Travel To Val Thorens – Beat the Tour…..

Mont Blanc from Col de Glandon

Having sorted a hotel out for my trip to Val Thorens (Bel Horizon, 50Euros\night, WiFi), I wanted to set off earlyish, get booked in etc. Whilst packing the car, a nice man who was scraping the wax from his skis kindly reminded me that it was Tour de France day – and the road to Bourg d’Oisans would be shut from 12. He also lent me his map book, in case I needed to divert – cheers matey! Anyhow, the TomTom was programmed to avoid motorways, so it took me via Allemont and the Col de Glandon – those of you watching the Tour on TV will notice they just came down there – so I was playing beat the tour – people and cars parked everywhere, on every available bit of verge – many many Gendarmes – in a word, carnage.
So I was blasting up this Col, overtaking slow people looking for somewhere to stop and watch the Tour come past. At the top, cars where parked everywhere, and I thought for a moment I might be stuck up there, all the traffic was coming up from the other side where I wanted to get down.

The right way to get to the top of a Col....

Now I am not saying I hate roadies, but I don’t see the point. “Oh but they ride bicycles” – well yes but they bear little resemblance to the bike I ride. Its like saying because you are a formula one driver, you have to be into rallying. Or stock car racing. Or because you are a drag racer, you dig on grasstrack racing. So for me, roadies can suck my shiny metal ass.
It did go through my mind to stop and wait with the masses and watch them go by, but then I realized I had better things to do, and even though I didn’t it seemed like a big old waste of time (the road was going to be shut from 12 – 5pm, so what time I would have been able to get away is anyones guess) - oh lets watch a thousand scrawny gits ride past real fast - yeah sounds great.

So arrived at Val Thorens. Its like Avoriaz, only less going on. A nice girl at the Tourist Info. Told me that the lift to the Glacier is shut in summer – so I asked where the Maxiavalanche is starting and she said the glacier. Turns out the lift is open this weekend only. And there are 2 other downhill trails to try. And a diddy bike park. Best thing is there is a big air bag and kicker jump onto it that is open to all. Have to give that a go tomorrow….