Another Sunday and another cyclo-randonnee for us and neighbours Christian and Matt.

This week we chose a ride that started from nearby Vif (just our side of Grenoble). The ride sneaked into the 'Trieves' area giving us great views of the Vercors mountains, and on the return leg took us along a stunning 'balcony' road known as the 'Corniches du Drac' as it overlooks the Drac lake.

As usual there were a choice of distances; 30km, 68km, 86km and 110km. We were conservative and chose the 86km, just about right for our level of fitness at this time of year. The total climbing was just under 1,500m and it felt like most of that came in the first 15km! Still, it made for a nice cruise home - downhill all the way.

Sadly for the organisers there weren't so many people taking part this year as on previous occasions as the forecast was for wind, heavy rain and cold. Fortunately for us, the forecast was very wrong - there was a bit of wind and it had certainly rained in some places but we never felt a drop. If anything we were a little overdressed for the conditions.

The feed stations were manned by some particularly jovial club members. Maybe some of the joviality came from the wine they had chilling in the nearby church fountain! Still, they made sure we had plenty of tea, coffee and other good food to help us on our way.

We are starting to meet some randonnee 'regulars' at these events now so they are becoming a good opportunity to socialise as well as ride.

Roll on next Sunday....

Helyn
www.kingofthemountains.co.uk