To Le Bourget du Lac: Over Cret de Chatillon/La Semnoz

May 26, 2015

Today's outing started with a stop at our neighborhood's sports equipment store. After anguishing over it for the past two days Rachael decided to buy a new GoPro to mount on her handlebars. I'm glad - I've been encouraging her to do this because I feel so guilty over failing to pack all the mounting components for her Contour for the second tour in a row. I think it's smart in any case - Contour lost the sortscam tech wars to GoPro and went out of business last year so now it's impossible to get support for them, whereas GoPros are sold everywhere.

Also, she registered for CGOB herself (it did no good to point out that the G stood for Guy - she's unstoppable once she gets an idea in her head), hacked my password and got access to my journal, so now I've lost editorial control over content.

So, in coming episodes you can look forward to chortling over embarassing videos of me wobbling up steep hills as she zips past.

Th day's ride was delayed a bit more when we found our route out of town dammed up by a several block long street market that forced us to dismount and slowly weave our way through its dense throng of shoppers. Very frustrating - this kind of thing would never happen back home. Actually of course, I love it - it's a beautiful show and one of the many things we enjoy about traveling over here. Finally breaking free, we passed through another lovely part of Annecy we hadn't seen yet. This town is definitely making the return visit list!

The Tuesday market has taken over our route out of town.

At the Tuesday market, Annecy. Cheese is a major part of the local economy - we've cycled past one fromagerie after another since we arrived here.

Leaving Annecy. Here is another beautiful corner of town we had missed before.

Finally we break free from town and start our ride. Immediately we begin climbing, and don't stop until reaching the summit of La Semnoz, thirteen miles down the road and 4000' higher in elevation. I'm very pleased with how we did on this climb - we are being repaid for all of the early training we put in this year. Usually on tour it takes me a few weeks to shed some winter weight and be able to compete with Rachael, but not this year. I led the whole way up and was pulling away at the top. Don't expect to see any GoPro footage proving this though - her new device came only partly charged and she's saving her precious amps for something more interesting to film.

Toward the top of the climb I picked up a companion, Paul from Birmingham. He biked faster than me but stopped to catch his breath periodically, so we kept crossing paths. After several halting efforts to communicate with each other in broken French and encouraging hand gestures, I finally asked him if he spoke English. 'Yes, I am English', he replied, and things went easier from there.

The summit was beautiful, but quite windy and very cold - at 5500' elevation, there were still a few small patches of snow on the ground. After chatting for a bit, admiring the views and exchanging photos, we parted ways - Paul turned back for Annecy and we plunged down the other side, not pedaling again for the next 15 miles.

From La Semnoz, looking east toward La Tournette.

Rachael and Paul at the summit, La Semnoz

Suiting up for the descent, La Semnoz. It was windy and very cold at the top.

Rachael slaloming down from the summit of La Semnoz

After dropping a few thousand feet we stopped at a sunny patch by the side of the road to eat our lunches. Rachael had gotten quite chilled on the descent though, and as soon as the sun went behind the clouds we hopped back on our bikes and continued downhill, chasing the sun. Finally it warmed up, and we enjoyed miles of lovely cycling through the valley, admiring the beautiful surrounding cliffs and fresh-mown fields with hungry kites hovering aloft. This stretch of road gave us the prettiest riding of the day.

Toward day's end as we neared Lake Bourget, the sky darkened above the ridges and we wondered if we would make it in dry, but in the end we did. After arriving at our hotel and warming ourselves in the shower, we happily walked into town for a well deserved trip to the pizzaria.

Mont Revard, from the delightful road between Mouxy and Mery

Cloud cap over Mont du Chat, Lake Bourget

Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 150 miles (241 km)

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