McNab News from Chamonix!

Its a beautiful time of year out here in Chamonix. The weather is now summer hot, clear mornings followed by cumulus cloud growth in the afternoons can make for some pretty big electrical storms come the late afternoon evening, quite nice as it cools and refreshes everything, unless of course you're up in the mountain when its not nice at all.
Its the time of year for early Alpine starts and mid afternoon finishes up amongst the peaks.

I've been busy out on my bike again since my last blog. I did some more riding guiding with the GPM10 cycling crew, big days and good fun.

I also just did my 2nd ever road bike race last Sunday. A 110km circuit with 3 climbs, one of which was the massive Col du Madeleine from the South side which involves 1500m of altitude gain over 20km of switchbacks. (The Tour de France passes over it next week sometime! A damn sight quicker than I did no doubt!)

It was a great experience, well kind of?

The first 50km were tight bunch racing, quite intense and exciting, followed by a medium sized climb, 5 or 6k's where the group gets split and you have to power on to keep with the front group and not get dropped back. Some good down hill were my extra kilo's come into some use and then the second medium climb, this one about 8k's in which I dropped to the 2nd group to conserve energy for the big one to come.

At the foot of the Madeleine its every man for themselves and you just dig in and turn the pedals trying to find a sustainable rhythm. The climb was long, steep and under the heat of the midday sun it felt really hard. At times I felt like I'd not even make the top, everyone seemed to be in the same sh*t state or petty much, but a few Science in Sport Gels got me through and I only got passed by a couple of riders on the climb and even made up quite a few places.

The descent off the top was great and I came in a respectable 26th out of around 400 starters.

I've a long way to go I feel but its getting better everyday. It never seems to get any easier but I guess you always push to your limit what ever that may be.
All good though!

I've a week of riding with Andy Cook coming up before I head up Mont Blanc again next week and we'll ride over to Morzine to see the Tour de France flow through.

On the McNab Snowboarding front things are ticking along nicely. For those of you who didn't see the last news blog the TSA are giving 15% off Jones Snowboards to anyone who has booked a course with us next winter! Get in touch for details.

Also I put a classic BC Freeride course on 24th to 28th Jan last week (its potentially full already but only when deposits are in!)

I took the Lyngen trip off the schedule this year so as to focus on the Greenland expedition and stick to one big trip a season. In place of Norway I might now put on another classic BC freeride course if the demand is there so watch this space.

Ruth is now taking deposits for the courses. Remeber, your space isn't confirmed until your deposit has been paid, so if you've got your name down for something confirm your place asap.

The Tour de France is passing close next weekend as I've already mentioned and there's also a World cup climbing event on in Chamonix center next weekend so plenty to get out and see.

Alan Fielding (regular BC client, Greenland 08, Kashmir 2010) is out in the valley with a friend for some climbing and popped around for some insider info. Condtitions are good so I hope they get some good climbing done, I sent them off with a big list of routes to try.

All is good in Chamonix, hope you're all enjoying the summer!

Neil.