Day Eight (again)

Start: Geneva Finish: Chamonix

Distance: 66miles Climb: 3,320ft Moving Time: 4:30 Average Speed: 12mph Max Speed: 32mph

Apologies for short blog post last night – we were completely shattered. Today, I haven’t even seen my bike and feel like I’ve been really quite lazy, so here is yesterday’s story:

We were in a plush hotel, we’d just cycled two of the hardest days – there was no way we were getting up before 10am. We headed down to a café on the shore of Lake and had a quick coffee and croissant before setting off on our final day! And it was to be only 50miles – what a doddle.

It was a slow grind out of Geneva and the first 10 miles were on Le Grand Route and so unfortunately were quite busy, but progress was good and we smashed through the first 25 miles without much trouble. I got chatting to a French cycling nerd along the way who tried to persuade us to join him for a local Col as a little bit more of a challenge – ‘no thanks mate, I’ve come from London’.

Unfortunately though, after a great lunch with amazing views down the valley towards the Mont Blanc massif, a last minute decision to take ‘the scenic route’ provided us with one of the hardest challenges of the trip. An unbelievably steep set of hairpin turns into the forests above Les Houches took the best part of an hour, but every now and again we got a sneaky peak through the trees and up towards the beautiful snowcapped mountains and glaciers running down into the valley.

Once out of the forest, we had a relatively nice descent into Chamonix. After passing the first sign welcoming us to Chamonix Mont Blanc, Albert was ready to get off and catch the bus into town – but I persuaded him another 1km into the centre of town wouldn’t hurt. Turns out I was wrong…

After 7 days and nearly 700 miles of cycling, and with 100m to go to the high street, I took a final glance up to the top of Mont Blanc…. Next thing I knew, I hit a man hole cover, swerved to the left, then to the right, then ended up on my face in the middle of the road. Cool as a cucumber.

A bit of emergency maintenance to make sure the bike could make the final 100m into town, and we cruised down the high street – where hundreds of people were waiting for us and North Face had set up a huge DJ tent playing thumping drum and bass music. It also turns out it was the North Face Ultra Marathon finals too – with the main event being a 300km race with 24000m of climbing – ridiculous.

We met our fantastic support team and celebrated with a couple of beers. STAGE ONE – Complete. It’s pretty ridiculous to think I left London on my bike only a week earlier. And what a week it has been! Exciting, Exhausting, Hardships and Hilarity – the cycle stage is done and dusted.

Albert left this morning and headed back to Nice. An incredible achievement by him and I really can’t thank him enough for coming along. Cycling alone all week would have been seriously dull! Couldn’t have asked for a better cruising companion. He’s hoping to fly back next week and join us for a summit attempt.

Now to the serious stuff – mountaineering and paragliding!

The mountains are dangerous – and recent statistics not particularly favourable – but I’m absolutely raring to go. I’m confident of physical and mental state – but incredibly nervous about the aspects beyond our control – weather, avalanches, hangovers…

The next few days will be spent acclimitasing, climbing and flying, and keeping our fingers crossed for a weather window. Its due to be stormy over the weekend but we are hopeful it will clear up for Tuesday/Wednesday and we’ll start our climb on Thursday.

I’ll update the blog sporadically over the next few days – perhaps just with photos – but will keep you informed of any big stories! Thanks again for all of your support.

Also – Jenni and Graham, who I am staying with in Chamonix and who are going to be climbing Mont Blanc and flying us off the top will be sharing some stories on their blog – do check it out!

http://blinkandbreathe.co.uk/

Sam

Albert:

Today Sam's dad squashed a wasp with his napkin at breakfast on Lake Geneva. I didn't get stung once all day. Coincidence? I think not.

So, out of the three of us, only the wasp failed to make it to Chamonix. Although Sam took a fairly spectacular tumble about 100m from the town centre and I nearly had a stroke on the particularly strenuous mountain route Sam chose for us today.

It is beautiful here under the ice-capped peak of the Mont Blanc and I will try to make it back next week for the big push to the top. Thanks for a great trip to team Forman!