Back in the Saddle Again

Things in France are really starting to come together! I have my living situation pretty much dialed in to the point where I actually got my bicycle out of the box and reassembled. I have been on a few rides at this point, starting out just getting my bearings and trying to find some form after sitting on the plane, driving a rental car, and generally doing everything except riding a bike for the last week.

I have collected a series of maps that show rides and bike routes around the area. I am quite pleasantly surprised at how many bike lanes, bike paths, and bike routes exist around here. It is pretty easy to get where you want to go without getting into too much traffic. And since France has a pretty dense major highway network, once you get onto the secondary and local roads, you find little traffic to scare the *%#@ out of you.

I started out riding Bike Route 63 which is a bike path separated from any car traffic that heads northwest to the town of Aix-Les-Bains and Lake Bourget, the largest natural lake in france. It is deadpan flat except there is an optional route to Aix-Les-Bains once you get to the lake that goes up a hill for about 6 minutes of riding. I usually try to do this mini climb a couple times just to mix things up, plus, I need the uphill training for the task at hand.

Once I figured out how to get where i was trying to get to (because I get lost riding a bike pretty easy which my friends will attest to), my next ride extended the ride onto the “Tour of the Bauges Massif by Bicycle” route.. This route really gets into the French countryside which is quite picturesque! Rolling green hills and lightly traveled country roads.

After two days of these rides, I took a day to rest since I am trying to push some larger gears and ride faster than I normally do back home. Now with some fresher legs, I attempted my first “Col” today (Wednesday). The Col de L’epine will not show up on any list of Tour De France routes, but it is right out of town here in Chambery. It is about a 715 meter climb (so everyone, let’s work on our metric conversions here…. ) about 2,350 feet of climbing.

Then it was down to Lac d’Aiguebelette. Then after wading into the lake for a moment, it was back up 600 meters to the Col again and back to my hotel. It was a very nice and scenic ride, and tiring too. Plus two signifiicant climbs under my belt!

So now that I have been here for over a week and got some rides in, I am feeling pretty happy with my choice of Chambery as a home base. The local riding seems to be pretty good with lots of variability, the weather is generally nice (so far), it is close enough to many of the famous climbs of the Alpes, and I just really like the city itself.