Post by Mary on October 4, 2023
Another fantastic Ride the Alps season has drawn to a close under sunny skies in the South of France. Jamie started the season with an enduro race in Samoens and has topped it off with the extremely challenging Transvésubienne race from St Martin-Vésubie to Nice. It’s a punishing route over 85km of varied terrain including some seriously technical singletrack and featuring 2800m of climbing and 4000m of descending. The Transvésubienne is the longest running mountain bike race in France and is one of the most well-respected races on the circuit. Once again Jamie rode his trusty Selwyn hardtail in order to continue to showcase just how good Alexander Plaisted’s handmade bikes really are. For our friend and very talented photographer, Soren, who some of you know as our driver on previous trips, the Transvésubienne was his inaugural race. No doubt the first of many.
Jamie’s last trip of the season was our first ever Briancon to the Mediterranean trip. The weather was stormy at times, making it tough going on some of the more technical descents but the sun came out for the arrival at the coast.
The route crosses some very high cols close to 3000m and perhaps surprisingly you stay in mountainous terrain right until the final descent of the trip. It’s a two country tour, featuring two days in Italy for a change of food and culture. Accommodation at the beautiful Locanda di Chialvetta is one of the highlights of the trip.
The trip is the second part of our Summit to Sea route, which begins in Chamonix in the shadow of the highest mountain in Europe and ends with your toes (or all of you) in the Mediterranean sea. You can ride the route over two separate trips, as did our last group. Or, you can ride the whole journey over 2 weeks, with a rest day in the middle in Briancon.
Our last riders out on the trails were Enslin and Mathilda Uys from South Africa who rode our Eiger Tour self-guided and had a wonderful trip with perfect weather during the first week of October. There are no benefits to human-induced climate change but our increasingly warm and sunny autumn seasons are nonetheless ideal for mountain biking. If you’re thinking of a trip for next season and you have the skills and confidence to ride across the alps unguided, we offer several of our trips on a self-guided basis. We arrange your accommodation, luggage transfer (TMB only) and provide you with maps and GPX for the route, as well as a telephone briefing about the route with Jamie. You can chose from: Tour du Mont Blanc, The Eiger Tour, Alpine Singletrack and Chamonix to Briancon.
We’re now taking bookings for the 2024 season so please do get in touch if you have a group to ride with and a trip in mind.