Tour du Mont Blanc: Voie Toller- Savoie and Haute Savoie

15:20 Col de la Seigne (2516m), French/Italian boarder- 12 hours riding/walking

The descent into the Savoie and Beaufortain Area is the only area where there in no phone signal for a sustained period. In the back of our mind we knew there were refuges around should the weather turn, but we kept going.

A quick Oringina break in les Chapieux and the push began up to the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme. I was not looking forward to this, so about 20 mins further up we had some caffeine energy gels to help us up to the top.

A rare rideable section nearing the Col

18:30- 2433m

At the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme (2433m) we could see the dark clouds approaching from Annecy direction. Everyone at the Croix refuge was getting settled in for the night, for us though, as the wind picked up, we put all our layers on. We still had an hour or so of light. This is exactly what we had planned as the traverse to the Col du Bonhomme is quite challenging hike-a-bike terrain and at high altitude.

Moments before layering up

We traversed and reach the Col du Bonhomme in about 30mins, the rain never got to heavy luckily, but the light was slowly going.

Col du Bonhomme Michelin marker

The descent was greasy and slippery, we rode some sections, but alot was pushing or shouldering the bikes till we got to about 1800m near the la Balme Refuge/Gite. From here it was steady descending on a rocky fireroad. Jo's hands and wrists getting rattled around, and even mine suffered to the high pressured tyres that were so good on the tarmac.

At 20:00 we still had more off-road descending, but nothing too technical, bare the last 100m of steep rock slabs. It was getting dark now but we zoomed along feeling pretty good. And by the time we arrived at the road it was dark, and time for lights. Perfect timing really.

20:00 dusk

Focaccia was eaten, lights were turned on and we headed away from our last section of off-road with the bright lights of les Contamines in sight. It was a little wetter in this Haute Savoie valley, but we kept pedalling and so kept warm.

2100- St Gervais, Haute Savoie, France...

Energy left to star jump

Comments

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