Category Archives: Road trip

Saleve, because pedalling uphill is hard work.

Posted on 14th May 2014
You don't NEED a Dh rig for Saleve, but it is a lot of fun

Earning your turns, pedalling up the hill, is great for achieving a smug feeling of self-righteousness and superiority, but it’s way easier to take a lift. Looking for an easy life we headed west to Saleve and its year round uplift.

It’s a popular choice for out of season riding (though it’s been closed for 6 months for refurbishment) so if you want more info, here’s what happened last time we went.

The 10 uplift ticket is still 43euro, still valid for a year, still shareable amongst you all, but now gets scanned by a smart phone. The photo’s are … [Read full post]

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Public transport: Dorenaz.

Posted on 7th April 2014
Dorenaz isn't only about steep and rocky

Generally when you think of using public transport to ride your bike, it’s looking sheepish as you trail mud through a Scotrail carriage to hook your bike up by the toilet then sit getting cold on the way back home.

Switzerland is a bit different. In Switzerland the topography lends itself more to cable cars than trains so access to many smaller villages is by publicly run telepheriques. Dorenaz is one such place where the local bus driver also sells tickets and presses buttons on a 670m height gain gondola.

As Dorenaz is at only 450m and the hill faces … [Read full post]

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Pila, Near Perfect

Posted on 30th August 2013
Spence: Making good use of the built features on the more natural trails

Well, Graham is out of action for now with a thumb injury and currently 72km into his 100km ultra marathon (yeah, sounds no fun to me either), so he asked me (Lorne Cameron) to do a spot of guest blogging of any big biking days for the time being.  I’m not as good with the biking words as Graham, but here we go anyway for yesterday’s roadtrip to Pila in the Italy’s Aosta Valley, just 45 minutes’ drive from Chamonix through the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

A few friends here rave about Pila, but Spence and I had never been before … [Read full post]

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Proper planning prevents (long climbs). Grand Massif

Posted on 30th July 2013
Could we have a barrier please?

Half way between Chamonix and the Portes du Soleill sits the Grand Massif ski area, and it’s sort of ½ and ½ PDS & Chamonix in the riding too, with Chamonix’s queues and busyness combined with the PDS’s rolling terrain and bike friendly attitude.

After scratching the surface there last year I was keen to return and explore more, with the descent from the top of the Flaine lifts at 2480m down to Sixt at about 750m being top of the to do list. Arriving in Les Carroz a quick look in the direction of Flaine was enough to guess … [Read full post]

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Les Gets. Fast food riding

Posted on 14th July 2013

I’ve got a bit of an embarrassing admission to make. I first raced MTB’s 20 years ago, I’ve ridden them on 3 continents, hit some of the finest areas and trails on earth. I’ve never been to Les Gets. Or Morzine. Or any of the other Portes du Soleil resorts.

And it’s not that I’ve had any eliteist hangups about going there, I’ve ridden at Glentress out of choice before and everything.

Anyway, a roadtrip out of town was needed and as the braking bumps were only going to get worse, we thought we’d eschew the draw of Italian coffee … [Read full post]

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Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. Finale Ligure.

Posted on 23rd April 2013

It’s been a long snowy winter here in Chamonix and spring is yet to make much of an appearance. A trip away to the sun was called for, so the car was laden with people, tents, climbing gear, bikes, our best pizza eating bibs and we headed south to the Italian Riviera.

I try to keep road trip stuff to less than an hour from Chamonix but it’s only 3 ½hr down to Finale, and as it’s so good down there it seems fair to bend the rules. Besides, it’s Italy, the country made for bending the rules.

The last … [Read full post]

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Risoul Deval (turns out the deval IS in the detail…)

Posted on 19th April 2013

Across the world, the end of the ski season is marked by weird races thought up by, usually drunk, ski bums who don’t really want the snow to melt, but if the inevitable’s going to happen then they might as well have fun doing it. Hence the “Peak to Pub” multi sport carnage which takes place annually from Mnt Hutt to Cairngorm.

Risoul’s been running the Deval for 9 years now, which involves an off-piste ski from 2500m down to the resort at 1800, then a 10km ish enduro bike down to the River Durance at roughly 900m where the … [Read full post]

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A Saleve for the uplift blues?

Posted on 20th November 2012

After 2 weeks of pretty poor biking weather (grand for getting the ski season going though)  whilst the Brevent lifts were open, the skies have cleared and there’s been wall to wall sunshine.

And frost.

It is November after all.

Unfortunately the Chamonix lifts are closed so, always keen to let someone else do the hard work, we loaded up and headed out of town for some mid November lift access mountain biking. Got to love the alps.

45mins to 1hr from Chamonix and on the outskirts of Geneva is the tourist lift “la Saleve” You can buy a single … [Read full post]

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Velo Ferrata

Posted on 27th September 2012

Most people imagine life as a Chamonix bike bum as a daily routine of getting up, selecting a bike from a quiver of top end steeds, being carried to the top of the hill by train/tram/chairlift/gondola or helicopter before ripping down on the finest rocky/rooty/buffed trails known to man then finishing the day quaffing fine wine with nubile bike groupies.  Alas the truth couldn’t be more different.

Sometimes we have to pedal up the hill first.

Then there’s also the exploratory rides, where we go looking for the mythical perfect trail…. Acting on a couple of tip offs and a … [Read full post]

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Singletrack heaven: La Thuile

Posted on 2nd September 2012

With the best trails in Chamonix busy with walkers and trail runners, a (nother) road trip was in order, this time through the Mont Blanc tunnel to La Thuile. The trip’s an easy 45 minutes (if you don’t get stuck in traffic….) and stress free once you’ve found the chairlift (look out for the “bikers welcome” sign on a café, and turn next left!)

A quick summary if you just want to look at the pictures: if you’re on a DH bike, best to stay on the main road till you hit Aosta, then ride Pila, or keep going over … [Read full post]

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