Hipster: “A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.” By definition, a col (mountain pass) has two sides. But sometimes, from a cycling perspective, famous climbs can have a third, lesser known route. In many cases, these third routes are exceptional. This is my attempt to make some of these lesser-known third options trendy and fashionable. 🙂 All the climbs listed include links to detailed posts including maps: #1 Colle Fauniera from Ponte Marmora All 3 sides decent road. I like Pradlèves. Marmora the hipster side. — Daniel Friebe (@friebos)
Author: Will
Will
Happiest while cycling uphill.
Le Semnoz is the big massif above the west side of Lake Annecy. The road to the summit (Crêt de Châtillon) is the highest paved road in the Annecy area. I’ve summarised five routes up here, but I prefer the quieter south side via St. Eustache. The route starts on the beautiful Annecy bike path for eight relaxing kilometres. From the lake, there are more direct roads to Col de Leschaux, but the route via St. Eustache is more scenic, quieter (and tougher). Map at bottom of post. At Col des Leschaux (900m), it’s still 16 kilometres to the summit.…
An annual tradition: climb the west side of Col de la Croix Fry on a sunny winter day and continue on to Col des Aravis. The road to Croix Fry is (almost) always open due to the skiing at the summit. My drone made its 2018 debut: Col de la Croix Fry will be in the 2018 Tour de France in a gigantic north Alps stage that is also the Etape du Tour. I wrote a detailed route preview here. For the past eleven years, I have taken a photo from the exact same spot (above Manigod), resting the camera…
If you read this website, you know my favourite hobby is cycling slowly up mountains. So ski-touring has always seemed a sport designed for me: Slowly walking up mountains on skis with special skins attached, then taking the skins off and skiing down. The only flaw? I am a mediocre skier and was scared of the downhill part: off-piste, back-country skiing. But this summer, two Steel Wheeler friends, Alfie and Richard, convinced me that I should give it a try. And they kindly offered to “show me the ropes.” Woohooo! I’ve now survived two super-fun outings: On both of these…
Happy New Year! This blog is now 13 years old. As I said last year, I understand that the “age of the blog” is long gone and most people use social media instead. But I will continue posting here at Cycling Challenge for another year. 2017 was a fun year on the bike. I climbed more metres than I ever have even as 75% of my kilometres were on a mountain bike. I just feel happier during/after going cycling. I also rode more locally than usual. I am lucky to have lots of great options from home – I must…
I like to take photos while cycling. As the sun sets on 2017, here are some highlights of the past 12 months on a bike. Happy New Year! (most photos labeled if you hover mouse) January February March April May June July August September October November December
I’ve done a lot more mountain biking than road biking this year. And most of my first-time rides in 2017 were with wider tires. But I still enjoyed some fun days with the road bike. See here for the ten best unpaved rides of the year. The Ten Best Road Bike Rides of the Year: #1 Passo dello Stelvio In late May, I dashed down to Bormio to climb Stelvio the day before the Giro. I climbed the Bormio side, quickly visited Umbrailpass (the highest paved road in Switzerland), and descended most of the famous side to climb the almost…
2017 was a lot of fun on the bike. As in recent years, I found some new, very high, fun unpaved routes to explore, usually old military roads. Here are the ten best road bike rides of 2017. The 10 Best Unpaved Rides of 2017: #1 Gornergrat – 3135 metres The second highest I’ve ever been on a bike. Gornergrat is a high rocky ridge in central Switzerland above Zermatt. It has dominating views of nearby Monte Rosa (the highest mountain in Switzerland) and of the Matterhorn. There is a tourist train to the summit, and skiing here in winter.…
Winter is here. The mountains are covered in snow. The highest cols are closed. It’s cold outside even down low. But I love this time of year on a bike. Starting now, there is often low cloud cover. It’s dark, dank, foggy. Depressing. But cycle high enough and one can get above the clouds. Glorious. The above photo and the next six are all from the same ride up and across my home mountain: Mont Salève: Here are 5 road bike up Mont Salève. And here are some mountain bike routes. 3D video of ride (I think my camera forgot…
The 2018 Tour de France route was recently announced. Every year, Tour organiser ASO runs a cyclo-sportive, open to all, that rides one of the Tour’s mountain stages a few days before the pros. This year the Etape will replicate Stage 10 of the 2018 Tour de France. On the north edge of the French Alps, the 169-kilometre route reportedly has over 4000 metres of vertical ascent (I think it’s less). There is a detailed map of the route at the bottom of this post. To register see the official site here. Before the details, my quick reactions: This course…