The trail with everything

Loriaz

Are you looking for a good work out on the way up?

Are you looking for awesome views of the Mont Blanc Massif?

Are you looking for alpine singletrack?

Are you looking for tight switchback after switchback?

Are you looking for fast loamy traversing sections?

Are you looking for that trail that begs you to go faster, and then throws up a challenge?

An hour and a half up and lucky Tom, he was treated to another Oli special baguette filling. Pork in cider sauce. I hadn't been up in a year when I showed my new friend Gloria the way. She's since disappeared back to America to write for Bicycling Mag but keeps threatening a return with a nice full suspension Juliana bike (womans version of a santa cruz).

The descent rewarded with every kind of trail and even finishes right in the middle of a picturesque hamlet near Vallorcine.

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What guides do between work in the peak of July

Summer is here, and after fantastic spring riding in Southern France and then all over Valais, Aosta and Haute Savoie with good friends it's been time to get back to summer guiding, taking hikers around the Tour du Mont Blanc circuit. There's much worse things to do, but with three weeks off the bike I was itching to get back on some trails. With a carefully planned week between tours I was excited and made some plans to hit up some classic lines, and some new stuff too. It's mid July now, so in Chamonix valley you have to think carefully about where to go to miss the crowds, and to avoid going on the bike ban trails (July & August). Luckily it's still easy to find quiet trails in nearby resorts, or to simply drop round the back of a hill away from the frontside lifts. It went a little like this: Day 1- La Thuile with Wayne of newly qualified French legal mountain bike guiding service Chamonixmtb.com . Enduro race venue at it's best, rough and raw. ...

Tour du Mont Blanc: Voie Toller- INTRO

Introduction: Jo Toller is my skiing touring partner. He has been cycle touring for many years all over Europe, and last Autumn he cycled across America aboard is "ultimate touring setup" with 700cc wheels, Rholoff internal gear hub, Ortleib panniers and silly shaped handlebars. He also climbs and walks alot around Cham valley during the summers. For a couple of years now he has had this hybrid TMB route in mind. Last year when I went to watch the Downhill World Cup in Val d'Isere I picked him up from Courmayeur on my return over the Petit St Bernard. He'd left Cham and in 7 hours had reached Courmayeur. He hadn't gone the road cycling route via the Grand St.B & Aosta, no, near Verbier he'd headed up the Swiss Val Ferret Valley as far as the road went past La Fouly and then pushed his bike over the Grand Col de Ferret and descended all the Italian Val Ferret Valley to Courmayeur town. Having walked the TMB in the same, non classical, c...

Provence Posing

Early spring road trip with Team NL The Dutchies had work to finish before they'd start the mammoth 14 hour drive from under the sea to herb filled mountainsides. Work for us guys in the Alps is more seasonal & temporary, as it is for some Easyjet pilots which meant that the native English speakers left for 'The South' a day earlier. Digne les Bains was the rendezvous location for Saturday night but this meant going so close to Gap and Lac Serre Poncon. The lure of a trail in the Haute Alpes ( the northern most department in the Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur Region ) was too much. 3 of us wild camped lake side with giddy excitement for what lay ahead. Rob & Ben knew each other from ski touring & paragliding, but had never ridden together, nor had Ben ever met team NL. Rob and I briefed him on the impending fun. In the morning, a classic was called upon to give Ben his first taste of Southern singletrack. Mont Colombus, an...

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