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  • Tour de Mont Blanc

  • First in our new Epic Ride series - our own Fi Spotswood kicks off with a four-day MTB tour of Mont Blanc

Words and photos by Fi Spotswood - posted 17/03/2010

The Epic Ride - Tour de Mont Blanc

Welcome to the first of Cyclist No.1’s new regular feature – The Epic Ride.

In this monthly feature, we will be sharing an epic cycling trip with you that one of our readers or contributors has attempted. Anyone can submit a write up (contribute@cyclistno1.co.uk) but please get in touch first. Epic Rides can be on any type of bike but should be more than a day in length and be self-organised - and we're looking for something that's not already well documented online already. We welcome additional detail such as GPS routes, photos and travel information so that readers can both be inspired but also armed with necessary detail to seize the summer!* This first route is the classic four day mountain bike route; the Tour de Mont Blanc, completed by Fi Spotswood in May 2011 with boyfriend Andy and kiwi friends Fi and Stu.

The Basics

On the Thursday night of the May bank holiday weekend, the four of us took a late flight from Gatwick out to Geneva and picked up our pre-booked transfer to Chamonix. We managed a restless night’s sleep before an early start on day 1 of our Tour de Mont Blanc – 160 kilometres of rough Alpine tracks, 2500 metre passes and delicious, technical singletrack descents. The tough hike-a-bike sections made us feel at times like we were ‘taking our bikes for a walk’, struggling up and over rocky passes with bikes strung up on our shoulders. But the views of glaciers and mountains were sensational; the streams full of clear, tasty water and the singletrack so fast, so perfect and so nerve-tinglingly exhilarating that every sweaty step was worthwhile.

The Adventure

Day 1: Chamonix to Les Chapieux

After a few hours of kit faff and bike building in our Chamonix hotel, we ventured out into the sheeting rain to coast down the road to Les Houches. We thought, ‘let’s head out and find a cafe and boulangerie for breakfast before the first climb’, but France is pretty much fermé in May (our transfer driver told us later that most TMBers don’t start arriving until mid June) so we ended up huddled in a supermarket eating pain au chocolate and stuffing bread, cheese and cakey snacks into our rucksacks for later, realising we might not find another shop that day!

Things were looking bleak. We had on our Goretex shorts, knee warmers, gloves and hoods up under our helmets. ‘What are we doing?’ I thought. But the adventure had not begun. In Les Houches we located the (seasonally losed) Telepherique before started to winch our cold legs up the wide gravel trail heading up to Col de Voza. Near the top we huddled from the rain under a deserted ski lift peering at the map, sweating into our jackets.

We huddled from the rain under a deserted ski lift, sweating into our jackets...

The climb was rewarded by our first descent, to Le Champel. We had minimal visibility thanks to the heavy cloud, and it was useful comparing our mapped route with the GPS track of some previous TMBers which we had downloaded off the web. Realising we were descending too fast, we took a left off the sealed road back up briefly before shooting down the correct forest track out of the cloud, through drenched Alpine meadows down to Le Champel. Smiles all round.

Along the road to La Gruvaz there was a brief respite from the rain, and we cut up a steep muddy forest track before plunging down our first taste of rocky singletrack, eventually dropping out at the river, which we followed to the cute but hibernating town of Les Contamines.

Looking above, we could see that the weather higher up was horrible. Contamines was the last town with potential accommodation before the Col du Bonhomme, and the col looked nasty. Huddling in the only open bar, sipping lukewarm coffee and inhaling thick blue French cigarette smoke, we were not surprised when Eric, the guardian of the Refuge de la Nova in Les Chapieux over the col, told us on the phone that although he had space, we should stay there until tomorrow. He was emphatic. “Stay there. Bonhomme will be windy and dangerous. There is snow up there. Don’t come today. Come tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be sunshine”.

So we thanked Eric, fortified ourselves with brazil nuts and headed up towards the cloud, where the col should be. (The alternative was a dingy hotel in Contamines, more luke warmcoffee and an afternoon of poorly remembered card games). So we carried on up the river, past the spectacular Notra Dame de la Gorge, and then began the climb up the slabby wet rocks. We walked some, rode some, but mostly walked and hours and hours later we arrived at the Plain des Dames beneath the col. We were surrounded by patches of snow, but in fact the Col de Bonhomme was fairly clear and we sheltered in the little hut there, giggling at our recklessness but also looking forward to the hot meal at the refuge we were each conjuring up in our minds.

However, Bonhomme was not the high point. We traversed along and still climbing slightly on a very indistinct path, crossed into larger patches of snow and turned our backs to the now insistent wind and snow. Leaning on some brilliant navigation from Andy and Stu we headed for the Refuge du Col de la Croix du Bonhomme, which we could not see even though it was 30 meters away. The refuge was unmanned but the winter room was open, so we thawed out for a few minutes, cursing our decision to leave our winter boots and gloves at home, before heading out into the cloud again to locate the 4km descent down to the Refuge de la Nova.

The start of the descent was tricky – icy and snowy with steep rocky corners - and we struggled without the ability to clip in, brake or see! But as we lost height the clag cleared, the snow became more grippy and the gradient more shallow. 40 minutes later, 4 thawed-out mountain bikers with big smiles shot down the final few grassy switch backs and skidded into the front garden of the refuge. After telling us off for ignoring him, Eric gave us a warm welcome and paused from serving up piping hot lasagne to a group of walkers to show us where to hang up our dripping wet kit and shower. We soon joined the walkers in his cosy dining room for our feast.

Day 2: Les Chapieux to Cormayeur

By morning the storm had cleared and our socks were rigid but dry. Over breakfast (warning: no massive quantities of hot porridge here - the French seem to go for thimblefuls of muesli) we scoured the map to plan the finer detail of today’s ride.

We started on steep tarmac for 4 or 5 kilometres and headed up to La Ville des Glaciers, before crossing a bridge where we saw the two walkers we had seen camping in the snow the previous night drying out their tent. The real climb started; sharp switchbacks which started out rideable before deteriorating into a push up to the Col de la Seigne. But the sunshine was out and despite the wind, we huddled into our down jackets and ate our sandwiches looking out at the blue sky and the view.

Patches of snow littered the singletrack which stretched beneath us, and we had to trudge through some of them, which slowed our progress considerably. Before long we were out on the wide, weather-battered rocky trail, which had plenty to keep us occupied (although I was preoccupied by now with my loudly buzzing freehub which was badly in need of attention!) We buzzed our way past the Elizabetta Soldini Refuge, finding a nearly invisible walkers track clinging to the valley’s right hand side. The trail was rocky and fun, and we had a great view of the main track beneath us which looked boring in comparison with our rocky drops and tight corners.

Despite the allure of a fast descent straight to the Italian town of Cormayeur, just after the lake we took a steep track up on the right with the promise of a fantastic descent that would make the extra ‘pointless’ climb worth it. It was a hot, sweaty, hard push. I was feeling wobbly and I needed some Haribo fortification so we spent a while gazing at the majestic Mont Blanc. It seemed like we could reach out and touch it. From the top, another few hundred metres of push, we were promised a quick run to town for pizza and icecream.

Unfortunately our ‘quick run into town’ turned into a bit of an epic as large swathes of slushy snow made the going tough and boggy. Our only real reward was one final piece of superbly fast singletrack leading into the ski lift hub of Col Checroui, which provided ample drop-off practice and a few near misses. On the long fireroad descent to Cormayeur, my hub screamed at me and vibrated up my legs, but I soon cheered up over pizza and beer followed by coffee and delicious dark chocolate ice cream which had the consistency of Nutella and tasted like paradise.

After our mighty feed, the news that the Refuge Belvedere 90 minutes ride up the valley was full came as welcome news, so we piled into the cheap and ciabatta Pensione Venetia. Despite some odd taxidermy and an aura of fusty old aunt, we were welcomed warmly and slept well after a hot shower.

Day 3: Cormayeur to Champex-Lac

After the customary gathering round the map over breakfast, we set off into up the tarmac climb, past the Chamonix tunnel and on to Club de Sports at Planpincieux. Although more a bike hire place than a bike shop, we managed to borrow enough tools for Stu to service my hub and we carried on our way to the bottom of the gravel climb which took us past the closed Refuge Elena Pre de Bar.

Pushing or carrying, we climbed the 500 or so metres all the way up to Grand Col Ferret at 2537m and gazed at the gorgeous and largely snow-free singletrack which plunged down the valley to Switzerland beneath us. Here Kiwi Fi restled a boistrous puppy and we chatted to its French owners before abandoning the bikes and tucking into a lunch of cheese and salami roles, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry liqueur cakes and a punnet of cherries.

Gorgeous singletrack plunged down the valley to Switzerland beneath us...

Dropping our saddles, we trudged across the first patch of snow (enjoying Stu’s valliant attempt to ride it) and then started cruising down the trail, gathering speed over the hard packed gravel and loving every swoopy corner. Tears in our eyes from the speed and the cold air, we dropped hundreds of metres down to the river. The temperature rose, so we stripped off our arm warmers before carrying on down to the road above l’A Neuve, marvelling at the tons of perfectly tessellated wood which were stacked outside every house.

Now on tarmac, we shot down into Praz de Fort and then out on to the track to Issert before tackling the final climb up to Champex. (It was hot down here, so first we rested up at the bottom, lying in the meadow eating spongy lemon cake). The singletrack ascent, ‘Ascentier de Champignon’, was tough but our minds were easily kept off the heat and the lactic by the stunning views (think ‘quintessential Switzerland’) and flora and fauna carved into the trees. My favourite was the pig, but most were mushrooms. We popped out in Champex-Lac and rode through the village alongside the lake before descending to the Gite Bon Abri, which is open all year and although a little pricey is spotlessly clean with homemade food, delicious bread, a comfortable bunkroom and luxurious showers. We drank beer and sat in the sun, cuddling the cat, chatting and flicking through photo books of other people’s Tours de MB.

Day 4: Champex-Lac to Chamonix

Our final day dawned warm and sunny, despite the gite owner (Michel) warning us the weather would break later on and rain again. We ate our breakfast of homemade muesli, soft white bread and homemade guava jam and then cruised down the road before starting the famous Bovine climb. We started by gaining height gently through the cool trees, but soon we had our bikes on our backs once again, crawling upwards over boulders and rocks towards the col. At 1900m (a 600m climb from the Bon Abri) we rested at a stream, washed the sweat from our eyes, scoffed some chocolate chip cookies and collectively agreed that this section alone was reason to ride the TMB anticlockwise. You can’t ride the Bovine up or down, so you might as well carry up it, so you can enjoy riding the singletrack descent to follow.

And that singletrack was incredible. Straight from the stream you rise up gently and then cling to the left hand side of a steep meadow, following a thin scar of smooth singletrack probably formed first by cows and then by walkers and now claimed by Alpine mountain bikers. The view down the wide flat valley to the right was of a lego-block town. After another gentle rise, we were diving into the woods and the Real Fun began - a descent which made every sweaty footstep of the previous three days worthwhile. It went on forever. It threw rocks, ruts and roots at us; had us skidding out on shaley corners and relying on every scrap of skill we had to survive. Proper Riding.

Eventually we popped out onto the road at La Forclaz and calmed our nerves on a rather sedate (and we think illegal) walkers path down the old watercourse to the end of the Trient Glacier and then took the road down to Trient itself. One final climb and we reached our lunch stop at the reservoir Bassin de Esserts. Relishing the soft bread and pungent cheese we had bought at Bon Abri, Kiwi Fi defended her long-distance cherry-pip spitting title before we tackled the final, very sweaty climb up over the French border to the top of the Vallorcine downhill.

Although the downhill tracks were fun, on short travel lightweight xc bikes and with tired limbs and limited concentration, we opted for the (still steep and techy) walkers track which dropped us down to the railway line, and eventually the road, which runs between Vallorcine and Chamonix. Although we found a few kilometres of singletrack through Argentiere, this final stretch is fairly dull, but we enjoyed gazing at the jagged glaciers clinging to Mont Blanc and the storm clouds gathering above us.

Back at the hotel, we finished packing up our bikes as heavy rain started to fall and after a good feed of pastries, fruit and chocolate we were heading back to the airport for a late flight home. At work the following day, a slightly crusty face and a few new bruises were all we had to prove we had done anything other than tile the bathroom over the bank holiday weekend.

Essential kit

  • Lightweight rucksack (e.g. 32 litre OMM sac) lined with a drybag
  • Goretex shorts, arm and knee warmers, waterproof jacket with hood
  • Crocs, merino tops and lightweight trousers for the evening
  • Minimalist bike bag like Ground Effect’s ‘tardis’ (to make it more likely you will be able to stash it somewhere)
  • Map and mapboard, compass, GPS, detailed route description.

Accommodation

  • Night 1: Le Vert, Chamonix – Fine, although they forgot to leave the keys out for us so we had to gatecrash a room. 60 euros per double room.
  • Night 2: Refuge de Nova, Chapieux – Brilliant, welcoming, warm and comfortable but rather a small breakfast! 40 euros pppn including dinner and breakfast.
  • Night 3: Pensione Venetia, Cormayeur – Basic but clean and cheap. 25 euros pppn including breakfast.
  • Night 4: Bon Abri, Champex-Lac – Superb with friendly owners, excellent food and great quality accommodation, dormitory style, although quite expensive given the poor exchange rate (we paid 67 Swiss francs each for dinner, bed and breakfast).

Gite Bon Abri in Champex - Lac. A recommended, if pricey, option.


*Cyclist No.1 does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the contents of this guide. If you decide to follow an Epic Ride route, make sure you do all your own research thoroughly. Ultimately you must make a responsible decision on your own ability to cover a route and the conditions you are faced with!

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