Great Rides: Tour Mount Blanc
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D E T A I L S WHERE: Mont Blanc massif START/FINISH: Chamonix DISTANCE: 120 miles over fi ve days PICTURES: Jo Gibson THE ALPS | GREAT RIDES Great rides Ready to set off TOUR DU for Chamonix MONT BLANC Last summer, Jo Gibson and three companions circumnavigated the Mont Blanc massif by mountain bike. There were ups and downs… e’re riding the Tour du Mont companies who have tweaked the route to give Do it yourself Blanc,’ I told the table of customers more downhill bang for their buck. W mountain bikers over lunch We based our route on internet research, ALPINE ‘ with our skills instructor. ‘It’s a 120-mile Strava heatmaps, and the availability of BIKING loop around the Mont Blanc massif, mainly refuge accommodation. Chopped into five From May to September, the used by walkers, covering three countries daily stages of at most 32 miles, it seemed accommodation in the area is and ascending over 30,000ft. And it’ll be we would be done by lunchtime. Yet with up to plentiful but it’s best to book unsupported.’ 7,000ft of climbing each day, we had no idea ahead. The nearest airport is The response wasn’t the kudos I had how long we’d be riding. Geneva. Car or train are also hoped for. The instructor asked: ’What options. The biking routes are waymarked and the maps emergency precautions have you got in place?’ SMOKING DISC ROTORS are adequate, but plotting Two months later, cloud cloaked the peaks We set off, climbing into the mist that the route on a GPS device above Chamonix, leaving all but the dirty shrouded the Col du Balme. Walkers were is sensible. A good level of tongue of the Glacier des Bossons to our ghostly figures in the gloom below. I was stamina is required for long days, and a reasonable level imaginations. Dave, Richard, Darryl and I were grateful for the two ski lifts we used, which of technical ability to enjoy the ready to start our journey. Our packs were cut 2,000ft from what would have been an descents. Riders get by on any heavy, loaded with a library of maps, a battery 8,000ft day. Shivering at the top, we followed bike, but a trail bike with a pack, a well-stocked first aid kit, emergency the track that would take us across the col, dropper seatpost would be my bivvy bags and storm shelters, plus the in search of the descent into Switzerland. recommendation. Be prepared for mountain weather. essentials for five days of riding in the Alps. Rocky switchbacks straightened into a strip The suspension sank as I sat on my bike. of singletrack. We avoided rocks and hikers, I could feel the weight of the journey ahead. while flexing fingers chilled by the damp The Tour Du Mont Blanc (TMB) is one of mountain air. Then we entered a swathe of the most popular long-distance walks in trees, negotiating steep zigzags into the Vallée Europe. It can be traced back to the 1700s, du Trient. Our cold fingers were forgotten. It when the fascination with all things Alpine was was technical, natural riding that went on and just beginning. Now around 10,000 people on. Every so often we paused, smiling, at the walk the valleys and cols each summer. side of the trail, waiting for disc rotors and Mountain bikers tackle it too, some following thighs to cool. This was what we were here for. the route faithfully, others doing it with tour But what goes down has to go up. On the OUR PACKS WERE HEAVY, LOADED WITH MAPS AND EMERGENCY KIT. AS I SAT ON MY BIKE, THE SUSPENSION SANK CYCLINGUK.ORG CYCLE 45 THE ALPS | GREAT RIDES YODELLING INTO THE GLOOM, WE SET OFF The Mont de la Saxe was covered with hikers and tourists when we arrived, many DOWN MILES OF SWISS MOUNTAIN PATH stretched out on the grass beneath the blazing sun. We snapped photos of Courmayeur below, then began our descent. It was a Alp Bovine (2,091m), Darryl was soon fed up. Swiss couple at the next table, and the sketchy toboggan run of sharp rock, loose ‘I’m braking uphill. Uphill, I tell you!’ Braced scent of the dapper old man’s cigar. gravel, and steep switchbacks booby-trapped against the bike, using it like a Zimmer frame An hour later, we were slogging across a with a slate drainage barrier on each apex. to aid his ascent, he was climbing inch by moonscape mountain side towards the summit It was exhilarating. inch. We were all struggling. The Korean of the Grand Col Ferret (2,537m). Below us, Down in Courmayeur, at the Piazza Abbé walking party we encountered were fascinated. on the balcony of the Alpage de la Peule, a Henry, where the tourists tilt their cameras They took photos. ‘How old are you?’ one man rainbow of t-shirts fluttered above the Swiss at the white-washed church, we scanned the asked Darryl, staring into his flushed face. Val Ferret. Walkers scurried on the flagstones, skyline. Nothing moved save the odd cloud The climb drove home the ups and downs tending their belongings and settling in for chugging through the valley. There would be of the Alps. For every thrilling descent, there the evening. I longed to do the same, only our no help up the mountain; the ski lifts were still. would be a corresponding, tortuous ascent. beds were in the next valley, over the Swiss/ Our hearts sank. It was already past midday. Was it ridiculous dragging a bike up such Italian border. We kept pushing. ‘We could take the road round,’ Dave steep terrain? The pitying looks of the walkers offered, as we forked up olives, walnuts and suggested it was. ‘Not long to go,’ they said. 7,000FT OF CLIMBING tomatoes at a bar. There was that silence I carried on with small deliberate steps, bike ‘We can go down this road all the way to again. The guidebook suggested the 5,000ft balanced on my shoulders. Courmayeur,’ Dave said over breakfast, tracing ascent would take five hours. It was already We reached the foggy summit along with the the day’s route on the map. ‘It cuts out all of 2pm. This would be tight. Korean party. No way were we getting tangled the climbing this morning, then we just have with them on the way down! Without drawing the afternoon.’ FOOTSORE AND TIRED breath, we scrambled onto the bikes and, Silence. While we had over 7,000ft We halted, panting beneath a rare stretch of yodelling into the gloom, disappeared down of climbing ahead, we were all mountain shade on the steep dirt track. Darryl examined the miles of Swiss mountain path below. bikers and were uncomfortable taking the the sole of one of his clipless shoes. ‘Heel’s road option. gone,’ he muttered. I said a prayer to the ALPINE AMBIENCE ‘What about taking a ski lift at Courmayeur, manufacturer of my rubber-soled flat shoes. On day two, in the sleepy hamlet of Champex then?’ Dave asked. It was a good compromise. d’en Haut, the sun rose with us. It turned the We agreed to attempt the morning’s climb. lake to polished glass and lit up the velvet It was steep singletrack. Greenery, heavy green mountain sides of Val Ferret. From the with dew, brushed our legs as we hugged the valley floor, we began an upwards meander sides of the trail to let sympathetic walkers through a pastoral Switzerland. We passed pass. Then we reached a long traverse across wooden houses and hay barns, tracing the Alpine meadows and the tables turned. The banks of the Prayon and stopping to gawp walkers stepped politely aside as the trail at the great glacial amphitheatre at La Fouly. swept us along, letting us pump the hard Over lunch in the Hotel du Col de Fenêtre undulations for speed. Under a blue sky, with garden, a gentle breeze carried the ding of views of the Grandes Jorasses range across cow bells, a murmur of conversation from the the valley, this was Alpine riding at its finest. CYCLINGUK.ORG CYCLE 47 GREAT RIDES | THE ALPS Fact file Left: Be sure to wear shoes TOUR DU MONT you can walk in BLANC Above: Alpine descents – still DISTANCE: 125 miles. Chamonix- fun on a cross- Champex, 25.5; Champex-Arnouva, 22; country hardtail Arnouva-Lex Blanche, 23; Lex Blanche- Les Contamines Montjoie, 32; Les Contamines Montjoie-Chamonix, 23. It was a hard slog in the hot sun. We walked before, I could see Dave in the distance, huge ROUTE: We rode in the clockwise through two ski lift stations, passed three red backpack bouncing as he gave chase. I direction favoured by bikers. refuges – grabbing ice cream and Coca-Cola shook my head, muttering ‘What’s the point?’ CONDITIONS: Fog followed by four as we went – and continued up above the tree An hour later, we were seated beneath days of bright sunshine. The route is a mixture of singletrack, double-track line. My head was down when I heard Richard sun shades on the edge of the lake (Lac de and quiet road. Many of the climbs announce ‘That’s it, I’m sure it is – Roselend), listening to cow bells, the heavy require you to push or carry the bike. the mountain, Mont Blanc!’ thrum of motorbike exhausts, and chatter. ACCOMMODATION: Chamonix Lodge I looked across the valley to what Richard All about us were groups of roadies and (chamonixlodge.com), Gîte Bon was capturing on his mobile phone.