Avoriaz Activity Review: 27th June 2012
Road biking and Mountain biking in Avoriaz
It’s been the usual mixed bag of cycling activities for me of late. Some road biking and some mountain biking. The weather has been mostly set fine since my last report although it is raining as I type. Not to worry the forecast is for 100% sunshine tomorrow and highs of 27 degrees.
The big up-coming event in Avoriaz is the Passportes du Soleil mountain bike event starting this Friday and spanning the weekend. Basically there will be thousands of mountain bikers in town for the event – the vibe around town is great. It’s not a race as such, more a challenge to see how far the you can get around the route encompassing the villages making up the Portes du Soleil. To do the full loop with all the add on sections is no mean feet.
Each village will have a feed station with a selection of goodies to keep you going. Some are better than others, on occasion I’ve scored ice creams and beers along with the usual fruit, bread, ham, cheese etc etc. This year Morzine hosts the event, it moves in rotation around the villages each year, so we get all the big cycle stalls setting up in town plus some shows; trials, demo’s and the like. As I was saying it’s a superb atmosphere in town and the trails a packed with like minded folk – brilliant.
Last weekend I was sharing the roads with hundreds of cyclo sportive competitors in the Morzine Vallee D’Aulps Grand Trophee race. Two events were on offer; 160km and 3650m of climbing and a shorter 110km with 2680m of climbing. The big event takes in a couple of classic climbs; the Col du Joux Verte and Col du Joux Plane with a number of less well known but tough in their own right climbs in between.
I was hoping for a top 10 place this year after a 17th last year but I seemed to go backwards coming in 44th. There were a similar number of entrants but I guess more fast riders turned up this year. It’s a brilliant event starting under a big banner in the centre of Morzine before taking in a lap of the town. The event finishes after the brutal climb of the Joux Plane with a decent back into Morzine and a short climb up to the shores of Lac Montriond to the finish line. As ever there were plenty of refreshments at the end of the event and they were well needed after toiling around in temperatures of 33 degrees.
In contrast last Friday was all about the mountain bike. Rather than grind my way up the 1000m vertical of the Joux Plane I descended from the Pointe du Bourgeoise adjacent to the tarmac on some superb mountain bike single track. This trail has it all but the standout feature is lots of steep technical root sections. There were lots of big grins going on when we exited the trail into the picturesque town of Samoens. It was very much in contrast to the trepidation I felt last Sunday as I rolled into town on my road bike ready for climbing the Joux Plane.
Bon route!
