Often we say when one door closes another one opens. This season my trail running season was side-lined due to an injury. I do love trail running and it was tough not to be out there on the trails, but it opened a new door for me, Road biking.
My first road bike was actually one I borrowed from my younger brother. I can say that I did cycle on the same team as Tyler Hamilton and Chris Davenport in high school at Holderness, however with that said, I never learned how to change a tire and I don’t think I even learned how to draft.
At Dartmouth, I spent most of my time on skinny skis with the ski team, free heel skis or roller skis. At the end of my 4 years, I dabbled in a few triathalons. I think I tried, 3 tris until the EBA’s pizza delivery guy backed up over my bike. I went out to get my bike the next morning and came to a crumpled bit of metal. I ended up borrowing a bike 2x my size but managed to finish the tri in one piece.
Since then, my husband, who was once a Cat 2 competitive cyclist in the US, has been encouraging me to get back on the bike.
I left the biking by the wayside until about 8 years ago when picked up a used bike for a couple hundred swiss francs 10 years ago and had been riding that bike ever since. This summer I picked up a sweet, new ride and have fallen in love with riding, not horse back riding. I already fell in love with that as a young girl, and competed seriously at the sport until I was 16.
One thing about living in Chamonix is that you can’t do many flat rides, it’s either up or down and then back up. I got pretty friendly with the Col des Montets.
I have to be honest. The roads in Switzerland are great for biking. If it gets too hilly around here, you can always ride flat around the lake.
One of my favorite rides and probably one of the best rides from Chamonix is to Lac Emosson. It is a challenging ride but well worth the climb.
I managed to make it over to my old stomping grounds, parked the car in Aigle, Switzerland where my two boys were born. Probably the best maternity hospital around! I climbed up past my old town of Villars, crossed the Col de la Croix and down into les diableret and up to Col du Pillon. I had hoped to continue onto Gstaad and Col des Mosses but the time constraint of getting back for the school pick up at 4 caused me to cut my ride short. Here is a map of the large route
I am not sure if the cycling season is wrapped up or not. We may still get some warmer days in the coming weeks.
Enjoy your ride and the new roads you may discover!