Saturday, July 9, 2016

Les Deux Alpes

Next stop, Les Deux Alpes. The scenic route from Chamonix took about 4 hours. We booked our stay through Airbnb and got an apartment with an incredible view of the town, mountaintops like Aiguille de Venosc , Lac Lauvitel, Le Rochail and the Les 2 Alpes bike park. There are a lot of lifts and with a day pass for 25 euro, you get trails from 3400 all the way down to 900 meters.

The first days were spent eating, drinking wine, enjoying our surroundings, biking and prepping for the Mountain of Hell race on Saturday.

The qualification run was on Saturday and luckily it didn't rain until later that day so the trail was dry and superfun! The finals on sunday started at 9 from Glacier de Mantel. This meant waking up at 5 am to catch the lift up at 6. It was foggy and cold. 700 bikers were all going up at the same time for mass start.

Just as we arrived at the glacier, the fog lifted and the sun started warming nicely. Clear blue skies and amazing views, 700 bikes all lined up ready to slide down on the snow. It just made everything worth it.

The ride down was crazy! The smell of burning brakepads filled the air. The ride was long, all the way from the top down to Venosc. I ended up waiting in a queue due to a couple accidents on the way down. Otherwise a successful first mtb race! Want to come back again to crush my record.

We got some great tips for our next stop an decided we would leave for Alpe d'Huez after spending Monday sunbathing, shopping and barbecuing on our terrace. Nice way yo heal sore muscles and end a great stay i Les 2 Alpes.




























1 comment:

  1. Snow biking?!? I did that when 10 years old, but elevation was just 5 m... Seems like a great trip, beautiful images... So many bikes, so little time! Iska

    ReplyDelete