Duckie hits Europe. I unexpectedly had to return to Europe for a couple of weeks at the start of June.
Duckie decided not to look as Wayne negotiated the winding section dropping from Chamonix down to the Autoroute Blanche heading towards Morzine and some riding in the Portes du Soleil.
The boys wait for the next cable car. Not too sure they'd be looking quite so happy if they realised that it would be the only lift we'd take that day...
Normally there is a gondola running parallel to the Pleney Cable Car - but being early season only the slightly ropey cable car was running - room for just 6 people and bikes.
Quite nice taking in the view with the knowledge that there isn't anything out there likely to kill you! I'd almost forgot how expansive some of the European lift systems are - but as I mentioned - we weren't about to take advantage of that.
Dave heads down one of the many awesome single track sections we hit on the way down to Samoens. With a fair amount of ground to cover I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked. Sweet as it was - the little voice kept reminding me that we had a long climb at some point in order to drop back into Morzine.
If an 800 metre odd climb makes someone as fit as Karl look like this you can imagine how the rest of us were feeling. Interesting that I don't have any pictures of the actual climb - must have had my mind on other things.
Slightly more gentile was the ride a few days later back in the UK. Jim is starting to find some great riding all within driving distance of his new flat near Ironbridge in Shropshire. This particular ride is through some National Trust land close to Church Stretton.
Jim's about 3/4's of the way up the climb which tops out on to a minor road next to the Midland Gliding Club. It was quite late by the time we got there so there were only a couple of gliders in the air.
The ride makes a nice loop, and after a couple of minutes on the road it was onto some great rolling single track back down to the car.
There's the odd technical section but most of the ride is like this - a great cruise with the odd sheep obstacle!
Although the reason for being back in Europe wasn't a happy one it was really nice to get the opportunity to see family, friends and places a lot sooner than I'd anticipated.
