Today's route from Grand Bornand to Morzine had to be changed a little due to landslide closing the Joux Plane so the ride route went to the Colombiere, (14km ascent) down a descent with patches of loose gravel and tar then straight up another gravelly climb which claimed the life of someone's derailleur. Just felt like being in Christchurch really :-)
A sharp right turn ( narrowly avoiding a collision with Coach john) then a further descent down to a town called Cluses which was a bit of a navigational clusterfuck but thankfully Zarnia's Garmin told us where to go and we duly followed along. Bit of gradual climbing a long a main road signed for Morzine and then we turned off to take the scenic route slightly uphill until we hit a wee village and the offical start of the Col de Ramez. 13km was what the sign said, started off ~ 8 % and wavered between 7-8 % for most kms. This felt really tough and reminiscent of the Iseran but given we were essentially riding a Tour stage, I tried to distract myself by reading the banners with ghosts of cyclists past on display. We did stop for a quick photo then continued trundle upwards.
My back was nagging a bit, my right hammy had been vert twingey since descending the Colombiere and the whole climb felt like a struggle, 3km to go and the average grade for the ensuing km said 10% on the sign. Yuk. Now I really felt like a monkey humping a football :-)
A slow grind uphill through a tunnel, quick off the bike for a stretch afterwards then survive the last 2km which were not so bad. I wolfed a Snickers bar and a coffee at the van then back downhill ( for only 8km. ;-( ) and met Di and Jen at the corner where we had to turn then we headed on with large sighs of dismay as we saw that we had to climb AGAIN. So much for 20 + km of downhill to Morzine. Aaaah.
We were on a windy country road that had a few bumps which took us up the Col de Aranacanaz ( wrong name, i can't remember the proper name ) then more ups and downs on winding roads with lots of moaning and groaning from us until we hit the outskirts of Morzine, unsure how to get to the lodge so Rob, who had joined us at this point managed to google map it on his phone so we wound through the centre of Morzine past hundreds of hairy legged downhill mountain bikers, across a swing bridge under the gondola then we managed to find the road and Brown bear lodge. 6h 20 riding time.
Lunch ( or what was left of it after the hungry hordes had eaten) was waiting and much needed, then just under the hour left to digest until it was time to run to the lake for a swim and meet the 10km run minimum. It was nice to run actually, I plugged my music in, did my 2 laps and a bit more of the lake to make my 10km and really enjoyed my run to shake the legs out. The lake ( Lac Mondrain) was perfectly flat and calm, a little chilly and after a 20 minute wrestle getting the Helix on, I also enjoyed a 1km swim which loosened off the stiff biking muscles.
Dinner at the lodge was highly tasty, free flowing red wine and a kir royale to accompany the canapés. Yummy. Wednesday is a kinda do-what -you-want day but minimums are 4.5 hrs of training, John and co are doing 100x 100 for his 40th birthday, dont think I'll do 100 x100 but maybe a few 100s ;-) and a run. Right, au revoir til tomorrow ;-)
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