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.

Warnford loop to the SDW

Starting at the George and Falcon pub and Warnford, you can park here if you are eating or drinking or park on the side road (first left after the pub) on the grass verge.

Take the side road next to the pub (small stream on left) ride to the end turn RIGHT.

Ride past houses look for byway on your left at the edge of a field (field on your right).

Take the byway and head up steep climb, follow track until T junction. This track can get very, very muddy and only clears in patches on very dry weather. At T junction turn LEFT and follow to the road.

At road turn LEFT, look for RIGHT turn on to track, turn RIGHT.

Follow track until it turns in to a tarmac road keep RIGHT.

Follow road until T junction, turn Right, climb to Hinton Ampner, follow road down to A272 and cross. Be careful this is a fast road.

Follow track until the first cross roads, turn LEFT. Follow track until road, turn RIGHT.
Head through Cheriton village, stay on main road.

Turn LEFT by Cheriton Mill, follow road to Grange Farm, turn LEFT.

Follow track all the way to the barn on the South Downs Way.At Barn turn LEFT.

Ride down to gate, go through and ride up to gate, go through, cross field to gate on the far side, go through.
Ride down to A272, cross road (again very busy road, be careful) follow SDW through Holden Farm, follow SDW.

When SDW track runs out climb road to T junction turn RIGHT past the Millburys pub turn LEFT.

Follow road and turn RIGHT at Wind Farm, follow SDW past Lomer Farm all the way to the gate, go through and follow road until the 90 degree corner, turn LEFT through gate in to the nature reserve.

Strava section alert*, follow path until gate, go through.

Follow track (often over grown) until gate, go through.

Follow edge of the field, go through the gate (gate not there) on your RIGHT, turn left (DOWN) on to gravel track.

Follow down until the road, turn RIGHT.

Follow road back to the A32, turn LEFT back to the pub.

*we are in no way indorsing over stretching yourself to set a fast time… ahem…

Kingley Vale 2

Kingley Vale offers some of the best riding in the area. It has a good mix of climbing, descents and technical riding to keep things interesting – a good level of fitness + skill is needed.

Park in the lay-by on the B2146 / Walderton turning or if you are planning of a pub visit you can use the car park at the Barley Mo.

Head though the village and take the first bridle bath on the RIGHT.

Ride up the bridle path until you see a fence directly in front of you, ride through the gap on the left hand side and head left up the climb.

As the climb levels look for the path on the right, take it and ride up to the ruin and turn LEFT.

Follow the climb all the way to the top, there will be a little down (field on left) and the path follows the field around the end, little climb first RIGHT.

Follow the track straight on to the humps. It’s worth riding up on top of the humps as the views on a nice day are spectacular with views across Chichester harbour.

Keep on the main path until you come to a cross roads, turn LEFT, small rise then a flat out descent down to the main path.

You will now be at a quite big cross roads comminally called 'five ways' (long Barrows on the map), take the western path at the edge of the field, but look directly right for the start of ‘Sprucey’s singletrack’. We call it this after the guy who originally showed us it over 10 years ago

Follow Sprucey’s until it runs out, turn LEFT and follow singletrack.

This joins up with a purpose built DH track, everything is ride-able, however the faster you go the higher the likelihood of your wheels leaving the ground! Enjoy...

At the bottom take the main gravel path to your RIGHT and climb back to the top, back past five ways to the way to the humps.

Cross to the southern path you came in on and keep heading west.

When you get to the field turn LEFT (again where you came from) keep on the track around the corner and over the rise.

Look for the LEFT hand turn that has to access points, this is the start of the Adsdean downhill.

At the top its an open gravel fire road but quickly turns in to a path, the full length is 1.3 miles but if you exclude the fire road your have 1.1 miles of twisting super-fast track.

At the bottom it turns in to a road turn RIGHT, then turn LEFT and head to Adsdean house.

Pick up the bridleway to the left of the house which is pretty much straight on.

Small climb then it opens up to a downhill back to Walderton and the last chance to open the taps.

Follow down to the main road and turn LEFT, past the pub back to the car.

Pub Stop: The Barley Mo is a traditional English country pub with great beer and food. The home made beef burger is a must!

Soberton loop

We usually park in the gravel lay-by and the end of the forest on Hundred Acres wood rd.

Head north along the road and cross the main New Town road. Stay on the road all the way past Ingoldfield Farm, turn RIGHT.

Turn right again at Roy's Farm, keep on track until it splits turn LEFT.

Keep on the path (next to field) as you enter the copse, keep left. Ride track to the road, turn RIGHT.

Take the next track on the LEFT, ride the track all the way to the road, turn RIGHT.

Take Kings Way on your LEFT. Keep on track as it turns LEFT through trees and opens up to a fire road, turn RIGHT.

Gentle climb all the way to 'Buzzards Blast' downhill.... Named as you will always see a Buzzard somewhere down this track. Follow the downhill all the way to the road, turn LEFT.

Follow road all the way to Soberton, head under the old train bridge by the river Meon and walk (and carry your bike) up the steps up to the old Meon Valley train line.

Follow the train track to Upperford copse and head in to Hundred Acres woods just before the bridge.

Head to your right and take the first left and climb up tot he car park. turn LEFT on to the road and turn RIGHT in to the opposite car park.

Take the path down to the stream and turn Right and follow the track next to the stream. the track crosses the stream and climbs, keep LEFT and climb to the cross roads.

Head directly over the cross roads and climb the Pilgrim's Trail all the way tot he car park. Head to the road and turn LEFT.

Time for some gravity racing all the way back to the car, no pedalling! 

Images to follow.

Under the Bridge

This takes in as much singletrack as possible without heading in to QECP, there will be endless variations on this route such as stretching it out to Compton. Park in the back car park at the Country park just south of Buriton.

START.
Leave the car park and head EAST on the SDW as you reach the top of the first road climb look for 'V' gate on your RIGHT.

Head through the gate and climb up the path until it opens up on a fire road at the top of the climb in Head Down Plantation.

Look in the forest on your right to pick up the new Enduro trail, this trail runs parallel to the main fire road and will take you to the bottom of the hill heading SOUTH.



At the bottom take the LEFT track follow it round and go UNDER THE BRIDGE*, keep on the track by keeping to the left. Climb through the copse and pick up the SDW again at Coulters Dean Farm.

*When we did the ride last night the gates were closed under the bridge, if so just stay on the bridle way (marked orange) next to the train track all the way back to the SDW, then head RIGHT and pick up the ride.

Follow SDW EAST, once you cross the road (Sussex Boarder Path) to Forty Acre Lane, as lane climbs and curves to the left look for footpath on your RIGHT opposite the open sided barn. Take foot path.

The foot path is called 'Garlic Alley' by local riders due to the wild garlic that grows there. The singletrack twists and turns with some off-camber roots... until it opens up at its natural end.

galic alley from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

Take the field on your RIGHT, ride around the edge until you enter the woods on a defined path, take the left fork. Climb, keep left and pass through the gate on to the major fire road.

Turn right on to the fire road and climb, look for the major fire road on your LEFT, this is back on the Sussex Boarder Path. Follow SBP until you find the start of the singletrack at the junction where the main path turns right.

Keep on the SBP, follow the singletrack to the bottom, there are a few natural jumps at the top, lots of roots and be aware for fallen branches and trees.

sussex boarder path from DanJones34 on Vimeo.

At the bottom turn right on the fire road at the end of the wooded area turn LEFT for the very steep climb up to Ditcham Park School. I have never known anybody to make this climb, if you do you are a HERO!

Keep left and follow the path to the road, at the road turn RIGHT.

Follow the road, look for path at the end of the field on your LEFT. Take path (lots of roots!), at the end of the path turn RIGHT. Follow track and take the first LEFT, at cross roads go straight over.

Your now on the long decent back down to Coulters Dean Farm, there is a gate halfway down the hill so send someone down first to open and close the gate for the rest of the group.

coulters dean from DanJones34 on Vimeo.




Turn LEFT back on to the SDW and follow all the way back to the car park.

FINISH

Pub wise you can head back in to Buriton or drive to the Red Lion in Charlton, the choice is yours!

map

South Downs Way, Amberley to QE Park

As autumn drew in we felt the need for a new challenge, with no September France trip or a trip to Wales riding motivation was low, what could we do? Well living on the south coast the obvious answer was to do a larger part of the South Downs Way! The plan was to catch the train to Amberly and cycle back to Queen Elizabeth Country Park, then road it back to Denmead, easy...?

On Friday the 16th of November I set off at 7:30am to meet up with Florance on top of Ports Down Hill, from there we rode down to Havant to meet Greg and Pritchard. The train bit was dead easy; one change at Barnham saw us arrive at a very murky Amberley.

We headed out of the station full of enthusiasm and swiftly found ourselves on the South Downs Way, and then we climbed... And climbed.... And climbed! The heavy mist gave us a 50ft bubble giving no indication of our location, and worse making it difficult to read the terrain and set a proper pace on the climbs. The ground was also incredibly wet, making the terrain very draggy and lowering the pace.

First puncture of the day went to Pritchard as we exited Slindon estate by Bell's Bench. 

We solider on and actually start enjoying the ride as we head down in to Cocking. Here we wait for Pritchard to catch up, it's been a while so Florance mans up and goes to look for him. When they both return Pritchard has thrown the towel in, he is beaten, and he has arranged to be picked up. It's a massive shame, we all new it would be hard and we really wanted to complete together. We now press on as a three...

Our next goal is Harting, an area we know well but getting there is hard. I notice Greg's front tyre is hissing but we press on and make Harting Down before it needs fixing.

As we reach the end of the down as massive wave of relief covers us, we are now on familiar territory, we know these hills, there is light at the end of the tunnel.Finally we reach QE Park, unfortunately it's just turned 4pm and the cafe is shut, so we push on to the Hampshire Hog for some emergency peanuts.

From here its road back via Clanfield, it now hurts so much I’m riding on auto-pilot and we get back to Denmead at 5pm.What a day, certainly not enjoyable like a summer evening blast. It was a challenge like no other, I can honestly say it was the hardest ride I have ever done.

Road trip: Pass Portes du Soleil 2012

This year’s road trip was to the Pass Portes du Soleil, this would actually be our third attempt to complete it.
Our first trip was 2007, we started in Les Gets, lost loads of time Torgon and made it back to Morzine, just after the last lift left… 2010 saw our second attempt with a new strategy, this time starting in Les Lindarets gave us a figure of eight loop so it would be easier for people to drop out if needed. This time we missed Torgon but wasted a lot of time on the Champery route which was a road, coupled with the weekend traffic and very busy lifts we decided not to include Les Gets and at Morzine we headed back… So we had unfinished business, but with the organisers opening up Friday we saw the opportunity to do the loop without the busy weekend traffic.

Five of us made the trip this year, Chris, Paul, Greg, Si and I, we headed off on the Tuesday night (26^th June) on the overnight ferry from Portsmouth and landed in France 7am local time. After a day’s driving we hit the campsite in Les Gets at around 5pm.

The team HQ...

The view from the camp site...

Thursday was our first day of riding and we headed up the Chavannes lift and rode to Morzine. Si's enthusiasm catch's up with him and he bins it on a fire road, hes fine so we push on to Morzine. When we got there we were disappointed to see that the Super Morzine lift was closed, so we returned back to Les Gets for some lunch. A couple of runs in Les Gets with some disappointing gopro footage (camelback strap flapping in the way!) a quick burn back to Morzine then back to the campsite for a BBQ.

Pritchard, Chris, me (riding), Les Gets red

Greg, Les Gets red

Friday came and we drove to Les Lindarets to sign on, I am number 1124!

From Les Lindarets we headed up the Chaux Fleurie lift then followed the trail around the mountain, I love this trail, very fast and flowing with plenty of jumps.At the bottom its straight up the de la Chaux des-Rosees lift. At the top there was plenty of snow and where there wasn’t, it was extremely rocky. From here is an incredible run all the way to Chatel, its very rocky and technical, here the rider makes the difference and it is extremely fast…

A quick stop at the Chatel feeding station then up the Super Chatel lift, only to come down a fire road to meet the road climb over the Swiss border to Morgins.

Chatel style....

Next is the Folleuse lift to the top, there are some super crazy trails on this hill with lots of wood work – only the brave need apply! At the top is down a field to a gravel fire road to Champoussin.

Up the Aiguille Champeys lift you are greeted with a climb up the top, around a small goat path around the mountain. I got stuck behind two British guys on cheap hard tails here, fair play for riding the event on bike like this, but there bikes must have been hard work… On this trail we took the downhill diversion to Les Crosets rather than the road loop to Champery.

Lifts are not cheating!

Up the Mossettes-Suisse lift then the trail loops around the mountain, then there is a little snow/ mud bath, I motor through it but Paul falls off! The track then heads down a rocky path then over a ‘moor’ like section with a few climbs, Chris is on fire here and is really flowing. I am riding with a French rider who goes down, I stop to check he is OK but he dusts himself down, smiles and we both take off again. Things start to get rocky then its downhill all the way back to Les Linarets. We gave ourselves a time limit of 3.30 to get back to Les Lindarets if we wanted to complete the loop. Today we are fast and we are actually 2hrs ahead of schedule!

its me!

At the feeding station Greg throws the towel in, so it’s now just Chris, Paul, Si and me. We take the Linarets lift up to Avoriaz.

From here is the least enjoyable section a linking section to the top of the Morzine switchbacks. The switchbacks are very technical and very demanding, but ultimately huge fun!

At Morzine we take the Pleney lift and ride to Les Gets, still feeling actually pretty good.

Les Gets... High in, fast out or too fast in, slow out, I'm not sure... :-)

Back up the Chavannes lift and heading back to Morzine when I notice my back brake starting to be a little vocal. We stop and I whip the pads out, one side the compound is burnt out and the blue paint is completely torched! A fresh set of BBB pads and we fly back in to Morzine.

We take the Super-Morzine lift all the way to the top; the boring linking path leads to a brilliant run back to Les Lindarets. This run is rocky and very technical; again a good rider excels here although we are all very tired we have a fantastic run down.

We get back to the Les Lindarets feeding station basking in our own glory of not only completing the route, but smashing 2 hrs of our previous best time. We grab a free beer and relax…

fin!

Mmmmm beer... 

That night we hit Les Gets for a superb Pizza and a beer, then sleep.

The next day we de-camp and head to our next destination at Les Deux Alpes. The sat nav takes us over the Col de Glandon, which was an experience… We set up camp in Venosc, get a lift pass and head up to Les Duex Alpes.

Unfortunately it’s very windy, hardly any lifts are open and the only one we can get on is the ‘Marmot’ hill Vallee Blanche. When we get to the top we are told its closing because of the wind. We line up the blue run and let a lot of riders go before us because they all look a little ‘pro’, we needn’t of worried as we smoke most of them on the way down..

Next we head down the run to Venosc, our favourite… My hands are hurting after all the riding so I elect to follow Paul, so I can enjoy the run rather than push myself. It was a good call as to thirds down my left hand crank arm comes of my bike…. The last third of the mountain I ride seated and one footed…

busted, but it was user error....

Back at the camp I realize I assembled the bb in 68mm confirmation when the bikes bb is 73mm. I made this mistake after the frame was replaced under warranty and the manufacture changed the bb size from 68mm to 73mm and I didn’t notice… Anyway I re-assembled the b/b with a new crank bolt and its fine.

We check the weather and Les Duex Alpes is getting worse so we make the call and pack up early and head up to Normandy where we stay the night. The next day (Monday) we do a small ride, which is muddy and very tiring, but at least it’s not raining. We head back to the ferry and catch the 5 o’clock sailing and home.

the bomber team #55

Although it all went wrong (weather and mechanical) in Les Deux Alpes, the Pass Portes was superb. This year I feel I rode the best I have ever done and I enjoyed every second of the 80km Pass Portes route. Will we go back now we have completed it? Absolutely 100% I will be back!

Garmin GPS data from Paul

GPS route data from Paul