...have been busy but exciting here at King of the Mountains. For a start the weather has been glorious, lots of sunny days and great riding temperatures.

We have had many returning guests these past two weeks; Kevin and Brioni, on their 6th visit to us, but this time leaving the bike behind and instead coming on a motorbike. This gave them great freedom to whiz around and catch a few stages of the Giro d'Italia which was passing just near the French/Italian border.

Simon and Sarah re-visited us after a fleeting trip back in 2005. They rode themselves into the ground covering 455 miles and approx. 14,000 metres of climbing in the process, a pretty respectable tally during their week. Being triathletes, they included in amongst this the long-course route of the Alpe d'Huez triathlon which passes our door.

At the same time as Simon and Sarah were here, we had a group of 4 (Cookie, Jon/Marcus, Stan and Ed) who had just ridden the 'Cingles de Ventoux' - that's riding all 3 routes up the Mont Ventoux in a day. We'd assumed that they would want a restful few days after their efforts, but on the contrary; they hit the mountains hard and were 100% enthusiasm and energy for their whole stay.

We've had a good number of people here to train for the Marmotte too taking advantage of the re-opening of most of the Marmotte cols after the snow (the Galibier is only partially open). The 'Challenge Dauphine Libere' cyclosportive yesterday gave them all a good few quality miles and cols in preparation for July's event (more on that in the following post).

In a brief quiet spell, Guy and I spent a great 24hours up on the Col de la Croix de Fer camping and walking. A great excuse to test the 19 Euro tent that I bought from the supermarket (see picture top left). At that price it was either going to be a waste of money or the best 19 Euros that we've ever spent. Just 5 minutes to put up and we were as comfy as could be - money well spent! As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Col de la Croix de Fer is by far my favourite ride in this area, over the many times I have ridden it my curiosity has been mounting to find out what goes on behind those peaks and around those lakes off the beaten track. We had a great circular walk taking in some paths that in winter are ski pistes. There was still a fair amount of residual snow covering north facing slopes over 2,400 metres and even after our recent spell of warm weather some of the lakes up there were only just starting to thaw. Always a bonus to spot Marmottes and on the walk the count was high - we saw around 20 of them basking in the sun.

Yesterday, whilst the rest of the household were taking part in the sportive, I opted to stay at home, catch up with some chores and then slip out for a steady ride. I rode up the valley towards the foot of the Deux Alpes climb and just beyond that turned left for Mizoen and Clavans and eventually the Col de Sarenne. It's a tough climb from that side, the first part an off-putting 14%. The norm' is to descend this road from Alpe d'Huez - I was glad that I was climbing on this occasion as the road has not yet been swept since the thaw and hence is strewn with a lot of geology ranging from gravel to rocks the size of a cow! The summit was bathed in sunshine and that's where I met some lovely cycle tourists from Nottingham on their way via the Glandon and Madeleine to Lake Annecy - they should be there by now enjoying a dip in the lake. But for me it was back home to cook dinner for the tired and hungry riders fresh back from the cyclosportive - for more on that, over to Guy...

For pictures of the last two weeks of May, visit our 'Summer' folder on our Picasaweb site: Click here