http://www.endoftheride.com

It seems more relevant!

The new bikes have arrived! They look unbelievably “bling”. I have been lucky enough to have this day in May for 8 years now. It’s one of the best bits of the job. This year we have a 16″ and an 18″ Orange Alpine 160.

I thought I’d pull the “prototype to this bike out of the garage and make some compare and contrast notes. Apart from the component differences there are a number of obvious frame differences.

1. The rear swing-arm is bigger and beefier (it looks stiffer) with more mud clearance than the old one.
2. The headangle is .75 degrees steeper than the old (it is 66.4 degrees according to my iphone)
3. The bottom bracket is 1.5cm higher
4. It has a maxle rear axle, should be stiffer.
5. Sexy new hydroformed? tubes and a frontend that is 1 or 2cm higher than the old bike.
6. It has more travel, they say 160 mm compared to 130 mm but who knows?

Thankfully the weather was good so I was able to abandon the family on a couple of the days and go for a ride with all of them. Carl was guiding and this is what he showed us.

Roman Bridges (Ponti Romani), 27km, 40/60 singletrack/otherstuff

This was super convenient as it virtually left from the campsite, it involved a complete mix of the riding and terrain found in the area and included a singletrack perched above the sea and sandy beaches. This is fairly close to riding heaven for me.

Guy’s GPS log of the circuit is here

Caprazoppa, 8km, 70/30

This starts off with a hot grunt out of town to the hilltop west of Finale, here there is a church and a café (if it’s open), we managed to upset the café owner, when we arrived at 1220 the café was closed, we decided to make use of the tables and chairs to stuff down a couple of Mule Bars and take in the scenery, the owner then turned up and let us know that he wasn’t too impressed. A shame as we had wanted to give him some of our cash!

From there it is pretty much 100% singletrack back down to the valley bottom, some of this was just a little hairy for this early in the season!

La Briga, 6km, 50/50

After pizza’s and salad in town we road climbed up to Manie, we caught up with a couple of Americans on hire bikes out for a gentle ride, I only saw the back side of a silver haired guy riding in flipflops, a dropped back and rode with his wife which I could just about manage, considering that her son is Geoff Banks this means she is pretty much old enough to be my Mum, ouch. Anyway, the descent was pretty much all smooth singletrack followed by a few hundred metres of cobbled path to finish in the town. Brilliant.

So all in all a brilliant few days, makes me think about endlessride doing some mtb trips down there after the Morzine mountain bike season is over. It’ll have to be in late September or October and will obviously involve a hotel and some local guides, though it looks like the hunting season would impact on this.

The GPX file for the second day

More pictures here.

You can buy the Blu Bike guide from the local shops and the local 1:25,000 map  “Alp cartoguide 2″.

The results were:

Francesca and Gareth 2hrs 7min (last year 2hrs 18min).

Lee and Sian 2hrs 3min (last year 2 hrs 11min), they’d have been 5minutes quicker if they had actually made it to the start line on time!

Full results can be found on the CAF Morzine website.

Goodness knows how, there is more than a normal amount of snow about at the moment!

Looks like the “main” lifts will be open June 26th until the August 30th. This came from the Chatel webpage.

Endlessride still has room at the in too.

The map with the route marked on can be seen here.

There are loads of ski resources for the area here.

Hospice du Grand Saint Bernard from Gareth Jefferies on Vimeo

It is the easiest way across this bit of the Alps, there is evidence the pass has been in use since the Bronze Age. The first hostel (hospice, I don’t think it is a Monastery, that’s down the valley) was set up by Bernard of Methon 1000 yrs ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Menthon

The hospice was only ever set up as a shelter and rescue post run by 4 monks. It’s a very inhospitable spot but as the only crossing point it was used even in the depths of winter. Apparently there was quite a trade in guiding services, not only is the path threatened by avalanches but in those days bandits too. The Hospice provided guiding for free and mountain rescue when required, also free lodging and food. The tunnel was built in the late 50’s that bypassed it, this messed up the raison d’être for the Hospice so now it has turned itself into a commercial venture and “retreat” for religious teaching. It is still manned by mountaineers – that also wear habits and pray a lot. As it can cater for over 100 people there are other staff there too, though they are all into the outdoors. Their motto is something like “Welcome, safety, nourishment” and you still get free tea. They still don’t turn anyone away – I’m fairly sure that you can stay for free as well. It’s funny but although certain aspects of the hospice are thoroughly modern (there was a very professional audio visual presentation after dinner – where I gleaned these facts) they still will only let people stay who have arrived under their own steam. So no “tourists” can stay in the summer! Only people who have toiled over the mountains to reach them.

A really brilliant spot. Worth a few days stay – cheap too at 40 euros a night for a bedroom, dinner and breakfast.

You can book on +41 27 787 12 36, you will need to call between 1000-1130hrs and 1500-1730hrs.

Cyclosportives

Cluses- Agy, 31/5 click here for more information

Time Megeve – Mt Blanc 14/6 click here for more information

Morzine – Montriond 21/6 click here for more information

La Grand Bo 28/6 click here for more information

Critérium Dauphiné Libéré June 7 to 14, route to be annouced, more information?

Le Tour de France, 22 July, passing through Cluses more information

Le Tour de France, 23 July, Annecy individual time trail more information

Morzine – Avoriaz hillclimb. This is held twice a summer. July 14th and the second Sunday morning of August.

Mountain Bike Events

Passportes du Soleil 27/28 June click here for more information FULL but still places left via endlessride

(Not that near to Morzine) Mega Avalanche 12/7 click here for info