For those of you amongst us not content to climb the various hills in the area at tourist pace, there are a number of hill climbs coming up that may be of interest.

We are particularly excited about the series of 3 climbs that take part in our own valley, the Lignarre Valley. There is one climb up our own col, the Col d'Ornon and the other 2 take you up various sneaky little side roads. If you allow yourself the chance to take your eyes from the handlebars and heart rate monitor, all are pretty stunning. Neither of us have ever TT'd up the Col d'Ornon, Guy has always been too busy and the one time I signed up I couldn't ride due to a embarrassing bout of sunburn that lead to a giant water sac developing on my right calf - I'll spare you any more gory details.

Anyway, the dates and distances are as follows:

Friday 18th July - Col d'Ornon - 14km 650metres
Saturday 19th July - Villard Reculas - 16km 900metres
Sunday 20th July - Oulles 10km 700metres

Then comes another series that takes in a couple of beasts in the area. The Col du Parquetout, not far from here, well hidden and pretty but a bit of a short sharp shocker. It's being climbed from both sides, the closest side to us takes place on the Saturday. The climb from Corps to Notre Dame de la Salette is a ride that we did for the first time the other day. The climb itself is a dead end road that resembles in scenery and gradient a Pyreneean climb. The road ends at a huge church and accommodation complex for religious retreat - an unexpected find in the middle of nowhere but a good source of cold Coke and huge sandwiches! The descent by the way is worth the climb if you like sweeping bends and sonic booms!

Sunday 10th August - Notre Dame de la Salette - 14.3km 900metres
Saturday 16th August - Parquetout (from our side) - 14.3km 685metres
Sunday 17th August - Parquetout - 9.8km 600metres

Finally, the Granon, a climb a little way from here, over the other side of the Lautaret in fact, but well worth the trip. We have done this climb the last couple of years (well, strictly speaking not true as last year we turned up 2 minutes too late for the sign-on but rode up anyway!) and it's amazing. The road is again a dead end but really wild and open giving great views over the Serre Chevalier ski resort. Runners also take the same route and are set off some 5mins after the cyclists - it's pretty humbling watching them whiz by you. Celebrity cyclist Jeannie Longo usually turns up for this one and shows most of us up - she's usually heading back down by the time I'm half way up! A good goody bag too and lots of other prizes up for grabs on the day (if Jeannie Longo leaves any!).

Defi du Granon - Saturday 16th August - 10km at about 10% average

If that's not enough for you, don't forget that every Monday evening during July and August there's the regular Alpe d'Huez hill climb and now the new hill climb to the resort of Oz (not via a Yellow Brick Road in case you were wondering):

Every Thursday at 10am from 3rd July to 28th August - Alpe d'Huez hill climb/TT
Every Wednesday at 10am from July to August - Oz hill climb/TT

Happy climbing!

Helyn
www.kingofthemountains.co.uk