Tag Archives: Le Tour

All the lifts.

Posted on 17th August 2018
The shot of the day, but where and when is it taken....?
We tried to ride every mountain bike accessible lift on the Chamonix Mont Blanc Unlimited lift pass. All 14 of them. Did we succeed? Well you'll need to read to find out won't you.
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Milestones

Posted on 21st June 2018
Oban cycles roof drop. In hindsight, the trials bike was a better choice for this...
The bike's 1, the blog's 6, the sun's 4.603 billion and the lifts are open. Mostly. A bunch of words covering most of these issues.
Posted in Trail conditions , tagged , , , , , ,

Le Tour Triptych

Posted on 25th August 2017
Tyre tappin' Mont Blanc and sending the alpinists flying. Starting the Trient trail with (almost) a Swiss squeaker.
The trail triptych that take the tumultuous twisting turns towards Trient, Chatelard and Vallorcine.
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Unintended consequences/Chamonix Bike Ban

Posted on 12th July 2017
Chamonix's most photogenic corner. No can do in July and August.
Why the Chamonix Bike Ban doesn't really make much difference to summer biking in Chamonix.
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Yeah, but what’s the best descent in Chamonix……

Posted on 3rd August 2016
Picture this: Another one of Chamonix's top trails, it just didn't make the cut though...
What are ten of the best mountain bike descents in Chamonix? Well it might be these....
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The longest day

Posted on 22nd June 2014
1km vertical of singletrack

Summer solstice. The longest day, shortest night and start of the countdown to winter. Also an excuse (if an excuse was ever needed) to both go in to the hills to do stuff and go out on the town.

After some warm up laps around Les Houches (trails all riding nice, bit of rain would be good to give some more grip though) we headed up the Bellevue gondola and climbed round towards the Col du Mont Lachet.

The trail down from the col is fairly exposed in places, but I think it’s pretty fun. Not everyone else, or possibly … [Read full post]

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Last chance to ride ___________

Posted on 23rd September 2013
Robbie getting distracted by the view

Normally “where shall we ride today?” is a tricky question, but for the last week it’s been a bit easier to get an answer.”We’ll ride wherever the lifts are about to close”. So that’s Brevent, Flegere and Le Tour, in that order.

An alternative answer has also been “I’m not going out in that, it’s snowing”. Which is true, winter made its first appearance of the autumn resulting in a fair bit of snow down to 1700m or so and some purty looking north faces once the clouds finally lifted. It didn’t do the biking communities enthusiasm to ride any … [Read full post]

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3.10 is the magic number

Posted on 13th September 2013
Ridgeline. Putting the "pic" in Epic

And why is it the magic number? Because that’s when the last tram leaves Le Fayet for Bellevue, but I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the start.

Every spring I start with the intention of riding all 10 bike friendly lifts on the Chamonix lift pass in a day, and every autumn arrives without me having done so. It’s a trickier challenge to complete than it first appears as the window to get it done is pretty small. Most of the good riding from the lifts is on trails off limits during the July & August bike ban, and … [Read full post]

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Awesome. Le Tour and more.

Posted on 2nd August 2013
See that trail, that'll be the way down. Aye, awesome.

I like tea me. There are few things in life better than a cup of tea, but even better are those 10% of cups of tea that just push up to the next level of tea. Awesome.

I like riding bikes me. There are few things…. And this ride was one of those 10%. It’s not as if the average ever drops that low about here, but that combination of some of the best of a good crop of trails, perfect weather, dry ground but only a couple days after a good soaking and a bunch of mates to share … [Read full post]

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To the ends of the valley

Posted on 9th July 2013
But why be picky when you have trails like this

OK, it can get a bit insular here in Chamonix. The steep valley walls cut off any sight of the outside world and, as long as you’re only paying attention to mountain sports, then everything you want is on your doorstep.  It’s a bit of a change to look out of the valley occasional and be reminded that the outside world exists, but to do it twice in less than a week, madness.

To cut a long intro short, the bike ban’s started, so most natural trails are now out of bounds thanks to Arrête Municipale (n° 124/2004) which prohibits … [Read full post]

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