ve always been a big fan of riding a bike and one of my strongest childhood memories is of the first time I learned to ride without stabilizers. I used to ride my bike everywhere when I was a kid. I rode to school most days, sometimes taking local trails on the way home or even going over some of the local dirt jumps near my house. Since moving to Chamonix about 8 years ago I had sort of lost touch with cycling, mainly because I didn’t have the money available to maintain a bike, but this summer seemed to be the perfect time to reconnect. With no guide lessons to pay for, I had some money saved up to play.
In the spring I went with some friends (Luca, Filippo, Alice, Tiff and Irene) to Finale Ligure. We did a few days of climbing, but the highlight of the trip was a day of cycling around the famous NATO base. I rented a real bike for the day (Evil insurgent for you bike nerds) and had 8 hours of brain and forearm melting fun. We hiked some of the best world class trails that Finale Ligure has to offer and afterwards all I wanted to do was come back the next day and do it all again, but we also had to go back to Cham.
A few weeks later, I was exploring the possibilities of getting into mountain biking. I came across a ten year old Giant Reign X gathering dust in the back of Joel’s garage. With a little help from friends who gave me a few unwanted parts and a little love, I got it going and started exploring the trails around Le Tour and Les Houches with some local knowledge and advice from friends like Ross Hewitt and Graham Pinkerton (Chamonixbikeblog.com). I was shown some of the best trails Chamonix has to offer and realized we have a lot of really good mountain biking in this valley.
The downside of a bike that’s ten years old and worth less than $300 is that when something breaks, it’s hard to justify putting more money into it. During a long day wandering around St Gervais, my trusty farm began to show signs that clinging to life was becoming difficult. In fact, it looked like it ate itself. Upon closer inspection, it was pretty terminal… The main pivot point had basically exploded.
I was sad.
It didn’t take me long to justify buying another bike and after looking at a few options I finally settled on a used Liteville 601 MK3 from my buddy Dougal who gave me a great deal . I didn’t know much about these bikes but I can say that I am very happy with them. It seems to be the ideal tool for riding in Chamonix.
After becoming aware of cycling and having a few good days of lifting, I was more interested in having bigger adventures. I got lucky when my friend John Minogue invited me to ride the Col d’Invergneux in Cogne with him and Louise Paulin from JustRide Finale, also a totally bad ass rider. I didn’t know anything about cycling around Cogne but I went there and had an absolutely brilliant day. (Strava link here) This involves a two hour pedal uphill and 40 minute push/hike cycle to the pass. From there a huge descent leads up to Cogne with a short, easy climb halfway to get a better trail. Definitely one to put on your list if you live in these areas and haven’t.
On the way home from that ride, I told John about another potential bike mission I had an idea for. I had asked myself the question of riding from the summit of Mont Buet to Servoz. Turns out this has been done several times (as I suspected) and it involves a somewhat tedious 4 1/2 hour bike transport to the summit. John was keen to do it but our schedules didn’t quite match up, so the following Sunday I set off, with Irene, to climb and hopefully hike this beautiful 3,096m mountain. Irene was running and wanted to take some photos. The climb was indeed quite difficult and my back was quite sore from carrying the bike on my shoulders and on my backpack. I used a combination of riding, pushing and carrying on my shoulders and with the bike attached to my backpack to reach the summit. Once at the top, a very friendly Frenchman offered me a glass of red wine, which certainly gave me a little courage on the descent! Most of the hikers I saw were very friendly and joked a lot. I think if you’re nice to them and don’t pass them on the bike, they’re interested in what you’re doing and are usually okay with sharing the trails.
The descent was really good. The top section was a mix of fast and fun, and steep and technical gravel riding. In the Salenton pass, things were getting better and better. We go up towards the Refuge de Moëde Anterne and go around the western slope of the Pormenaz to the Chalets overlooking Servoz. From there, the path that goes down to Servoz is eternal. The one I will definitely return to. Having left Le Buet around 9:10am and arriving in Servoz at 6:00pm, it was a pretty busy day, but a brilliant adventure that I would recommend to anyone wanting a good day of cycling. Here is my Strava for the route. And a great mini montage of Irene from the top section.
For now, I really enjoy cycling and riding my bike for exercise after work and having fun exploring areas that I wouldn’t normally get to see running or climbing. Winter seems to be slowly approaching and as always I’m looking forward to doing some real freeriding when the first snow falls. See you soon !