Alpine Break

I had already read about this ride so when Stew mentioned that he was heading up to ride it I jumped at the opportunity to tag along. There were two other local bikers, both called Pete, as well as an Irish kayaker called Barry in the team.

Initially there is a bit of a climb in the car up to the Col du Granon, up a very small road up to quite a height with stunning views.

The ride starts with a long traversing and descending section of single track with the odd little climb stuck in for good measure.

After this section it descends for about 600m on great singletrack with fantastic views out across to the south and west.

After this section there is a climb of about 150m up 4×4 track to a look out point at the Croix de Toulouse above Briancon. Great view, I forgot to get my camera out. The track then drops down around 600m again to the back of one of the forts guarding the entry to Briancon.

The track then traverses to the east towards the Vallee de Claree with some little steep climbs and a few technical descents before arriving at the bottom of another 300m climb to the start of the 51 hairpins. I don’t know how people can count these, I managed about 4 and then lost count. Steep and technical with one corner that required a couple of attempts before getting it nailed, the pump on the brake fingers was noticeable by the end of this one.

You think that the ride might be nearly over at this point but there follows an amazing section of fast flowing singletrack all the way down to the bridge over the gorge at the old town of Briancon.

Here is a map of the ride

download it to view in Google Earth