TdMB minus 64 -at last a proper ride !

Bike of choice     : Kap
Distance              : 80Km
metres climbed    : +2250m

Fuelled by yesterday's positive vibes I struck out again, heading in the same direction and with the intention of pressing deeper into Switzerland via the col de la Forclaz - to Martigny and back if the weather didn't progress beyond drizzle back into snow. 

I made a bit of a schoolboy error before starting out, checked the distance OK and knew the heights of the 2 cols I was going to go over but for some un-explainable reason I didn't check the altitude of Martigny. I "assumed" it was around the same alt as Chamonix and so I'd be riding 4 climbs of 4-500m along the way with the option to turn back at the top of Forclaz if the weather was ugly or the energy levels low.

When I reached the Col though all was nicely lined up so I just went straight over and dropped into the trees on the other side. I must have been enjoying the road snaking through the trees as it took a long time before it occurred to me that I'd gone along way down ! But I was still in the clouds, my altimeter was reading 800m and I thought I'd push on just a bit further as I must be nearly down .... suddenly I was out of the clouds AND the tree's and shooting across a steeply terraced vineyard with a series of hairpins reaching down the the valley floor below ! It was still a long way down - and more to the point it was going to be along climb backout.!!!!!

Option 1 : drink coffee, eat chocolate and start riding back asap
Option 2 : find train / bus station and take the easy way back

(I hope you didn't for a second think option 2 was a serious contender ?)

I high-tailed it back up that hill with a big black cloud chasing me all the way ! Long and steady and hurty almost all the way up for 1hr15mins. There was no time to waste at the top as the weather was getting ugly and having setout on this ride late afternoon the sun that I hadn't seen was no longer heating the top side of the clouds. Once again I was feeling my way down the descents praying to the puncture gods to leave me alone today ... they did, and I passed the border without any dramas and soon found myself back in the warmth tucking into a huge plateful of couscous feeling good about the ride I just stole from the weather.

80Kms, +2250m in 4.5hrs ..... I just have to multiply that by 4 to get what's going to lie in front of me in 9wks time !

Here's hoping that the weathers going to be better and I'm going to have a bit more speed / energy in me by then. Right now I've no idea how I'm going to achieve that.

TdMB minus 65days ... will it ever stop raining ?

Bike of choice     : Kap
Distance              : 38Km
metres climbed    : +750

This rain is getting tedious ! I went to Chamonix to "get in touch" with the mountain but the weather was just super oppressive and wet and of course all the high cols are still closed so I accepted this as an opportunity to do a bit of carbo loading and to drink some red Energy juice ;o)

The original plan had been to get a bus to Bourg Saint-Maurice and ride over the Cormet de Roseland and then follow the start of the TdMB route to get to Chamonix ... some other time eh !

On Friday I forced myself to get out in the rain and at least ride some of the route, nothing ambitious, up and over the Coldes Montets down to the Swiss border, buy somechocolate and then back.

I think it might have been the worst first 3Km'sof a ride ever, I nearly gave up straight away. not because of the rain but the state of my head. I somehow kept going and by the timeI reached the Col I was actually enjoying myself. Down to the border crossing, quick wave to the Gendarmes buy chocolate and start back up the hill .... it suddenly gets very cold and before I know it it's snowing hard. Aaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhh - but it woke me up. I was frozen rigid by the time I got back to the col and was forced to tiptoe back down the other side on skinny slick road tyres.

An hour later once the warmth returned courtesy of a hot drink and an open fire all was good again and this time I felt much better after the ride than I had at the start of it. If the stress monkeys can eat energy then riding can at least drive them away and let the batteries start to charge again.