Mont Saleve - Col de la Croisette and Col des Pitons

Since last year I always wanted to test my legs on the short but steep ascent to the center of Mt. Saleve which is the closest mountain to Geneva. On a sunny afternoon I decided therefore to give it a try and headed by car to Collonges sous Saleve with the MTB on the roof. From the center of the village the road immediately climbs and leads to the small neighboring village of Le Coin from where the real climb starts. The road was in pretty good shape with only a few holes and I advanced rather fast. The hairpins are wonderful and the few cars didn't disturb me much. In less that an hour I made it to the first col, Col de la Croisette at the junction of the two roads which join at a village with the same name in about the center of that table mountain. From there the view towards the Alps is breathtaking but instead of a break I decided to immediately continue towards my final destination, Col de Pitons towards the western end of Saleve mountain, where I arrived about 20min. later.
After taking a few photos I returned to Croisette for a coffee break before rolling back down to Collonges.

1st climb ever !

Final destination

My reliable workhorse

Geneva and the lake from Mt. Saleve

Endomondo trip details

Chalet de la Dole and Barillette

My second climb of the year was up into the Swiss Jura on perfectly tarmaced Route de la Dole with my Norwegian friend Lasse. We started at my place and warmed up while approaching the start of the slope at Cheserex. I opted for the MTB as it is still start of the season and the inclination is at some places well above 10%. As the last barrier was still closed and road signs still crossed out to indicated that the road is not yet officially open we hardly met other traffic. After a break at the top to recharge the batteries we descended back via La Rippe and had our deserved beer at Crassier before heading back home.

Last spots of snow at Chalet de la Dole

Barillette with Mt. Blanc in the back

Vive la Suisse !

Lake Geneva and the Alps

Endomondo trip details

My 2014 cycling season started on: Col de la Faucille

After a long winter break of nearly 4 months out of the saddle I couldn't wait to pedal again, preferrably uphill, so I decided to climb the closest col to my home - Col de la Faucille. I usually descend it after one of the many MTB ascents into the Jura (Col de Crozet, Col de Combe Blanche, La Baudichonne or Col de la Givrine) but this time I wanted to test my fitness level after a very intense XC skating season. Last November, after reading one of the many higly interesting web posts of my cycling hero Will, I decided to learn a new winter sports in order to gap the period between the last climb of the season and the inauguration ride of the following.
The beginning was very tough and I thought I would never learn the technique and attain a fitness level to reach a niveau where this sport would actually lead to some sort of pleasure, but after an initial course I took in early 2014 and many practice outings, I slowly learned the different steps and my stamina increased slowly but steadily. At the end of the winter I had still not discovered all slopes of La Vattey, the closest XC ski domain to where I live up in the Jura between Col de la Faucille and La Cure, the border village between F and CH. I'm very happy about what I achieved in only a few months and keen to discover more XC spots in the area, but now it's cycling time again and the list of "climbs-to-do" is probably far too long for one summer...

Here a few photos of the first ride on the racer:

My new shirt from Mallorca

No more snow !

Endomondo trip details