Suisse Normande 2016 - Barrage busters

Suisse Normande 2016

On the night of the 8th September Greg, Simon, Chris and I took the over night ferry to Caen for this year’s mountain biking road trip, back to Suisse Normande.

Day 1, Friday 9th September, Grimbosq.

After a hearty breakfast we rolled of the ferry and we decided to head straight to the house where we stay in Le Billot to drop of our non-riding kit and grab a decent cup of coffee. As its day one we head to Grimbosq forest for a fun day of riding and to ease ourselves in to it.
Grimbosq forest is at the most northern point of Suisse Normade with the closest major town being Thury-Harcourt just south to it. We unload the van and head of in to the forest; it is at this point Simon has the first crash of the tour riding on something not even remotely gnarly! We ride to the trail head and there are loads French school children everywhere all on their bikes, this is our kind off school!
On the first singletrack run down Greg takes the lead with me tucking in behind, we have both forward and rear facing cameras running, or at least we think we did….  We cross over the gully to ride the top single track with a fast run then a 2nd filming run ending by dropping down to the old train bridge for photo’s and to take in the scenery.

From here we pick up the RED route 7 and follow it on the west side of the Orne with a couple of lovely decants and not so lovely climbs. We cross back over the river at Goupillieres and we stop on the bridge, I notice a poppy wreath on the bridge so I stop to read the plaque. It reads, “In memory of Ernie Blincow and his companions who liberated this bridge on 8th August  1944”, I love finding things like this and then looking up the story behind it, read about Ernie Blincow here.

From the bridge we climb up to the Grimbosq village then back in to the forest for a long, gentle climb back to the van. That evening we chilled out in glorious sunshine in the garden with a BBQ.

click to link

Day 2, Saturday 10th September, the big ride.

Each trip we like to do a big ride, here we don’t follow just one route, but we link several together and ride between to major towns. We have actually done the Thury-Harcout to Clecy and back to Thury before, but it’s a great ride and I pretty much do it map free.

Starting in Thury-Harcout we park under the trees by the Ruine Du Chateau De Thury-Harcourt and join RED 4 heading south, this starts with a ride through town and a gentle climb to get some elevation. As you drop back down in to the next valley you have the choice of Black 11 or Red 10, Greg was in the lead and completely missed the black so RED 10 it was. Still a complete killer of a climb and it keeps going to you are back on top of the gorge, from here it’s a fast, flat-ish track all the way to the paraglider launch area. We stop for some photo’s and Greg has to exercise some demons and jump of the raised area and this time he even stays on!

Greg fly's!

From here we hook in to a BLACK decent that turns in to a GR run that lasts for ages and is massive fun. At the bottom we cross the river to Clecy for pizza at one of the many restaurants’s that line the Orne.

In the afternoon we have a gentle start following GREEN 17. We bump in to a couple of French kids whom tell us about a 'barrage' on the trail, we carry on and the path is covered with an old tree blocking the trail. Invoking the spirit of Ernie we ride straight over it and liberate the path! We also spot an old disused mill on the river near Saint-Remy and dream up several uses for it, i'll just leave that there.

Old disused Mill near Saint-Remy, Craft Beer anyone?

After the green we join Blue 14 and then the Liaison along the western edge of the river. Now things get hard as we join RED 4 all the way back to Thury. The climb is brutal, 1st gear and in the sunshine with no rest, you think you have done it when you get to St-Martin de-Sallen but it’s another climb all the way up to the Chapelle St-Joseph. After the climb the downhill is pretty scary, not scary like a super tough Alpine run, but scary in a rutted, rooty, steep with barb wire fence kinda way. There is one gentler climb before the awesome gully with massive boulders downhill that takes you back to Thury. Unfortunately my phones battery quit so I missed the last segment of ride on Strava and the last downhill… The evening was spent with a simple dinner of baguette, cheese and wine!

Day 3, Sunday 11th September, Clecy and home.

It was our last day but we didn’t have to be on the ferry until the afternoon, so we cleaned the house, packed the van and headed to Clecy to ride over the gorge. Clecy is the capitol of the region and an amazing hub for an outdoor life, offering hiking, cycling, kayaking, paragliding and via ferrata.
We park by the river and head of on RED 16, this crosses the river at Le Bo and climbs up to the top of the gorge, however we should of jumped on the black halfway up the climb but carried on climbing on the red. At this point it looked like we were going away from the gorge and with no map to check we thought we would participate in some off-piste hike-a-bike to get back to where we should have been, once back on the track we get on the top of the gorge. This route is just brilliant and takes you along the top via a swopping trail embedded with rocks and roots with a final decent through a boulder strewn path that even includes a decent jump!

Greg and Simon

Back at Clecy I treat everyone to an ice cream from one of the many bars along the river and we re-pack the van pretty contented.

We head back to Ouisterham to catch the ferry all in great spirits after a great weekend away, we even won the Brittany Ferries pub quiz on the way!

Winners

It was a shame that Paul didn’t make the trip this year; after all he was the one that introduced us to the area in the first place. But even so, we all agreed that we loved riding here and we will definitely be back!

Map

Road trip 2013: Return to Suisse Normande

Having missed out on the Alpes trip this year our cycling road trip was back to Suisse Normande.

We headed off to France on the overnight sailing from Portsmouth to Ouistreham on Wednesday 11^th October and landed at 07.15 French time. We had a ‘good’ night in the bar so we were nursing a few sore heads…

Day 1, Thursday 12^th.

We headed off to Grimbosq forest for some more fun trail style riding and some filming.

Grimbosq is locally used by lots of schools so it is not unusual to see School kids there, this time they had a lesson on bikes, how cool!

The first singletrack run is good fun and fast but has these weird bumps, so you can almost ride it like a pump track. 

there they are!

Pritchard strikes a pose...

The mummy returns!

We do this run a few times then head over the back to do the singletrack that’s part of the RED 7 route.
Grimbosq singletrack from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

We do a ‘sighting’ run at a low pace then return for some speed, unfortunately not everyone is feeling it… due to the previous night’s excesses! That evening is spent chilled with a BBQ tea and we make a firm plan for the next day.

Day 2, Friday 13^th – Greg’s Birthday ride.
We head of for Clecy and park down by the river, the aim is to ride for Pont d’Ouilly on the west side of the river and have lunch and then return on the east side.

The ride is quick and we find ourselves with a choice of a long climb then fire road downhill or a long climb and gully downhill, obviously the gully won. After the climb you enter the downhill with a drop off, so leaving a comfortable gap we all huck in. The route down is loose and sketchy and we all end with a skid and a big grin! A nice spin along the river we end in Pont d’Ouilly for a Pizza.

The afternoon ride back is mixed with hideous climbs and punctures but we climb the gorge to ride the red trail along the top of Lieu-dit Rochers des Parcs. Chris had a little crash along the top, which we never let him forget….
Ridge riding over Clecy, Suisse Normande from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

That evening we went to a little local restaurant in Le Billot for Greg’s birthday, all dressed in lovely Hawaiian shirts…

Day 3, Saturday 14” – Clecy.

Back to Clecy for two rides, this time in the ‘team’ Hawaiian shirts! 

looking dam fine!

The morning ride we chose RED 16 but chose to ride it in reverse so we could take in the gorge to the north of Clecy with the paragliding launch on. The ride itself was a tough one, lots of climbing and even more punctures due to a lot of thorny hedge clippings. When we finally made the paragliding launch we stopped to fix yet more punctures and talked Greg in to doing a little jump…

FILE0022 from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

more punctures, with a pre-crash Pritchard

not to sure what Sprucey was up too...

For the downhill we decide to ride the official red route rather than the black we usually take in the hope that the singletrack would last longer. Greg and I are first with Paul, Chris and Sprucey following. We get to a really steep, rooty, rocky segment which Greg and I clear, we stop at the next junction and hear a lot of noise, somebodys binned it… The other three rock up and its Paul, he came off on the roots and left grazed his arm, leg, crash helmet… We all take it easy back to Clecy for lunch.

After Lunch Paul wants to ride so we do Blue 14, don’t bother, it was a proper rubbish ride. That evening Sprucey treats us to one of his legendry roast dinners, job done.

Day 4, Sunday 15^th September, home.
We have got to catch the 2 o’clock ferry from Ouistreham, so potential riding time is very limited, nobody is that excited about it so we pack and head for home.

Another great riding weekend with lots of highs and lows, the weather was not great so it prevented some serious fast riding, but I would recommend a riding weekend in Suisse Normande to anyone. Clecy is only an hour away from Ouisterham, so new trails are only a ferry ride away!

kylie looking fine

going down...

Suisse Normande riding from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

Road Trip: Suisse Normande 2011

In September we packed the van and headed off across the channel to France, more specifically the area known as 'Suisse Normande'.
Suisse Normande lies roughly 25km south of Caen, along the gorge of the River Orne, and consists of 27 marked routes with over 600kms of cycling. Each route is graded from green, blue, red, black, with black being an XC nightmare! All of the trails are more XC orientated as the tracks pretty much either go up or down, however there are some cracking trails out there and some really testing DH runs, but you got to know where to look.
Data supplied by Greg and his iphone. Average speed is a little low, but I put this down to 1, a lot of climbing... and 2, when riding in a group there is inevitably a lot of stopping. The highest speed was clocked on a cycle computer at 43mph.

Day 1, Grimbosq Forrest.
Just north of Thury Harcuort, we discovered the forrest as part of RED 7 (GR36) loop. There are some fantastic singletrack runs here, with the first running parallel to the main path. For the next great singletrack run you need to follow GR36 over the northern stream and climb up the other side. This is worth riding a couple of times as it is very, very good. To finish double back along the singletrack and take the BLACK run back down to the river, it’s very steep!

suisse normande from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

Day 2, the Epic.
A point to point ride from Thury to Clecy. The highlights are climbing to the top of the gorge to the para glider launch then the DH BLACK run to the bottom. The return starts with a gentle ride along the Orne to the biggest climb... be warned its a monster. Once at the Church it’s pretty much DH all the way to Thury, ending in a rocky technical DH that rules...

stunning views

Ride: ‘Point to Point’, Thury-Harcourt to Clecy and back Date: 24 Sep 2011 9:08 amDistance: 21.1 milesElapsed Time: 4:31:41Avg.
Speed: 4.7 mphMax. S
peed: 34.7 mphAvg.
Pace: 12' 53" per mile

Day 3, RED 25.
Starting at Rouvrou and great XC loop with testing climbs and DH runs, eventually climbing to the stunning viewpoint at La Roche d’Oetre. Highlights are the ultra tech rocky DH singletrack and the very fast DH fire road back in to Rouvrou.

ready to go!!!!

Ride: Rouvrou loop
Date: 25 Sep 2011 9:03 am
Distance: 9.78 miles
Elapsed Time: 2:10:32
Avg. Speed: 4.5 mph
Max. Speed: 26.5 mph
Avg. Pace: 13' 21" per mile

Day 3, afternoon, RED 23. Medium climb, all on the road, bonkers downhill back to the river.

Ride: Pont-d’Ouilly loop
Date: 25 Sep 2011 12:52 pm
Distance: 4.85 miles
Elapsed Time: 1:13:26
Avg. Speed: 4.0 mph
Max. Speed: 34.5 mph
Avg. Pace: 15' 09" per mile
Day 4, Le Billot.
Local ride (to where we were staying) that always seems to be muddy, no matter what the weather. Great downhill of the plateau, killer climb back up.

Ride: Le Billot loopDate: 26 Sep 2011 8:26 amDistance: 5.86 milesElapsed Time: 1:21:38Avg. Speed: 4.3 mphMax. Speed: 27.7 mphAvg. Pace: 13' 55" per mile

the team

go ride!