Today’s stage brought me three cols from the VeloViewer “100 Greatest” list – I have now completed 27 of 28 on the Alpes du Nord part of it, with “only” Semnoz to go.
That climb is not any easy one either…
It was a long day, as the transfer to Samoëns took us 1:40 and the return from Seytroux well over two hours…
In Samoëns I found my bike to have a flat front tyre – as it is tubeless and I didn’t see any sealant, I didn’t know what caused it.
I tried to get help from a LBS, but they were too busy with rentals.
Pumping it up to the normal 5 bar didn’t help and it kept deflating, until I pumped 7 bar in it – I guess the blistering sun drying out shit has had something to do with it 🤷♂️
Anyway, my planned early start was delayed by quite a bit.
The Joux Plane is one of those cols I’ve had the pleasure of riding indoors, where it would kill me every time.
Doing it in real life was not disappointing – it is relentless…
I went down to Morzine and immediately fell flat on Avoriaz (Col de la Joux Verte) too.
However, being – quite a bit – less of a monster, I found a pace that was marginally faster than a tortoise stampeding through peanut butter.
We had lunch at the Joux Verte split – Avoriaz is 1.5 kms further up – and then went down towards Montriond.
Nowhere does it mention that this road is closed to motorized traffic (probably cyclists too) between Les Lindarets and Lac de Montriond.
It is mentioned when you want to go the other way, but by that time, you’re halfway down…
I got some angry stares and Paula had to play dumb tourist while we waded through hordes of pedestrians and goats.
And pedestrians feeding goats…
This end is a real gem, though, and I would’ve loved to cycle it up.
But once down, I rushed on to Seytroux for the Col du Corbier.
Pardon my French, but what the fuck is that doing on the “100 Greatest” list? Getting there is already a risky business due to heavy traffic, but also the climb itself is busy, although slightly less so.
And it’s not particularly beautiful with just a few good views – it’s relentlessly hard though, the grades being 9% and over, the hairpins bringing the overall average down to just over 8%.
Luckily, it’s only 6 kilometers long…
I descended back the way I came and put the bike in the car for the long drive home.
Total for today: 73.2 kilometers and 2,380 meters of D+.
