Author: Will

Busy doing your Christmas shopping? Looking for a 2018 alpine cycling calendar? Well, look no further. Here are three calendars with my favourite photos of 2017. The first: Cycling the Alps , the second Sunsets/Sunrises, and finally a “Cow” Calendar. A few quick points: All photos were taken by me in the past 12 months (edit: my buddy Tim took the Grand Colombier photo of me, thx!). I am making no money from this. The price is just what is charged by the printing company. I am not (even remotely) a professional photographer. All the photos are taken using a…

High in the Valais canton of Switzerland, Col du Sanetsch should be on anyone’s list of the toughest, most beautiful climbs in the Alps. One weakness of the biggest/best Alpine cycling climbs? Sometimes the lower slopes are just “ok.” But the first seven kms of Col du Sanetsch are through rolling hills covered in vineyards: These early kilometres have a touch of traffic due to a couple of perched villages, but it’s a wide, well-surfaced road. Above these villages, things get much quieter. There are some fabulous hairpins: There are three tunnels, one of them almost a kilometre long. But…

Dinosaurs, high alpine lakes, snow-covered mountains, a crazy cliff road? Another Swiss paradise. This is a truly beautiful Swiss climb up to the high alpine Barrage/Lac d’Emosson (1930 metres). I was excited to return as I had recently heard that the crazy steep paved road beyond/above the lake was re-opened after some years of construction. This leads to another dam/lake: Lac de Vieux Emosson (2205 metres). More about this below. Note, the above profile excludes this crazy extension. The first dam (barrage) was built here in 1925 to power the Swiss Railway. But the current, much bigger, replacement dam was…

Lacets means hairpins (think shoes laces). Les Lacets de Montvernier has 17 hairpins (lots of publications say 18, but one is questionable and off in its own #hairpinpolice). The 17 hairpins all come in a stretch of only 2.5 kilometres. That’s a hairpin every 150 metres. The road is narrow, the hairpins sharp, and large vehicles are forbidden. It’s a steady incline, roughly 8% average. Woohoo! These hairpins are super fun. But note, they are only 2.5 kilometres long, with perhaps 200 metres of ascent. But look at the profile above. This ride climbs over 30 kilometres with almost 2000…

Starting from Les Contamines-Montjoie ski station, this is a great unpaved climb dominated by nearby Mont Blanc. It’s occasionally very steep, but quiet, beautiful, and high – reaching above 2400 metres. Moo Productions is back! OK, it’s not that exciting, but this is the first video I’ve made in a while. Note, there are a few sections using drone video – my first attempt. Look at the 1’35” point of the video and see how impressively steady the drone remains while filming. (I enjoyed that music) 🙂 The climb reaches Col du Joly at 1989 metres, and then takes a…

I have done much more local cycling than usual this year. I have a few regular 2-hour mountain bike loops from home that I love. I also have the good fortune to live at the base of Mont Salève and usually cycle it at least once a week – sometimes by road bike, often with a mountain bike. There are many route options: Mont Salève: 5 Road Bike Routes Mont Salève: The Mountain Bike Routes I’ve also joined the Steel Wheelers for quite a few fun, social Wednesday Evenings climbing the steepest side of Le Salève from Le Coin. Anyway,…

My new silly drone hobby motivated me to visit an old friend. Col du Glandon is perhaps less known but fits in the same category of tough, famous French climbs either side of 20 kms with roughly 1500 metres of ascent: (Madeleine 19.3kms/1550m, Tourmalet 19kms/1405m, Ventoux 21kms/1610m, Glandon 19.9kms/1460m). In other words: It’s a tough climb. In fact, if you include the 2.5km extension to Col de la Croix de Fer, it’s 22.5km/1610m). My route plan was simple: Climb Glandon, visit Croix de Fer, descend briefly the far side, return. And try and take a few drone photos. Here’s a…

Yes, I have a new toy. It’s probably a terrible idea, but I have a little drone that takes photos. It’s a DJI Spark. For a full review of the drone see the excellent DCRainmaker site. I have the good fortune to ride Col du Galibier once a year or so. These days, I try and wait for special conditions , eg. early season snow walls. Or late season with sun like today is also great: quiet, some snow on higher peaks (plus I had a new toy!). A 3D video of the ride: Here are a few older Galibier…

With a name like Passo della Mulatierra it’s safe to assume people have been crossing this pass for centuries. From Bardonecchia there is a gravel road all the way to the summit (2412 metres). One could also start from Beaulard and join this road half way up. A 3D video of ride: More than half the climb is through a nice forest. Plenty of hairpins. Sometimes a rough surface, sometimes painfully steep, but always rideable. Beautiful. I climbed Passo della Mulattiera in 2016, but I made a wrong turn early on and ended up needing to scramble up a steep…

Roughly 2300 metres of ascent in a single climb! This ride, like the far better known Colle delle Finestre, starts in Susa. But it goes more than a half a vertical kilometre higher, eventually descending down to Finestre. I have written extensively about the fabulous Strada dell’Assietta/Finestre network of high gravel 19th century military roads in northern Piemonte. See here for a complete overview. In the link I recommended five huge rides, but had only ridden four of them. This is a version of the fifth idea. A 3D video of ride: Starting from Susa, it only takes a kilometre…