Popped into Bourg d'Oisans today to the supermarket. Just a few things needed and nothing too heavy so I decided to ride in.

(Top tip for anyone wanting to ride Alpe d'Huez but needs to lighten their load of kit/rucksack, etc. before they climb: In the entrance to the large Casino supermarket [just before roundabout at foot of climb], there are 20 or so lockers where you can leave your stuff. These lockers take a 2 Euro coin which, on returning to collect your kit, can then be used to buy Coke and cakes!)

It was nice to get outside as the last couple of days have been snowy with gale force winds. Today could not have been more different; the new snowfall had already melted and it was sunny and warm.

I had it in the back of my mind to ride some or all of the Alpe d'Huez climb. It would be the first time this year, in fact, the first time since around October '08.

I am by no means complacent about the climb or about having it on our doorstep, however, over this winter the road snaking up the mountain has just become an impressive backdrop to my trips to Bourg d'Oisans for shopping, etc. Now, approaching on the bike again, I felt a little apprehensive, so much so that at the last moment I swung hard left and did a further few kilometres in the valley kidding myself that it was all good 'warm up'. On my second approach I went for it! Well, sort of.

By hairpin 21 I was painfully (and I mean painfully) aware of the chasm of fitness that needs to be bridged to get me back to last season's form. By hairpin 20 I had already checked 2 or 3 times that I wasn't still in the big ring, it certainly felt like I was. By hairpin 19 I was starting to enjoy myself - but not that much as at hairpin 18 I did a U-turn and enjoyed the descent back to Bourg. Well, it will still be there tomorrow...

Helyn
www.kingofthemountains.co.uk

I have spent all of this morning and early afternoon in the office doing King of the Mountains admin'. All that remained to tie up the paperwork was a quick trip to the Post Office and bank.

Guy has the minibus all day today so my only form of transport was my bike. I don't often need much of an excuse to ride my bike and usually jump at the chance. Today however my ride to Bourg d'Oisans was hampered by very strong and very cold winds. My aerodynamics weren't helped much by my rucksack bulging with letters, parcels and paperwork.

Fortunately by the time I got into town the wind had abated and it was much warmer. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the bank is always shut on a Monday. Next stop the Post Office. Ah, the Post Office: 'Fermeture Exceptionelle'. Roughly translated this means 'Closed due to exceptional circumstances'. Unluckily for me, these exceptional circumstances had happened only 5 minutes before my arrival at their door.

I really hope that the phrase ''fermeture exceptionelle' is included in every French phrasebook ever printed, because a visitor to France - even on a day trip - is bound to come across it at least once. Customers (or should I say would be customers) are informed of a fermeture exceptionelle by a note taped to the door or window of the establishment. Sometimes these notices are not even printed, just a hastily scribbled couple of lines on the back of an envelope that may as well read 'we fancied the afternoon off'.You may be surprised to find out that the fermeture exceptionelle is not exclusive to small, family run or rural business, no! The fermeture exceptionelle can happen at even the largest of supermarkets, DIY shops, public buildings, sports facilities, etc. etc.

By now I should have become hardened to these little A4 notes, however, each time I see one and my shopping or admin' is thwarted I get just that little bit more up tight and angry. So, today it took a lot for me not to start jumping up and down and pulling at my hair like Basil Fawlty in Bourg d'Oisans high street. Instead, I hopped back on my bike and pedaled furiously to Allemont (just down the valley, after the right turn to the Croix de Fer and Glandon). Unusually, Allemont post office closes at midday every day and does not re-open until 8am the next morning - cue Basil Fawlty.

By this time the sun was out and I decided it was time to salvage my afternoon. I carried on riding (still carrying my backpack of letters) and did a 'tour de barrage'. This is a little loop of the lake at Allemont favoured by our cycling neighbours at this time of year because it's nice and gentle and only a 40km round trip. It was lovely, very peaceful and lots of beautiful primroses and catkins in full bloom. The second time today my heart rate was raised, but this time for good reasons!

Thankfully for my 'anger management', France has lots more in the way of beautiful road riding than it does 'fermeture exceptionelles'!

Helyn
www.kingofthemountains.co.uk

We have just spent 3 days in the 'Ardeche' area.

During our 3 hour journey south, all traces of snow gradually disappeared save for on the very highest mountain peaks. We soon shed our gloves and woolly hats and donned shorts and T-shirts. It was as if we had jumped straight from winter to summer, bypassing spring.

Breakfast on the terrace! Crazy to think that back at home our garden furniture has not yet emerged from the snowdrifts. We had a couple of glorious rides in shorts and short sleeved jerseys - opened up our accounts on the cyclist's silly tan lines and had that great feeling of heat radiating back up at you from the tarmac, 24 degrees C, unimaginable!

Returning home yesterday we found that the good weather had hit the Oisans too. The melt is creeping up the valley towards the village and the waterfalls starting to appear again where there were recently icicles. The snow pile outside the front door has receded to 3ft from 5ft and patches of brown grass are being exposed on the slopes behind the house.

I had a very short ride today - slightly different story to the Ardeche; leggings, long fingered gloves and overshoes (thank goodness the 'Festival of the Black Pudding' was the end of last month as my all-black get up could have me passed as a particularly succulent exhibit [4 kilos gained this winter!]). There are primroses at the foot of Alpe d'Huez, there's a warmth in the air and a generally high level of grinning and waving amongst fellow cyclists on the road.

Spring has sprung, it's official!

Helyn

www.kingofthemountains.co.uk

Loads of powdery snow fell last night but it's not hanging around for long as the spring sunshine was on us today and temperatures are due to rise throughout the week - hooray!

We put on our snowshoes this afternoon, strapped our cross country skis to our backs and walked the 2km 'off road' to the Col d'Ornon. At the col, we did a quick 5km circuit on the skis (MUCH easier than Sundays' efforts!) and then trotted back home for hot chocolate, bliss!

See photo top left and below.

Helyn & Guy

www.kingofthemountains.co.uk
www.winter.kingofthemountains.co.uk

I would never advise anyone to participate in the 'Marmotte' or a marathon, for example, without being well trained and well prepared. Why then, yesterday did I embark upon the cross country ski equivalent of that scenario? Inexperienced and under trained, it was a given that I may find myself in the tiniest bit of difficulty. Understatement.

The event was the 'Traversee du Vercors'. Basically; get up very early, drive your car to the beautiful Vercors mountains, park, have a shuttle bus take you 50km away from your vehicle and then ski back to it climbing 1,050 metres in the process. No get out, no broom wagon, no escape - the route is, as the name of the event suggests, a traverse across a mountain range. The pistes are created especially for the event (only a few kilometres of public ski pistes are used ) and are wild, remote but very beautiful.

Here are a few things I learned from my 7 hour ordeal yesterday:

-From the gun, skiing up the equivalent of the first two hairpins of Alpe d'Huez has an incredible effect on your heart rate.
-Wearing flashy, 'all the gear and no idea' clothing only makes you look even more inept when you keep falling over.
-To take signs of vomit in the snow as a warning.
-The toppling domino effect of around 15 skiers on a 10% downhill slope is actually quite funny unless you are one of them.
-Under extreme conditions I crave foodstuffs that will blatantly not be available at feed stations (I think it's probably 30 years since I last drank Corona Cherryade and anyway, it would have taken more than cherries to aid me at that point).
-Kilometres on skis pass a lot slower than kilometres on a bike; when you feel like you are nearly at the half way mark you have only actually covered 11km.
-Lycra makes for poor protection of the coccyx.
-Pain and suffering breeds solidarity and you get to meet some lovely people along the way.
-Shouting and swearing at looming hills does not make them go away.
-When at least 5 people have asked you 'Ca va?' (you OK?), you must look as dreadful as you feel.
-When a whippet of a Frenchman says steep, he means STEEP.
-Not to underestimate the terrain.
-Not to overestimate my abilities.
-When Guy says things are a stupid idea he is not often wrong.
-That on this occasion I mean never again.

Helyn
www.kingofthemountains.co.uk
www.winter.kingofthemountains.co.uk

...but we still have about a metre and a half of snow outside the house.  Still ski-ing, still chopping logs, still lighting log fires BUT you get the feeling this will all break soon and we'll be dusting off the bikes and putting away all things "winter" in a box in the loft.  Watch this space.

Guy

PS: Helyn off doing the 50km Traversee de Vercors XC ski even as I type - look out for a race report shortly.

www.kingofthemountains.co.uk