Cluses to Évian les Bains

June 8, 2019

Pierre, We Missed You

Another amazing day. We missed Pierre, but loved the route he recommended, the Routes des Grands Alpes. We left Cluses after a carb heavy breakfast (aren’t they all in France?) fuelled and ready for the climb, which started immediately.

The only picture we have of Cluses and it doesn’t do it justice. We were distracted by the great bakery hunt.

Shortly after that, looking back down at Cluses.

The ride was fantastic. We missed Pierre, but we coped well. His recommendation of this route was spot on. The climbing was at that wonderful grade that makes you think you can go forever. We went up and up until we reached a restaurant called the Col Café, or something like that. We missed a summit sign, if there was one. Then we were headed down, losing all that elevation until we reached Taninges.

Just outside of Taninges. A gondola graveyard.

After Taninges it was back up for climb number two, which was equally beautiful and we topped out at Les Gets. It was a mountain biking heaven and explained all the mountain bikes we had seen on the backs of cars booting up the hill on a sunny Saturday.

I am on a supplement the picnic hunt here.

From Les Gets it was a downhill pull all the way to Thonon les Bains. We had quite a headwind for part of it and we were grateful for the downhill as it meant it wasn’t so much work. I loved that I didn’t need my brakes...the wind was doing the work for me.

Then suddenly there was Lac Léman. Seeing it was bittersweet. It means we are almost in Switzerland and this tour is moving too quickly towards the end. We rolled into Thonon les Bains, where we stayed two years ago. A great spot. This year we went right through. There is a triathlon tomorrow in Thonon and there weren’t any rooms available.

The 10 km to Évian les Bains weren’t our favourite 10 km of the day, but Évian les Bains is such a gorgeous spot we soon forgot about that. There is a lakeside festival going on and we took that in, went out for a fabulous dinner and it is way past my bedtime. Pictures of beautiful Évian will be posted tomorrow. We are feeling very blessed and reflective tonight. Our thoughts are with good friends at home.

https://www.relive.cc/view/2433588197

The route we rode today is the same as the pros will ride on June 16 in the Criterium du Dauphine, stage 8, Cluses to Champéry. They carry on to Champéry of course, and do 113.5 km.

You can see on this map where we headed down to Thonon les Bains and they will head up to Col de Corbier and beyond.

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,060 km (1,279 miles)

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