Thursday, July 10, 2008

La Route des Grandes Alpes Day 15: Faverges (Frontenex) to Geneva

102.1 km total
Col de la Forclaz de Montmin 1,157m
Col de Bluffy 630m
Col des Fleuries 920m
La Croisette 1,176m

From Faverges (Frontenex) where we had spent our last night, we could have taken a pretty flat, easy road home. However, there were still some climbs that could spice up this day.

First there was the Col de la Forclaz de Montmin. The climb is not high but it is steep and rewarded us with one of the best views on Lac d’Annecy (plus we beat another Dutch to the top). At the start of this climb we saw our second fellow tandem team and this time we took a picture.

It was great to once again do a descent that I had done before. Knowing a little bit when to expect the turns made a big difference. Great fun as we soon rolled over and passed the Col de Bluffy.

But then we had to pick up more climbing and clearly we could feel the heat. We struggled even on the little rolling hills (they didn’t roll for us) before reaching the Col des Fleuries which took us down to La Roche-sur-Foron. Over the downhill D2 we could have reached Genève in no time. But since we wanted to end this tour with Genève at our feet and as Genève was not going to go down, we had no choice but to climb again.

We bravely head over la Chapelle-Rambaud towards La Muraz. From La Muraz, we literally counted down every 100m as we moved closer to the last hurdle of our trip, la Croisette. With every 100m up, we not only got closer to our final goal but also obtained an ever better view of the Alps behind us. The Alps had been our playground for the past 15 days. We had so much fun and we were going to enjoy every last minute of it.

Croisette closer, closer, closer … done!

We are experienced mountain cyclists now … let’s prove it… on the first part of the descent from Croisette we flew at 70kmh by 2 adults descending at less than half that speed. It felt really good to come home the way we have done it. Roundtrip Genève-Menton. And guess who was there waiting for us? Yes, our best support team.

It was now our turn to help them get on the road as they had to leave the next morning. Thanks MaPa. Thanks Katy.

What are we doing next June?

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