Scenic Views and Sealant Spray

June 19, 2023

Mountain top lunch

Villard-Notre-Dame->Villard-Reymond & blowout

Another beautiful day.

Our route had us going up a long balcony road D211 West of town. There was construction and the road was closed, but the crew pretended not to notice us and other riders go through. There was about 2km total of fresh gravel, but our rental bikes have wide tires so it was fine. And being closed there were no cars so that was nice.

The initial ride up on the incredibly scenic road was a bit sketchy. We stayed close the our side of the road and away from the worn and damaged railing at the drop off side. I would not ride in the other direction on this road. If you go over the crappy little broken concrete curbing you are dead.

There were about three tunnels, one quite long. It was especially nice that there were no cars here due to the road closure.

At the top we relaxed for a long lunch of omelette and a teensie coffee in Reymond. The view from the patio was amazing.

A long descent followed to the next valley where we did a “quick” up-and-back up to Oulles. This was a very quiet road with only one car and a few cyclists going by.

On the way down from Oulles Cory was ahead of me and had a rear blowout of his tubeless tire. A total tire sealant shower. There were a lot of small shale pieces on the road and he must’ve nicked one.

The sidewall was slit, so a messy tube installation was done and we were on our way a few km back to the shop.

We went to the poolside bar for dinner. Cory had a handmade burger that looked delicious. My panini was fine, just fine. I definitely had food envy.