Author: Will

I haven’t posted a ride in a few weeks, but I’ve been doing lot of local cycling.  In particular, I’ve been enjoying my home mountain, Mont Salève, overlooking Geneva and its lake. Late Autumn is always extra fun here. Lower down is constantly covered in depressing fog/clouds. But if one cycles higher, often it’s gloriously sunny above the clouds. I’ve written a lot over the years about Mont Salève: Five Road Bike climbs up Mont Salève Mont Salève Mountain bike routes List of all Mont Salève posts If you follow this blog then you know that I like to take…

Busy doing your Christmas shopping? Looking for a 2019 alpine cycling calendar? Well, look no further. Here are four calendars with my favourite photos of 2018. The first: Cycling the Alps – Road Bike , the second: Cycling the Alps – Mountain/Gravel Bike, the third: Cows and, finally: Sunsets/Sunrises. A few quick points: All photos were taken by me in the past 12 months. 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 portable digital…

Les Trois Vallées claims to be the largest ski domain in the world (it includes Val Thorens, Courchevel, Méribel, etc). This fun mountain bike loop passes seven cols on a high ridge between Méribel and the lower part of the valley that includes Val Thorens. Admittedly, I would traverse to many of the cols but if you follow this blog you know how happy I am to visit 7 new cols! I started down low near Moûtiers immediately jumping on the quiet D96. These first few kilometres are paved but it’s a fun cliff/hairpin-filled road. The 38 kilometre climb to…

Le Parmelan is the impressive massif on the very north edge of the French Alps. This ride is a nice little loop to Chalet Chappuis (1251 metres) and Col de Barman (1127 metres). I’d strongly suggest doing this ride clock-wise as I did (see map below). Most of the climb is paved on very quiet roads, but the top few kilometres of the descent are on a very steep unpaved farm “road” that is probably no longer used. Much of the upper stretch would be near impossible to cycle uphill – at least for me. Chalet Chappuis is the high-point…

Col de la Croix Fry is one of my favourite winter road bike climbs (it was in the 2018 Tour de France). Above the col is Plateau Beauregard. My simple plan: Skip the main road, and mountain bike to the plateau via small farm roads/trails. I started in Thônes, the same place where I usually start for Croix Fry but immediately headed in a different direction than usual. After a kilometre I was on small roads (see map). It was paved until 1163 metres. Here begins a very steep rocky “road.” For the next 1.5 kms or so, I would…

A list of most of the highest unpaved cycling roads in the Alps. Photos, maps, profiles, etc. Including 5 that reach +3000 metres.

I believe many cyclo-tourists do themselves a huge disservice by prioritising Alpe d’Huez above many far, far more interesting roads.

Beyond Alpe d’Huez: The Best Cycling Climbs from Bourg d’Oisans

My Steel Wheeler friend Tim kindly hosted three of us in his home in Sigale (Alpes-Maritimes) for a few rides. This part of the south French Alps is completely new to me. This post is the fourth of our four rides in the region (in addition to a dawn ascent of Bonette). The plan: cycle two very quiet climbs beside and above the La Roudoule river and its gorge. This post is the pink route on the map below. See here for the orange route: 5 cols and 3 clues. See here for the blue route: 3 Cols Trébuchet, Buis,…

Last August, my friend Tim and I cycled Grand Colombier to see the sunrise. It was one of the best rides of the year and we immediately began brainstorming another candidate for a sunrise ascent. Cime de la Bonette – the highest paved road in France – seemed an obvious candidate. The route plan was simple. Cycle the entire south side starting from Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée. We started early enough with the goal of arriving at the summit 15-30 minutes before the sunrise. It was cold, but not freezing – it would be 0.5 Celsius at the summit. It had warmed up…