Gotta love the mountains…

I’ve just got back from our annual club sportive trip, which this year visited the Time-Megeve Mont Blanc. What a great few days – lovely weather, stunning scenery and great climbs, good company and excellent organisation. There was only one major negative which I’ll mention at the end of this piece.

As with any club do, it’s as much about who’s out there as what routes you end up riding, and Dynamo events never disappoint with regards to the company. There were several groups of abilities/stamina levels around which meant most people could take things as easy or as hard as they wanted on each day. I’d decided that I wanted to do a good solid 90-100km per day, with at least one climb per day.

Mission (almost) accomplished. Day 1 saw approx. 90km including ascents of the Col de Romme and the climb back up to Megeve from the valley floor (via the ‘easy’ route). Day 2 was 98km including ascents of the Col des Aravis, the Colombiere (‘easy’ side) and the Megeve climb again, but this time via the difficult (the ‘Bernard Hinault’) route. Day 3 was the sportive during which I opted to do the Medium route (115km, not that there was an option to do the longer route) and ascended the Aravis (again), the Col de la Croix Fry, the small climb back up the Aravis from the other side and then the Col des Saisies (very tough). I didn’t do a great time and felt that my legs were getting pretty wobbly by the four hour mark. Day 4 was an easy day, so we just rode up the Saisies from the other direction and then descended back into Megeve – a total of approx. 55km. Not quite the 90-100km, but to be honest I really didn’t have the legs for another climb by this stage in the trip.

So what was the negative? Well, it was the reason that the long version of the sportive was shut off, and the reason why the finish was a slightly muted affair. A rider in the event died during the ride – initial reports seem to indicate that he was a Swiss rider who, for whatever reason, misjudged his speed on the descent past Saint-Nicolas-la-Chapelle and crashed over the edge. A tragic lesson to us all to take care in the mountains and maintain concentration at all times.