The goal is to provide details of this great route, but also provide you some route planning idea/options. Each post will feature a map that shows the official route, but also includes an option or two that I believe improves the route.
Author: Will
Will
Happiest while cycling uphill.
My friends know I am scared of tunnels. I am a coward. The Alps are filled with hundreds and hundreds of tunnels. So I have slowly learned to embrace my fears – often leading to some pretty fun experiences. 🙂
Happy 2016 ! This blog started eleven years ago today, when I challenged my non-cycling self to bike 10,000 kilometres in 2005. It almost killed me, but I succeeded on Christmas Day, without ever riding more than 80 kms, and usually just 30 or so per ride. Success! Christmas 2005: Luckily, I am still fully addicted to cycling, especially uphill. These days I don’t take my Challenge quite as seriously as I did a decade ago. It is now more just the beginning of a plan for the year. Still, I seem to get motivated by New Year Resolutions. Here…
The end of my 11th annual cycling challenge! I think I even still had hair when I began this. However, the blog (and the surrounding Alps) continue to keep me motivated, cycling slowly as ever, but steadily upwards. So how did I do against my 2015 Cycling Challenge goals? #1 Cycle 25 New Cols/Climbs Every year it gets more difficult to find new ideas, but I managed to get more than 30 new climbs and quite a few more cols (many of these rides were multi-col loops). At the same time, I was able to visit lots of old favourites…
Here are my 10 Favourite Cycling Rides of 2015. Maps, photos, route details, etc. Happy New Year.
The 3rd highest paved cycling climb in the Juras … currently has no snow.
Merry Christmas to everyone. I enjoyed my annual Santa ride, this time up the steep side of Mont Salève. Usually the top should be closed due to snow, but it’s currently a heat wave.
This time of year it gets difficult to find/ride “new” climbs. And I try not to keep re-blogging the same routes over and over again. But I do, of course, keep cycling. Always with my camera and little tripod. So here are a few favourite photos from the last few weeks that might not have appeared in a post here. Trying to be artsy under a bridge in the Geneva country-side: First snow down low: Me and the neighbours: My favourite local hairpin: Lac de Joux Plane. View of Mont Blanc from summit of Joux Plane: A giant chair (or…
A few days ago, I snuck in a final big climb before the snow arrived in the Alps. Le Semnoz is the huge Massif on the west side of Lake Annecy. The summit, Crêt de Chatillon, is the highest paved climb near Annecy. For a map, profile, and details of 5 road bike routes up Le Semnoz – see here. But this ride I would explore an alternate, often unpaved, route (see map below). I started near Annecy beside the lake, taking the direct steep route climbed by the Tour de France in 2013. It’s a tough, 18 kilometre climb,…
Busy doing your Christmas shopping? Looking for a 2016 alpine cycling calendar? Well look no further. Here are three calendars with my favourite photos of 2015. The first: Cycling the Alps (with cyclist in photos), the second is Cycling the Alps (with no cyclist), and finally an “Alpine Cows” Calendar. A few quick points: All photos were taken by me in 2015. 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 decent digital camera. But the…