“Un café, s’il vous plait avec un jus de pomme de terre”

There are very few places that I’ve been to where I can honestly say that I would be happy to live there. After spending nearly three weeks in Annecy, in the foothills of the French Alps, I’ve found a place that I can put to the top of the pile. As a cyclist, if you imagine your dream location….. It would need mountains wouldn’t it? Preferably the Alps as they are the greatest stage in the theatre of cycling. You’d obviously need a lake too so you can enjoy the vista and cool off with a swim after those long rides.

Not every day would be a mountain day though. You would want some flat roads so you could recover those weary legs and perhaps head out on leisure rides with the partner and family. How does a 40km off road, smooth paved cycle track sound to you? Good? What if that track was closed solely to cyclists and rollerskaters, dogs were banned from it and pedestrians and runners were forced to the gravel edges? You’d think I was making it up wouldn’t you?

If you want all of the above, Annecy is the place for you.

We’ve just returned from a three week family holiday in France and decided on Annecy for the simple fact that it looked like a promising destination where I could ride my bike and the rest of the family could have fun. It way exceeded my expectations.

My only regret was not taking my road bike. With limited space on/in the car due to the fact we were camping and taking bikes for the whole family, I was allocated one space on the rack for a bike and I didn’t want to put a child seat on the road bike and so I’d recently bought a tag-along bike from a clubmate (thanks Nick!) but my son is just too young to use it for longer rides for a few months yet. I decided that my best option would be to take the child seat and use the opportunity to get a new bike – a Specialised Sirrus Sport hybrid.

My thinking behind this was that I could use the bike for family duties where necessary and it would withstand the abuse of having a childseat bolted to it and I would also not be afraid to leave it locked up in towns when we went sightseeing. On the flip side, it should also be fast enough and pleasant enough to ride that I could go off on my own and conquer some cols…..

Ah, the cols…….. I like to think that after a few years in the saddle and several thousand miles of riding, I’m a pretty competent cyclist. Not amazing but good enough to hold my own and consider myself a proper cyclist. Riding a mountain humbled me. In fact, it nearly made me want to throw in the towel. I now have the utmost respect for every professional cyclist.

I think the problem was my first choice in which one to launch my vicious power on. I’d opted for the Col de La Forclaz from the Montmin side which I’d read was a bit of a challenge. Regardless of how much you cycle in the UK, I don’t thing anything can prepare you for what it is truly like to cycle uphill for nearly an hour. I was in bits by the time I reached the top but happy that I had got there. After several beers that evening, the mental anguish disappeared and I rode 4 other cols over the space of the holiday, loving it so much that I did one twice…..

The best part about riding on the continent is the coffee shop culture where religion dictates that every ride must include an espresso stop. My GCSE French is on the hazier side of perfect but even I managed to get what I wanted, thankfully except for the time I ordered potato juice……..