The Winter is coming!

Riding up to the col du Vars - day 3 Chamonix/Nice GPM10


I'm just back from 2 more cycling trips with GPM10, the first, the Tour des Grandes Alpes saw us ride the famous Tour du France climb of Alpes D'Huez before we then headed off down to Nice again. Some bad weather and cold conditions plagued us on the first couple of days and then as we hit the Med the temps soared and the sun shone. Another great ride and the fitness was starting to show its face.

Straight after this we headed over to Biarittz on the West coast from where we rode across the Pyrenees on a Coast to Coast trip ending up back at the Med. The climbs through the Pyrenees are generally steeper than the climbs in the Alpes but shorter and with my biking fitness coming on form I really enjoyed the terrain down there and felt strong in my legs, fast in sprints and strong on the climbs. I suddenly found myself able to follow strong riders up hill where normally I'd have been dropped behind, I even got to the top of some good climbs in contention and sprinted for glory on a couple of nasty mountain top finishes and roads sign sprints against riders that would normally have left me spitting dust.

The form feels good so something is working!

Again the weather was a bit mixed for the first couple of days with some of the peaks around 3000m getting some snow and temps of around 2C in the mornings. As we hit the Med again the temps were higher and the sun began to shine. It was a great 4 day trip, hard riding and a great group of guys.

I'm now back in Chamonix, so catching up in the office and I'll obviously be getting out on my bike as much as possible with friends and hitting some of the local rides to try to keep my form progressing and prepare my legs for the winter season.

As we drove back up from the South I was amazed to see how much snow had fallen on the peaks above Grenoble, Chamrousse looked winter white! And with the peaks around Chamonix being quite a bit higher and slightly further North I was quite interested to see how conditions would be looking this far ahead of the start of the winter.

The view up to Mont Blanc from lac du Passy today. Dome du Miage looking winter white on the right with the classic Armencet Glacier descent visible in the sunlight far right.

Today, has turned into one of those prefect Autumnal days where the sky is clear blue, the sunlight low and bright and the trees are just starting to turn. The mountains however are in winter shape! Snow down to the Mid station of the Midi and on the peaks of the Aiguille rouge and the peaks of the Fiz across the valley from us and above Servoz. This snow will melt back but the Aiguille du Gouter is deep in winter snow and the Glaciers are looking well covered and really winter white.

Beautiful, and I must say a little bit exciting already on the start of the run up to winter!

Course bookings have been flying in whilst I've been away! Ruth just took 5 seperate individual provisional bookings in the car whilst we were driving up from walking the dog around the lac du Passy! I've not updated the web site yet but things are looking pretty full now and there's already waiting lists forming on quite a few courses, especially Tech Clinics and Off Piste clinics which I think is a good sign that people are really starting to take an interest in how they ride and in their progression, Good on you!

I've also just changed the new BC Freeride course to a BC Intro course 4th to 8th of April as all the BC Intros are already full and have been for a while now and interest is high! Its a good time of year for BC riding so if you've been waiting for info on BC intro spaces give Ruth a call or send in a booking form. (www.mcnabsnowboarding.com)

I've also just recieved a load of info and photos of the area we'll be exploring on the Greenland expedition 22nd April to the 5th May and it looks amazing so I'll post some shots and info for the trip in my next post. I think there is now only 1 space left on the Greenland trip.

Anyway, all is good in Chamonix!

Start getting excited, the winter is a coming!

Neil.