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hello
I'm off to stay near Lake Annecy in a few weeks and am hoping to get a day / afternoon off from family activity to do some riding. Hiring a bike would be needed and I'd prefer to do some MTB but some general CX/gravelling would be nice also. Not particularly bothered about grinding up a road col on this occasion.
Can anyone recommend locations, bike hire, routes please? I've done some web searching but some personal recommendations also go a long way.
thanks
unashamed weekend bump.
I found somewhere that hires decent bikes in Talloires on the eastern side of the lake so I guess they would also advise on routes but still looking for suggestions - cheers
Can't help about hire, but th ere j is a gravel Event round there, and thé route maps are here http://www.laresistance.cc/en/event/course-detail-and-maps/
thanks, I'll take a look at those. I think the bike hire place in Talloires is involved in that event so I'm going to drop them a mail in advance about route choices.
well I'm back from said location so I might as well answer my own post in case it proves useful for others.
Firstly - it's a beautiful area, certainly quite busy and geared up for the tourist trade around the lake but not tacky, over priced or too overdeveloped. We stayed in a campsite in Lathuile which was busy but had a good friendly atmosphere - large contingent of families from the Netherlands and France and a few Brits, Belgians and Germans in the mix.
The lake has a great bike path along the western side that runs the full length separate to the road, on the more scenic west side it is not fully joined up and has a few narrow road sections so less suitable for family riding.
As far as the riding goes, I hired a rather tasty Open Up gravel bike from Basecamp in Talloires for an afternoon - not that cheap but wanted to have something nice to ride and followed a route around the the western slopes up the Col Du Forclaz and taking in some forest road in the mix. There's apparently quite a bit of gravelly stuff to be had and I'd like to explore some more on a return visit.
For road riding it looks like a great area, my impression is that there are plenty of good climbs like Forclaz, Tamie and Semnoz that are not as arduous as some of well known alpine cols but still challenging.
For MTB, I'm not so sure. The only stuff we really saw was in La Sambuy which has chairlift access. I got a tourist map with 'VTT' routes marked but it wasn't clear if they are forest road or more singletrack type. Anyway, it's a lovely spot and I'm sure we'll be back - this time with own bikes in tow.
Sounds good. Love Annecy and plan to take my Open U.P. there for a week of exploring 🙂
good stuff - enjoy it - here are some of the routes from the Basecamp people
https://ridewithgps.com/users/916750?_ga=2.224257496.2100695601.1533304041-54795850.1533304041
The guy who hired me the bike said the shop owners had the best advice for gravel routes but they were busy at the time I was there and time was short so I followed the 'Dirty Forclaz' route from that list. The west-of-the lake bike path runs from Annecy to Ugine along the valley base - and I think some of the way to Albertville so it should give good access to the branching valleys
Really liked the UP but I think I should have sized up to large as I found the toe overlap a bit disconcerting. Nice and light on the climbs though. I didn't really believe in fancy carbon wheels but it may have changed my mind...
Some of those trails look perfect. Will give those guys a nudge.
I'm on a large U.P., no toe overlap 🙂