Jonny & Tim ride the Alps

We're doing Ventoux the day before the Etape. We may cross paths if your about the day before.
Cool. Will drop you a line once we've got the hotel sorted.

How about the descents? The climbs are of course what it's all about, but what's a climb without a beautiful, fast, exhilarating descent?
Either way, good work!

awesome. nice one boys, you're inspiring a lot of armchair riders

cracks open a beer and turns telly back on

We're doing Ventoux the day before the Etape. We may cross paths if your about the day before.

Hopefully not on a fast downhill, though.

yeah i reckon i could go a trip down there.

well done guys.

we're off to grab a ching chong on rest day 2.
we aren't going to do sestriere because we agree with claus the roads are too hectic. instead we've got a nice little plan sorted for four more local cols that will total ......a feck of a lot of climbing.

1. col de granon & col de cristol
   
2. col des peas (or as near as)
   
3. Puy-St-Vincent
   
   

jonny is tucking into a pleasant 2007 cotes de beaune (maison fondee en 1832) and i'm thinking of how to describe that bastard climb huez with even more ridiculous references to furnaces and cauldrons. Jonny did say his head was like a condensed version of the sun in human form on that evil ascent.

descents - we're loving them guys. unfortunately ventoux was dangerously windy up top. i set 49mph and will try to top it tomorrow. jonny has got brake judder on his front wheel.

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I can't even tell if jonny is riding up or down in the middle picture ...

Nice one this looks brilliant! i dream of doing this one day

Frickin' jealous, guys. I had to turn down a kayaking trip in Briancon this week because of my wrist and the alps look amazing. 30 degrees too. Hmph.

Sounds and looks great you two, well done.
To think I had a nice ride yesterday as well, up the Old Kent Road, somehow not quite the same...
Make the most of it and enjoy yourselves.

rest day hobo style

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oliver - jonny is track standing on 12% going up ;)

well deserved-the rest!

oliver - jonny is track standing on 12% going up ;)

Er? Looks more as if he's fallen off his bike. :)

http://static.londonfgss.com/attachments/10558d1243541959-dsc00842.jpg

Keep it coming guys. I'm living out my alps climbing dreams through you two.
Well I was until Jim invited me on a riuding holiday to Northern Italy.

we've decided that todays 'stage' is for the kids. every metre climbed will raise literally trillions of dollars for kids regardless of race or creed...be they black, white, yellow, green or purple..well maybe not purple...you've got to draw the line somewhere ....we hate purple people....unless they are suffocating...then we help them.

enough!! time to ascend

Screw the purple kids, just attention seekers, give it to the yellow kids, they are the sickest

^ racist?

very inspiring thread, if i wasn't waiting for a delivery, I would do laps of richmond park, and pretend..

Liking the B&W Raphaesque photos.

dollars were raised yesterday on what has to have been one of the most glorious days cycling in history. 'twas a good decision to get off the beaten track. We climbed col de granon escorted to the top by butterflies. The col was closed but we just picked up our bikes and climbed over a few snow banks and carried on to the top. Yet again it was over 25 degrees but we had enough breeze to keep it reasonable. Granon is another 'honest' climb. then after a bite to eat we switched directions and set of for les fonts, a village at the end of a mountain pass somewhere out by col de l'izoard. as soon as we got of the main road and started climbing through the first set of hairpins out of a village, we happened upon the glorious sight of .......stoney, dusty, pre tarmac, fred bohamontes style , original tour de france surfacing. We climbed 4 miles loving the whole atmosphere of blood sweat and tears. when we finally reached the top we were met withthe most amazing scenery you could ask for. in effect we had climbed onto a high alpine valley and for the next 5 miles we rode almost flat through what felt like a secret valley, a gift almost from nature for putting in all the hard climbing. Les fonts at the end of the trail was a dreamy , surreal hamlet of about 20 wooden cottages next to the beginning of the stream that we had followed all day. AAAhhhhh words can't do it justice so enjoy the pics.........

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Fuck tim,
That looks and sounds fucking amazing...good going, Detours can be the best thing ever!

I see jonny had a bit of time to play his harmonica. blues safe.

a detour ferris and me did...

Epic isn't the word for it!

i am so glad you guys made this thread and have been updating it like this. looks so great!! while tim is blogging jonny is obviously preparing the alpine feature for JMAG.

Looks great guys as ever. Keep us updated and thanks for the pics.

Last climb done and dusted. We rolled out to the foot of Puy-st-vincent about 11 miles away. that journey was up and down like a brides nightie. We could both feel the accumulative effects of the previous 6 cols. we woke tired but we were in no rush so we took it easy until the foot of the mountain. As it was the final climb we decided to give it everything. in addition we had passed a little group of carbon lads fixing a puncture and we didn't want to be taken on the climb so there was an unspoken pact to climb at top speed.
Puy - st - vincent is a six mile climb, an 'honest' climb for sure but a kind of baby huez. Never too steep until the final mile it meant we were climbing at 8, 9 then 10 mph. In lemond / hinault style we climbed side by side virtually racing........until with 1 km to go the legs finally gave in...and jonny took another mountain top alone by a whole minute.
dist - 6.85 miles
time - 50.33
avg 8.14
we descended and strolled home pretty spent but totally satisfied. 7 cols in 7 days!

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