Post by Mary on June 15, 2021
Our Ride the Alps summer 2021 is set to be another quiet season with very few trips and a lot of family bike rides. Unfortunately travel restrictions currently imposed on the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil mean that our regular guests are once more unable to Ride the Alps this year. Many thanks to those of you who are sticking with us and rolling-over your reservations for yet another year. We currently have just one trip left in the schedule. A Chamonix to Zermatt with a group from the US that we really hope will go ahead in August.
We have the chance of picking up some last minute bookings later in the season if France makes it onto the UK green list. We are tentatively hopeful this might happen. If not, we’ll continue to make the most of our fabulous network of trails and make Ride the Alps summer 2021 another great season of family bike adventures. The kids are getting bigger and stronger and more capable every season.
Jamie and I have been riding together several times a week since February and have done a lot of local exploring. Jamie has been expanding his trail repertoire so that he’ll have even more fantastic singletrack for you to ride in 2022. The past couple of weeks we’ve been exploring some new trails around Annecy lake. About 14 years ago we rode a tour of Annecy lake together but we never felt there was enough quality singletrack along the route to turn it into a successful trip. With the huge growth in trail building over the past few years there are a lot more trails out there. We’re thinking we might try again to link the best of them together and come up with a new and improved Tour du Lac d’Annecy.
Jamie has also been working on new bike designs to build with our friend Alexander Plaisted of Selwyn Handmade Bicycles. He’s been testing out his latest pumptrack bike and chatting about it with Jarno Hoogland of International Mountain Bike Magazine. You can read the article here. Jamie’s next project is a 29er hardtail for me – hurray! Tonight he’s doing another interview with 57 hours. They are a platform that connects adventurers with certified guides all over the world. I will share the interview in the next blog post.
This week is scorching hot in the Alps and the trails are in perfect condition for what would normally be the start of our season of guided trips. Today, to take the edge off the sadness Jamie and I rode our favourite trail in the valley. After a hot road climb and 15 minutes of steep off-road climbing we were rewarded with a super-fun, flowing singletrack descent down from Roux to the valley bottom. It’s got rocks, roots, switchbacks and long smooth flowy sections and never disappoints. It will still be here when you can come out and ride with us again.
If you are thinking of coming out to Ride the Alps this summer and you have any questions about our trips and travel logistics please don’t hesitate to send us an email or give us a call. We would be delighted to hear from you!
