Discovering Briancon

No work today, it's Sunday!!
Go up and out on the bike early keen to finish the challenge, nice and easy ride on the flat for 22kms and mission accomplished...at last!!!
I had decided on a road trip (in the car for a change) for today with the historic township of Briancon the destination of choice. The weather was a complete contrast to yesterday with hardly a cloud in the sky and the mountains looking magnificent with all the new snow.
The drive over included part of what I had ridden earlier in the month over Col du Lautaret, much easier in the car, then it was down the other side to Briancon, about a 80km trip over.

Briancon is the highest town in Europe, I spent my time there exploring the Cite Vauban of Briancon, a medieval old town that was a military city in the eighteenth century and is surrounded by fortifications. It was very easy to spend a good half day there wandering around in absolute awe of the structures, views and history.

Waking up to snow falling

This morning I woke up and looked out the window to see snow falling, quite amazing really considering the fact that summer starts next week. Anyway it was a good excuse to have a bit of a sleep in as well as a good opportunity to catch up on some more work.
I worked away up until just after lunch and then got tempted by the break in the weather to get out on the bike, another motivation was the fact that I had signed up for an online challenge to complete 813kms of riding between 13 and 26 May and I still had 123kms to go with only today and tomorrow left.
I headed out and found a couple of new hills to challenge the legs and then added a nice scenic traverse along another balcony type road that was more or less on the opposite side of the valley to the one I rode the other day.
Didn't get back until after 6pm and managed to clock up 104kms for the afternoon, leaving a mere 20kms to do tomorrow to complete the challenge.
Good day all round really!!

La Berarde - don't look down

Firstly for all you critics, I actually put in close to an 8 hour day of work today, ok maybe closer to 6 hours. Very inconvenient meant that I didn't get out on the bike until about 2pm, I'd decided to ride out to La Berarde which is a bit further on from the ride I'd previously done to Venosc, a good bit further on as it turned out.
The climb up to Venosc wasn't too bad and I'd done that one before but then the climb out of Venosc was a nice steep tough one, then a short bit of flat stuff beside the river before another tough climb up to St-Christophe-en-Oisans, after which the grade lessened off somewhat but still uphill. What a spectacular road and scenery though (again). another narrow road that seems to hang over the edge of the mountain, this one however didn't have any guardrail or wall of any sort so it was a case of "don't look down".
Another great ride and some more spectacular, remote mountain landscape!!!!

More about the bike and lifestyle rather than "working from anywhere"

Ok, so I have to admit that this blog has now become more about the cycling and the lifestyle here in the French Alps, all I can say in my defense of this is that you can only write so much on the working side of things, the bottom line is that the actual "Working from Anywhere" is working and working well.
Needless to say that today started off with some work, as I said what more can I say?
Then I'd picked out a 100km loop that was partly some of a route that I did the other day but in reverse and the middle part of the route a different direction. The route was named in the guide book as "Le tour du Plateau Matheysin par la Morte", this route started off going up Col d'Ornon the opposite side to my 93km loop that I did on Saturday, then moved back on the reverse direction as this ride until just after Valbonnes where it turned up towards La Morte and the ski resort of l'Alpe du Grand Serre.

the ski resort of l'Alpe du Grand Serre

The climb up to La Morte wasn't too bad or it could be a case that I'm just getting used to all the climbing, I stopped for some much needed lunch at  l'Alpe du Grand Serre, I would have stopped sooner but couldn't find anything open, a bit of a trap in these parts, you never know when they will be open.
Then it was a very exciting 12km descent into Sechilienne, as mentioned many times before the descents are an absolute thrill, roads are mostly smooth with lots of sweeping corners and the odd hairpin to keep you on your toes (or brakes). It was back to the highway home, a lengthy part of which is a gradual but consistent uphill so its a bit of a tough drag to finish, I was feeling pretty good by the time I got to my turnoff though so decided to keep going into Bour d Oisans to my favourite bakery to treat myself to coffee and cake before heading home, adding an extra 15kms to my trip, ended up 119kms for the day.
Certainly clicking up the km's, I've now covered close enough to 1000kms since I've been here and even more telling is I have now surpassed 20,000m of climbing, thats 20km's of vertical gain in 17 days!!!!!

Climbing up a rugged snow lined mountain

A bit of a hazard on the way!

I got up and into some work nice and early after yesterday's rest day off the bike, this had me finished early and set to get back out in the mountains for the best part of what was looking to be a stunning day.
Going through my handy cycling route guide (an excellent production provided free by the Tourist Information centre), I thought I'd put together a combination of a couple of the routes to cover a bit of extra ground.
A very good choice in the end that had me riding up a very rugged and narrow mountain road, climbing up the Col de Sarenne, from here it was a descent into Alpe d Huez on a snow lined road, breathtaking views on the way. I got to Alpe d Huez and had flat tyre which was easily fixed, then it was a coffee and baguette at the Indianna Bar & Cafe at the top of Alpe D Huez.
Next was a the exhilarating descent down the hairpins as far as la Garde-en-Oisans where I turned off to follow another mountain hugging road through Auris-en-Oisans, another spectacular road, a bit of climbing (yet again) but well worth it, passing through little tunnels on the way.
It was then a descent onto the main road back to Bourg d Oisans, stopping for another coffee en route back to Allemont.
A very nice 90km loop for the day, another great adventure in the French Alps.

The weekend has arrived

The weekend is here so I'm treating it like a weekend at home, no work!!!

Passing through
another village

The day started off with clear skies and some sunshine although still a little chilly, so I thought I'd attempt the loop ride that my friend Guy Little (owner of King f the Mountain Chalet in Ornon) suggested. It was everything that Guy promised, a nice hoot along the highway that was slightly downhill all the way to Sechilienne, then turn off the highway climbing through the forest to Laffrey, around the lake for a bit and then another slight climb into Cholonge, then some lovely quiet narrow country roads through farmland and villages to La Mure, onward then back into the mountains and up Col d'Ornon for the last climb before the long descent back to Bourg d Oisans.
Ended up a tough 93km loop that had a bit of everything both terrain and weather, the sunshine turned to rain and icey headwind for the second part of the ride but a very enjoyable and somewhat different ride to the others I have experienced, definitely going to do this one again.

Australian governments andcouncils should follow this lead
This sign was on a quiet road, they are also on major roads.

Cycling over here really is quite different to Australia, one major difference is the respect given to cyclists by motorists, you feel much safer as the motorists here actually wait until its safe to overtake you with plenty of room to spare rather than try and squeeze by you, there is also plenty of signage to support this.

Cracking the 1 hour on Alpe d Huez

coming round the mountain

Ok so it rained (and snowed in some places) all night and continued for the morning so it was another opportunity to chip away at the workload. Sorted out a few things with Kaycee back in the Tathra office, managed and actioned my emails and had a pretty productive work morning.
Then the sun threatened to make an appearance, I just couldn't help myself I needed to get out there on the bike, its just too tempting. It was getting late in the day so I thought maybe a challenge rather than a long discovery ride would be the order of the day, this time last week I achieved 3 ascents of Alpe d Huez so I thought I would attempt this tough climb with the aim of cracking the 1 hour, ambitious but no more than last weeks challenge.

Villard-Reculas

I gave myself a nice warm up on the 8km ride to the base of the mountain, stopped at the base, shed some layers, tied my helmet to the handlebars, reset my lap meter and off I went on the attack. The climb is a touch over 12kms so I knew that I would need to keep my average speed up over 12km/h to achieve my goal, I could monitor this by use of my trusty Garmin.
Long story short, I dug in at the steeper start of the climb and at one stage was a bit concerned that I could keep it up, I managed to get into a more even pace through the middle section and then toughed it out for the top section. Keeping an eye on the average which was slowly reducing as the climb wore on but still hopeful, then I dug deep for the last 1km and was ecstatic to get to the line just under the 1 hour...challenge success..oh yeah.
After espresso at the top I decided to head back to Allemont a different route, turning off a little way down to follow a stunning narrow mountain road that traverses the mountain to Villard-Reculas before an icey but adrenaline pumping descent into Allemont.
Arrived back at my home in Allemont absolutely pumped, this place is so so exciting!!!!

Where did the blue sky go?

Woke up to a cold and rainy looking day, so I was thinking that a bit of work followed by a rest day would be on the cards,  but then I convinced myself that the weather was clearing. I'd been up to visit Guy Little at Ornon the previous afternoon, we stayed with Guy and his wife Helyn on our previous trip, Guy suggested a nice scenic 90km ride, so once I'd convinced myself that the weather was clearing off I went.

Umm which one today?

Needless to say I was wrong, the further I got into the scenic ride the wetter, foggier and colder it got, not to mention the fact that I couldn't actually see any scenery. I climbed up to beyond Laffrey before deciding that there was no point continuing the loop. I turned around and headed back the same way, stopped for something hot to eat in Laffery then continued home, still managed a 62km ride with a pretty tough climb up Laffery though, I'll just have to return another day when the weather clears and I can actually see the scenery.
A nice hot shower was the more than welcome followed by lunch and then into Bourg d Oisans to my favourite bakery to enjoy a lemon tart and espresso, do some washing and a bit of shopping.

Work, play and lifestyle

Still getting used the time zone change which meant I was up at 4.30am this morning, that gave me an opportunity to get some work done and still have a good part of the day left to get out and about.
The working from anywhere systems all seem to be working, even receiving phone calls on Skype when people call our office number. The quality of sound is pretty good too and the people don't realise that they are talking to me in France.
So I really am working from anywhere, not just having fun as some people have suggested, definitely balanced in favour of fun and lifestyle though, but hey lifes short.
So work being all done, the weather was looking good so I decided to tackle one of the higher climbs, the Col du Lautaret, the climb itself is about 35kms, the good news being its then 35kms back down again, very exhilarating. Spectacular scenery on the way, huge mountains, fast flowing rivers, waterfalls and tunnels though the mountain make for a pretty special experience.