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Heading out for two weeks in June for a family holiday with as much riding shoehorned in as possible, anyone have any advice on routes / riding options? Will be packing mtb (xc) + roadbike in van.
Thanks!
We spent a day biking in La Clusaz, the next valley over a couple of years ago. There are a couple of downhill tracks but we didn't find much XC stuff other than lot's of looong fire road climbs. That said, you are an hour away from Portes de Soleil and all that entails. I didn't do any, but the area looks great for road biking.
Yup, been twice, there are probably better mountain biking areas but there's still some amazing riding and the La Clusaz DH tracks are fun. It also has the advantage that there are almost no other riders around. No specific route advice but there's lots of fun stuff, aim for rooty stuff rather than rocky stuff in my experience.
Le Grand Bornand tourist office has (or had a couple of years ago) a map of marked XC routes around the valley - a couple of them start from the top of the village lift. A friend and I did the longest one, which we made even longer by riding up to join up with the track. A few of the routes use fireroads and tarmac, but there are some nice bits of trail too.
I don't think I'd recommend Grand Bornand as a destination for XC riding, but there's enough for at least 3 or 4 good rides.
For road biking there's a lot of choice - it's one of the rare Alpine villages that isn't stuffed up the end of a valley so you can head off in different directions. You might end up on big roads when connecting up cols on the other sides, but from the village is pretty quiet.
Perfect base for road riding. You've got the Colombiere (both sides), col de Romme, Flaine, Araches, Aravis etc
The Flaine area is also really good for more technical XC orientated mountain biking & less than an hour's drive. Megeve is just down the road too.
exactly what timb34 said, is my experience and advice also.
the road riding is fantastic, as are the cafe's
just across the way from the main campsite is a great bar that does huge portions and TdF on the TV
road riding, either get them in early before tourists get up, or get them in around lunchtime, hot for sure, but slightly quiter roads i found as everyone is eating!
Friend of mine used Annecy as a bit of a training base prior to doing the Etap, he particularly liked the ride up Semnoz which he said was on quiet / closed roads inside a park - so much so he did it twice in one day. As others have noted the area inc La Clusaz is well know for top quality food (and not ridiculous prices either). The VTT trail maps are usually (frustratingly) only available from the tourist office. A kind STWer emailed me one, I'll dig it out.
Thanks for the advice! The xc map would be much appreciated jambalaya