There I am!

Michel Pelissier and the folks that oversee the Grand Colombier climbs I wrote about a while back have updated the website with the 2015 list of those that completed the various approaches to Grand Colombier.  The link:

http://www.felesducolombier.fr/index.php/english/list-of-the-feles

I am #1301 about the middle of the page.  It's a good thing for my ego that the time taken to complete the task was not shown.  "Membre" completed 2 sides, "Maitre" completed 3 sides, "Grand Maitre" completed 4 sides

I was the only person from the USA to complete the challenge in 2015, one of only 6 Americans that have traveled to France to attempt it since 1992, and only the third American to do all 4 sides ("Grand Maitre").  Maybe with the inclusion of the Grand Colombier in the 2016 Tour de France more interest will be generated.  There have been 6 Canadians to go over, three of which completed 4 sides.  No one from Mexico or the Caribbean.  So a total of 12 North Americans.  Which is kind of a shame because it truly is a difficult test--81 miles, 15,761 feet. 

Day 1 Sept 2 2015

After a rather pleasant, by trans-Atlantic standards, uneventful flight, including a plane change in London, into Geneva it was time to get rolling.  Everything arrived.  The bike showed up looking none the worse for wear.  We got help de-planing from a very nice Swiss gentleman who wheeled Linda around in a wheelchair (while I pushed around the little kid wheelchair with the luggage in it).  We collected all of our stuff and the Swiss man asked, "which side do you want, Switzerland or France?"

Huh?

It never occurred to me I'd have a choice.  Thinking, or hoping, that the Renault office was in Switzerland and that the staff would speak English (because don't all Swiss speak English?) I said "Switzerland".

I should have said France.

We got wheeled into an area of the airport where all the rental car agencies were, looked around for Renault and they weren't there.  No biggie.  I have our nifty little eKit burner phones.  More on those in some other post.  In a word, they were crap.

I dial Renault, the guy that answers can hardly understand a word I am saying, and I can't understand him.  There went my Swiss stereotype.  I think there is something wrong with the phone, so I hang up and dial again.  It wasn't any better.

We finally communicate enough for me to discover that I am in the wrong end of the terminal--this is when I know I should have answered "France" to the nice Swiss man.  And it also restored what I had thought was my ruined all Swiss speak English stereotype.

I have my bike and luggage in a luggage cart, Linda is sitting in her kid wheelchair.  I start pushing the whole lot towards the other end of the airport, not quite realizing what I was to expect in terms of finding the French side.  I finally saw a sign pointing to the "France" terminal and, since Linda was not going to travel with me to pick up the car, we decided to park her and the luggage where we were--on the Swiss side of the terminal.  I gave a quick look outside to try to get oriented for when I came back and headed off looking to rendezvous with the Renault representative.

The weird thing about the France side of the terminal is I never found what you usually see in an airport--like an arrivals/departures area.  A front door, for instance.  Of any kind.  I finally stumbled out into a parking area and I seem to have heard something in quasi-English about meeting the Renault driver in the garage.  Once there, though, I couldn't see any Renault's.  Or anything that looked like it might be from the Renault office.  I went back inside thinking I'd maybe missed another exit area.  There wasn't anything.  I called the guy again, he said meet him in the garage.

So I had to assume he meant where I'd just come from.  I walked out again, didn't see anything.  I walked clear out to the far end of the parking lot where it emptied out to the road.  Nothing in sight.  I walked all the way back to the terminal, saw a couple of guys taking a smoke break, and asked if either spoke any English.  One did a little bit, so I asked him if he'd speak to the Renault guy on the phone for me.  He agreed, I dialed, reached the guy again, and it turned out the car was about 50 feet from where I was standing.

The driver wasn't there because he'd gone inside to look for me thinking I'd gotten lost.  If he only knew.  Anyway, he came out, we shook hands, I apologized for being an idiot.  I told him I'd seen the van drive in and wondered if that might have been him.  Again, though, it was not a Renault.  Why would a Renault rep not be driving a Renault?

OK--now we were getting somewhere.

The car pick up was routine, smooth, no troubles.  A Kangoo, just like in 2010.  It's perfect for a bike trip for two.  Then I headed back to pick up Linda.  I am not quite sure how long it had been at this point, but it was long enough that Linda surely had to be wondering where I was.

I didn't have a map--oops.  I wasn't 100% confident I could get back on memory--but how hard could it me?   It was an airport.  Surely there must be airport signs everywhere, right?

Not really.

I did make one wrong turn, and I realized it as soon as I made it.  No biggie.  The Kangoo had GPS so I thought, "hey, I'll use the GPS!"  I stopped, entered a search for an airport figuring that it would give me the closest one.  And it did--the closest one in France.  Geneva is in Switzerland.  I was probably less than 5 miles from the airport but I couldn't get the GPS tell me how to reach it.  The GPS had maps only for France.  OK, that was out.

It was easy enough to backtrack to where I had made the wrong turn, so that is what I ended up doing.  Once I did that, it was actually pretty easy getting back to the vicinity of the airport.  The problem was getting back to the part of the airport where I had left Linda!

Once to a key junction--go right or go left, I chose right.  Nothing looked right or familiar.  Crap!  I was running out of airport and I hadn't seen anything useful.  I came to the end of the airport property and, luckily, was able to pretty easily make my back around to where I had started to make another approach, though each time around cost about 5 minutes.  On the second attempt I chose right again because left looked like it dropped down and that was not making any sense to me.  After the right, I turned into a dead-end parking lot.  Had to back my way out of that and go around again.  I pulled into another dead-end parking lot.  Around again, pulled into some lot with a set of gas pumps.

Around again.  It was time to give left a try.  It dropped down, and I finally saw what looked like the front of the building where I needed to be.  But how to get there?  I couldn't see where to go, so I had to go around again.  The 2nd time I pulled into a garage--definitely not the right place, and had to exit thinking, "great, I'm going to have to pay something for pulling into the garage."  I guess because I was in the garage for such a short period of time I didn't have to pay anything.  A minor relief in what was becoming a very stressful first couple of hours in Europe.

Around again.  Pulled into a taxi only area, couldn't stop.

Around again, stopped, called Linda and asked what was out in front of the terminal where she was sitting in an attempt to get oriented where she might be.

Around again.  I was sure I had spotted the correct building, but there was no way to pull a car to the front of it, to the curb, like you see at an arrivals terminal.

Around again, still couldn't quite see what to do.  There were a bunch of buses parked out front where I was able to drive that were picking up tour groups from the airport.  On my next time around I had had enough and I saw a spot large enough for me to park, I parked, and ran into the terminal and, sure enough, there was Linda.  Whew!

We discovered here that it was pretty easy to move the luggage cart and Linda together by my pushing the cart with Linda simply holding onto the luggage cart.  Super smooth.  After what was at least an hour--long enough for Linda to start thinking about what she might have to do if I never showed up--we were at the car and loading the car up.  Poor Linda was sitting in the middle of the terminal floor, in her wheelchair, holding onto the luggage cart and waiting for me to come back.  For over an hour.

Little did we know, or expect, it wasn't the last time we would have the experience.  It was not the greatest start to the trip, but I cannot explain how much of a relief it was when I finally found the spot I needed to be.  We were running later than we wanted, but we still showed up at Lake Annecy in time for our first dinner at Les Tilleuls--steak and fries.

Les Tilleuls, St Jorioz, France

Montvernier-Col du Chaussy-Col du Mollard-Col de la Croix De Fer 09/07/2015

 

I loved this route.  We got started late again--10 instead of 9.  We took a long lunch in St Jean de Maurienne, and Linda got a little lost coming back down Croix de Fer, so we ended up with a couple of hours of downtime.  We didn't cut it as close to darkness as we did on Grand Colombier a few days earlier, but it was still an issue that was bugging me until we were in fact finished. 

I got looking at the route possibilities after I saw the Tour de France this year took its way up the Lacets de Montvernier (lacets = laces, as in shoelaces), as pictured above--that was from a table decoration at the restaurant in St Jean de Maurienne where we had lunch.  It doesn't look quite so interesting from ground level:

It's not a long climb, not very steep--but it just looked so cool.  It had to be done.  It was the first climb of the day after departing from La Chambre--me on the bike, Linda in the car.  "Yates you can" painted on the road was for the Tour, and is cheering on the Yates brothers, Simon and Adam Yates from Great Britain. 

Linda's view of my tail end. 

Linda looking up to me.  It was a cool experience.  Awesome road.

Topping out at Montvernier (above) and headed forward, just turning left to pick up the Col du Chaussy climb, also featured in the 2015 Tour.  After topping out the Col du Chaussy, the descent takes you back to La Chambre and we doubled back again south past Montvernier to St Jean de Maurienne where we picked up the Col du Mollard followed by the last 10-15 kms of the Croix de Fer.  Once over the top of the Croix de Fer, you take a right on D927 and that takes you back to La Chambre.

This was where Linda headed the wrong way for a little bit.  She missed the right turn on to D927 and kept going on D926 for a while before she flipped on the Garmin and realized she was going the wrong way.  I knew something was up because, despite going much faster downhill than I had been going uphill, she still should have been able to catch up to me, or at the very least I should have been able to see her not far behind me.

I took the long descent down Glandon slowly as it was not the Tour and the roads were not closed--there was the threat of oncoming traffic and cross-streets and driveways to be concerned about.

A look into the valley from the Lacets de Montvernier--this may have actually been a little further up on the Col du Chaussy.  I can't remember for sure.  It looks to have been taken from a little higher elevation than seems would have been possible from the Lacets de Montvernier.  Whatever the case, I love the Alpine valleys.

Going up Col du Chaussy the same day we were was a British club of antique cars having some kind of a competition. 

The Brits going through a timed stage, this was the start of the next stage.

The pic above is from Linda's point-of-view, here is mine:

GoPro is weird--I have hours of video similar to the above--how long can you possibly watch it?  Certainly it's sleep inducing.  Anyway, that clip was short enough to where I thought it was OK to include here. 

Top of Col du Chaussy, above, in case you couldn't guess.  Below, en route to the Col du Mollard summit.  There was an alternate to Col du Mollard that I would have liked to have taken.  Not knowing about it, and due to time worries, we took the known, more direct route.

Quiet road, beautiful day, someone following me. . . .  Fantastic.

We took D110 out of the heart of St Jean de Maurienne.  D80 would have been a cool alternative--I love the look of a twisty road:

See that little noodly line right in the middle?  That's D80 and it looks awesome. 

I shouldn't have chickened out.  It looks awesome.  Of course I don't know the condition of the road, if it's paved all the way up, etc.  It was likely no problem.  The late start made me timid, though.  I guess we'll just have to go back.

Atop Col du Mollard. Good guess. 

Except for the feeling of time pressure, the route was outstanding and highly recommended.  It ended up about 71 miles and just shy of 11,000 feet of climbing over 4 named climbs.  A solid day, quality stuff.

There were no major problems outside of those already mentioned.  It was a blissfully quiet day.  No dreaded motorcycles.  Very few cars.  Fewer cyclists.  The toughest part of the Croix de Fer was the few miles going through Saint Sorlin d'Arves.  The last few switchbacks after leaving town are pretty mild.

Adding some warmth before the long descent back to La Chambre

I was a big baby when we first got to La Chambre because I forgot my headsweat gear (ask Linda--it's not pretty if something ticks me off).  I sweat profusely and I wasn't looking forward to having sweat in my eyes, my glasses (the worst) and all over everything.  The weather was perfect, however, and the lack of the headsock was not a big deal.  I noticed it most, in fact, in the cold of the descent off the Glandon.

After getting to the bottom of the Glandon I waited for Linda for about 20 minutes, only then finding out that she'd missed the turn at the top of the mountain.  We disagree over how that happened.  I claim I told her clearly to turn right at the signs to Glandon onto D927.  She says she heard me say D926--so that's where she went--straight on D926 towards Bourg d'Oisans and l'Alpe d'Huez.

How cool would it be to be able to choose among the dozens and dozens of outstanding climbs every day.  I love the Alps.  It was fun to have Linda along in the car and great to have food, drink, and alternate clothing as needed.  It's the only way to ride.  She was wonderful.  I think she had fun looking around and taking literally 100's of snapshots. 

Motorcycle Tourists Ruining the Alps (Dolomites, Pyrenees, etc.)?

Just a footnote before proceeding:  motorcycle tourists are noisy, stinking inhabitants of the various mountain ranges in Europe.  While I can appreciate the allure--seeing what I see from a bicycle, but faster and without all the work (thus allowing the rider to continue their smoking habit), it is a shame that the machines that they use are as loud as they are allowed to be, and emit such an an obnoxious odor as they pass.  Plus most of them think that they are the next Valentino Rossi.  Which doesn't help with the noise since they are usually going full throttle, or as close to it as they can.  Cars?  I can deal with cars as there are far fewer of them and they pass by with little commotion.  Little noise, no notable fumes (the fumes are there, of course, I just can't sense them except on rare occasions).

The motos were most notable on Cormet de Roselend and in Tuscany.  There were none on Grand Colombier, none on Col du Chaussy/Col du Mollard/Croix de Fer, and remarkably few in Italy--probably since we weren't riding the Dolomites.  The Italian mountains I climbed were very difficult and picturesque, but not famous, and thus don't attract the attention of the 2-wheeled motor driven society.

I do not know if anyone in any position of authority is aware of the negative aspects of the moto-tourist crowd.  I don't know where to begin to let anyone know.  I think the best way around it for us, as bicycle tourists is to go to the Alps/Dolomites/Pyrenees, etc., between September and May--forget trying June through August, unless you're willing to endure the incessant lines of motos passing by.

I didn't take any footage this year, but this clip from our 2010 trip to Italy shows what it is like in terms of noise--the smell, of course, doesn't translate.  You will have to add that aspect via your imagination.  This is on the Stelvio Pass from the Bormio side.

Cormet de Roselend 09/06/2015

 

After a day off on Saturday to get over the Grand Colombier, it was time to get back to riding on Sunday.  In 2006 on the trip to France (where I met my wife :-) ) with the Sacramento Wheelmen one of the rides we were going to do was the Cormet de Roselend.  The ride had to be canceled in favor of another route and, ever since then, I have wanted to go back and ride it.  That was one of the reasons for coming back to France to begin with.  So 9/6 was that day.

We left the hotel in St. Jorioz for Albertville later than planned, which became a recurring theme throughout the trip.  Still, we did leave early enough to catch some other activities.  This balloon was as close to the road as the photos show. 

This was the intended loop, 77 miles and about 9800 feet of climbing, according to RidewithGPS.com:

It was a beautiful loop.  In Albertville I got ready while Linda took pictures of me getting ready.  It was almost 10 before I hit the road, the goal had been 9--more of that recurring theme mentioned earlier.

Linda drove in France, she wouldn't drive in Italy--more on that in a later post.  After a few minutes thinking I was headed the wrong way, including a call to Linda back in the car (she was still in Albertville) to ask her to check the map for me, all was good and I could finally relax and just ride. 

I stopped at a bakery in Beaufort looking for what had become an elusive quarry:  apple strudel.  Being in France it shouldn't have been a surprise that I couldn't find it--too far from Germany and Austria.  I bought something that looked kind of like strudel, and it had apples in it, so I was game.  Judgement rendered, below. 

Cormet de Roselend was purported to be one of the prettiest climbs in the Alps.  From Beaufort, it was a nice climb, not too hard.  There isn't a climb in the Alps that could be called anything but beautiful--just degree of beauty varies.  Cormet de Roselend from the direction I rode up would be classified as average Alps beauty.  After descending to Bourg St Maurice and seeing the other side, the ascent from Bourg St. Maurice would be classified as superior, in my opinion.  I should have, in hindsight, turned around after lunch in Bourg St. Maurice, and rode back up the way I came.  It would have ended up about 75 miles, about the same as the loop, plus I would have seen both sides of the climb, including the prettiest side.

My advice to anyone considering a ride on Cormet de Roselend is to either to do an out and back from Albertville to Bourg St. Maurice or, if a loop is necessary, make the loop to take in the Cormet de Roselend from Bourg St. Maurice.  It is a much more beautiful approach, something I hoped the GoPro video would show, but due to the positioning of the GoPro near the handlebars limited the angle of view too much to get a true appreciation for how beautiful that side of the mountain is. 

So. . . I made it to the top of Cormet de Roselend feeling pretty good.  Linda was waiting for me at the top and I put on some warmer clothing for the descent to Bourg St. Maurice.  Here's the obligatory photo op in front of the summit signage. 

In Bourg St. Maurice we stopped at a restaurant for lunch.  I took it maybe a little too easy all day, and that ended up forcing my hand later in the day.  We ended up spending a total of 2 hours downtime.  Not all at once there in Bourg St. Maurice, but that was the bulk of it, the rest of the time was spent checking and re-checking maps to make sure I wasn't lost.

After leaving Bourg St. Maurice, one option was to head back to Albertville via N90 from Bourg St. Maurice to Moutiers before turning north.  I had heard that N90 was a nightmare with heavy traffic and to avoid it if possible.  I planned a route that paralleled the N90, but unlike N90 that followed the valley floor, the options taking you off the N90 meant climbing up the side of the valley.  The climb seemed a lot longer than it was--fatigue no doubt the reason--and ended up in a little town called Longefoy on D88, with a true summit near Notre-Dame-Du-Pre. 

After a twisty descent to Les Plaines, just a few miles from Moutiers, and only about 18 miles from Albertville and closing the loop, I climbed off.  Just too tired in the head to want to keep going.  Even so, the ride was 58 miles and 8,278 feet of climbing.  Pretty impressive climbing is possible in a very short distance in the Alps.  Yeah, in hindsight, again, I wish I'd kept going and could have kept going.  It was getting late, though, and the two hours of non-moving time made the decision for me.

Following are a bunch of other photos Linda took.  I would add some of the GoPro video but, after looking at it, it's not very interesting (due mostly to the angle of view, as discussed above. After having seen the video I wished I had purchased the helmet mount, but I have heard since that the helmet mount is unsteady and makes for poor video, too.  With that said, what good is a GoPro for a cyclist if the bike mount is boring and the helmet mount is shaky?).  

Climbing.

More climbing. 

More climbing.  

Yawn. . . more climbing.  

View of the reservoir.  

Nearing the summit of Cormet de Roselend--this it looking back down the hill.  

This is the bridge outside of Les Plaines where I pulled the plug.  We parked here to load the bike and change clothes.  

9/5 Non-Ride

After my ride up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down Grand Colombier on Friday 9/4 my original plan was to ride the above route, which was a variation of a Tour de France stage from 2013,  I adapted it to start and end at our hotel, Les Tilleuls.  Because of the late start on Friday, and because I'd climbed over 15,000 feet on Friday, and because we didn't get back to the hotel in St. Jorioz until late Friday night--close to 10:00, I was just too wiped out to wake up on Saturday morning to do another 85 miles and nearly 12,000 more feet of climbing.

In hindsight, I might say I regret not sucking it up, getting out of bed and taking off.  In reality, I was just plain tired.  The legs were sore, thought not as bad as I'd feared they would be.  I wish I could have been in a little bit better shape, whatever.  It was just too much to ask so early in the trip.

It would have been a great ride.  I always think that.  Whenever I see a road I think about how it would be to ride it.  How satisfying it would be.  I used to do the same thing when I was still running. 

Rather than drive the entire 85 mile route, Linda and I backtracked in the car and drove to the summit of Semnoz, which would have been the last climb of the day if I'd ridden it, to take a look around. Once we got to the summit of Semnoz, I was kind of glad I'd skipped the ride.  It was a little chilly.  I could have gotten around that, though.  Lot's of riders out on the roads. 

Here's a look back down towards Lac d'Annecy from the top of Semnoz.  

Linda liked this cutout at the top of Semnoz--we had to wait about 10 minutes while two cyclists who were ruining the picture finally finished eating their "fuel" and got out of the way.  That's our Renault Kangoo, with Linda sitting in it, in the background to the left.  

If I'd ridden, I would have been on this road. . . .  I miss riding those roads.  There is something about riding along the roads, through the anonymous and numerous small hamlets and villages that can't be compared to anything else I do, or have done.  It is a unique way to experience the countries we visit.  The vacation and tourist hotspots?  Who needs 'em.

A selfie from the top of Semnoz with Lac d'Annecy in the background.

 Just a shot from the car window as we descended back towards town. After we got back down to lake level we found a nice little lakeside cafe and had some hamburgers, fries, and a Coke.  It was a good day. 

Sunday, September 6, I got in another ride and Linda got in another long day behind the wheel. 

Agriturismo Locanda del Papa; La Spezia Italy

9/17 we drove to our current lodging.  Website: www.locandadelpapa.com/accomodation-cinque-terre.htm

On the drive here yesterday we stopped in Pisa.  All I can say is WOW!  I could have sat there for hours staring at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  There is a video probably online that tells how they renovated it in the 1990's.  I think it took 10 years to stop it from collapsing.  The exterior is nice and cleaned too; as the buildings in Europe often get dirty from the diesel.  The area around the tower and other attractions has graffiti, and isn't very nice; the river and surroundings are pretty dirty.

We initially parked but we felt anxious about leaving the vehicle for long with all of our stuff, including Art's bike and our laptop.  So he left me near a restaurant not far from the tower and was simply going to move the car to a handicapped spot near where I was waiting!  About 45 minutes later he showed up.  He kept running into one way streets, bus only streets and started getting farther and farther away!!! It was like a labyrinth. . . the harder I tried to get back, the harder I tried to think of a way back, the further and further away I became.  Finally I had to just stop the car and think for a minute--find the Carabineri?  Oh!  I took a picture of the street where I'd started.  I typed the street name into the GPS, making up a street number, and pushed "go" and voila!  I was back in 5 minutes.  That was a horribly frustrating experience.  I had both phones with me in the car.  I had no way to communicate with Linda--no way to call her, text her, nothing.  And she had no way to get in touch with me.   

I kept trying not to worry or start to panic!  My imagination can start running wild..."Date Line" episodes!  So once he fit the vehicle in the space (nice parking work) we used the wheelchair to get to the tower.  We had to get tickets to see the other buildings. The church was free but there are time slots to go in; so we ate lunch back near the car and then saw the church before heading on the road to our lodging.

The obligatory shot.  Convincing, eh?  

 From the highway we could see the mountain that they excavate Carrara Marble from; the whole mountainside is an excavation site...kinda sad.

Just in case you were wondering how some Italians felt about the EU's position on austerity. 

The residence here (Locanda del Papa) is about 400-500 years old, it is kinda musty and damp in our room but it is nice.  The owners, Davide and Roberta, are very friendly and they have 2 female cats that hunt many critters.  One of the cats ate 3 baby bunnies when they were just days old :(

They have several bunnies here in a pen but I think they eat all but a few of them.  Makes me want to be vegetarian.  The hillsides are full of trees and it is very quiet.  The owners have 200 Olive Trees here and 300+ on another piece of family owned property.  The wife, Roberta, makes home made jam which we had at breakfast and it was fantastic.   They gave us a bottle of white wine from a small winery  in the region (Art doesn't like wine and I don't like white wine)  but we thanked them and told them it was great!  We will purchase some of the jam.

9/18 breakfast was great, lots of types of bread and pizza, homemade jam, great coffee.  Art went into the countryside for a ride and I am resting my leg and catching up on the blog.  The other guests here are all in one group and are older couples from France.

In the last few days mosquitoes have been eating Art alive; he looks like he has "chicken pox"!

Inside the Cathedral at Pisa

In the evening after Art returned from his ride (he was lost a few times) we went to the Mediterranean town of Lerici.  Parking was an absolute nightmare; Art dropped me off then was driving for 30 minutes or so and finally found parking and brought me the wheelchair.  I think the evening is the best time to be there as there were fewer tourists out and about.  We took some great pictures of the sunset.

We ate dinner at a local hotel near our lodging and they had the best Pesto on pasta ever.