Annecy to Aix les Bains

May 10, 2019

Up and Over in the Sunshine

We awoke to a beautiful day. Blue sky, sunshine and warm, warm, warm. The perfect day to go up and over montée de Semnoz. We were sorry to miss Sander and his friend in the breakfast room, but by the time we got down there at 8 AM they were long gone.

The climb over montée de Semnoz begins immediately after you leave Annecy. This climb was the 20th stage of the 2013 Tour de France. We started in Annecy, the tour came via Quintal, which was our bail out point should we have decided not to continue. To quote Wikipedia “from the west, the climb commences at Quintal and uses the D241 before reaching the D41 after 3.5 km. The total climb is 11.3 km long gaining 922 m (3,025 ft) in height at an average gradient of 8.2%. This is the route used on Stage 20 of the 2013 Tour de France and is ranked as an Hors catégorie climb. The route to the summit from the start at Annecy crosses the Col de Leschaux (944 m (3,097 ft)) after 17.5 km (10.9 mi) before descending to Saint-Jean-d'Arvey”. Of course the tour riders did 125 km that day. I kept myself entertained on the way up by imagining the quiet road we were on full of people cheering on the tour. The climb began benignly enough, but after a certain point (8 km from the summit I think) didn’t drop below 8%. It was a competition at the top to see which of us would be Nairo Quintana and who would be the lanterne rouge.

We met these delightful young people at the bailout point. They headed down, we kept going up.

The snow started making an appearance at around 1250 m.

One of the reasons for climbing. The views.

If you had picked your route carefully I am pretty sure you could have still gone skiing.

Just shy of the summit we met Charlie, who was mapping out a route for a road bike tour in June. We had a great chat. He mentioned he only knew one family in Victoria, and yes, we have a mutual acquaintance through sailing. A fellow member of the yacht club we raced against many years ago. It is a small, small world.

Charlie himself. If you want an awesome road bike tour where you do not have to carry your luggage up and over yourself contact www.scattobiketours.com. We are sure you will be glad you did.

Here I am booting it down to the only open oasis with cappuccino at this time of year. Keith had a hot chocolate and crepes. He shared.

Then we geared up for the big descent and what a hoot it was. Beautiful views, steep at the start but then it morphed into that kind of downhill that makes you feel like you are flying. It was downhill virtually all the way to Aix les Bains. So much fun. In fact we were having so much fun we didn’t make too many photo stops, despite the beauty of the ride.

A view of the valley we were heading for.

Then, before we knew it we were in Aix. We stopped so Keith could fine tune the navigation to the hotel and Christian, who was on his road bike, stopped to help. He led us straight to the hotel and it was so great not to have to navigate. It was very much appreciated and a tremendous amount of fun. A super way to end a great day on the bike. He also had some ideas for us for tomorrow, which is to be a a rainy day, if the meteorologists are to be believed.

We checked in and have done a preliminary wander around Aix les Bains, which is beautiful. We are staying two nights and hope to explore the lake and market day in Chambery tomorrow. We will see what the weather brings.

One other interesting detail of the day, Sander and his friend, who were so helpful with my bike yesterday, rode 163 km and including 2339 m in elevation (that’s 7673 feet). Serious cycling. Bravo.

We like the Relive videos in the mountains:

https://www.relive.cc/view/2356539214

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 525 km (326 miles)

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Jane WallaceHi guys,
Loving your trips so far.......even the bad weather days you seem to keep on exploring. Hopefully, your weather will continue to bring
some warmth and little wind as you pedal on.
We are in beautiful Tofino for 5'days and it is Hot here.We have
had quite the heat wave most of the week.....more like July than May.
We love it here visiting the kids and try to help them in any way we can.
Look forward to your daily blog as you pedal across Europe. Your
pictures are fabulous.
Stay safe and enjoy.........hugs Jane
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5 years ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Jane WallaceWe are having another great tour. We are trying staying a few days in a spot this time more often, and so far we were enjoying that. The weather is to improve tomorrow which is perfect so we are in Aix les Bains for another night to dodge the rain and enjoy the town. The lake is beautiful and so is the architecture. Wish we were having the weather you are having at home!!
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5 years ago

Rachael AndersonGlad you had some good weather. Beautiful pictures! We did the same ride in 2015 but didn’t see the snow.
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5 years ago