Les Deux Alpes

Les Deux Alpes PUB
Info

Date: 20th July 2023
Ride No. 85
Grade: 6/10
Location: Lac du Chambon

Strava
Segment ID:16645308
My Time: 0:47:36
Gallery

 

Looking forward

Time to move from the Ferme Noemie campsite at Le Bourg d’Oisans.

A super and friendly well run 2-star campsite that takes my vote as softest grass yet for sleeping on.

On moving day, I try to leave a nearby climb to ride so I can maintain a ride a day.

This time it is Les Deux Alpes from Lac du Chambon.

To me, it was a climb that I had heard of and although a relatively short 6/10 ride; I was looking forward to it.

At the base of Les Deux Alpes, everything looked great.

On one side of the bridge over the dam was Lac du Chambon, full to the brim and on the other side it was a sheer drop into the valley.

 

 

Massive power loss

As I climbed up the 8% opening section, I relished the idea of capturing some photos above the Lac and the valley. Unfortunately, Lac du Chambon was just a fleeting glance as the tree lined road obscured all views.

At 4Km, it, however, rewarded me with a downhill stretch long enough for a deft finger chain lift.

As I dug back in for the 7%, I thought my legs were getting longer.

I certainly wasn’t feeling a full push.

Then the penny dropped.

Perhaps the seat post has slipped.

What to do, stop and raise it or carry on?

Make the 5 second pit stop and fix it was the call, but 1Km later it had dropped again.

This time though I thought I would put up with losing over 200W of power (ha ha) and soldier on.

The road was surprisingly busy with construction lorries, trades vans and, of course, cars desperate to get somewhere or perhaps just in front of the next vehicle.

Thankfully, the road was wide enough for all of us and as a bonus; there was a very wide cycle lane.

 

It all went flat

At the top, another ski town greeted me.

If you were looking to hire a mountain bike or skis??, eat or drink then this was the place as it would sum up about 90% of the shops there.

I briefly wondered around like a tourist with an hour to spare before the coach left for home. Apart from that, there was very little else to say about Les Deux Alpes.

It promised a lot but fell flat, which is a strange thing to say about mountain climbing.