Enduro mtb și 4 zile epice de Tour du Mont Blanc!

Turul muntelui și vârfului Mont Blanc pe mtb, ar trebui să fie pe lista scurtă a oricărui mtb-ist adevărat din lume. Lăsând la o parte terenul fantastic, potecile provocatoare și tehnice, peisajul fabulos e cel care este în centrul atenției. Este pur și simplu prea frumos…
Alex Constantin a dat o fugă în Franța vara asta, pentru a-și încărca bateriile pentru următoarea perioadă de… carantină…
O aventură cu siguranță poziționată sus de tot pe lista noastră de excursii de făcut în viitorul apropiat.

Ziua 1

Started the day off with a wrist pain from a previous crash I had before leaving for France, that aggravated during the first day. The ride was very bumpy and the rock gardens were causing a lot of trouble. It was getting difficult to keep my focus up for proper riding due to the pain. Although I was supper bummed about it, the experience itself of being able to be there and join the team after 2000 km and over 24hours of driving through the continent in full COVID pandemic was surpassing any pain. Toughest day with 60km and 2800m of elevation. The first day started with us meeting in Switzerland’s Trient and heading to France’s Chamonix and continuing from there on south towards our first night stay at refugio de Nant Borrant. The journey had it’s good share of hike a bikes and proper alpine singletracks. Video however only shows parts of the journey. I was sometimes either too tired to focus on filming or suffering from the wrist pain. We did have a nice rest of 1 to 2 hours in beautiful Chamonix were we recharged our batteries with a nice lunch, iced cokes and espressos. It was about 13:30 in the afternoon and the sun was hitting us strong at around 28 degrees in Chamonix. Felt like full on summer. Good vibes. Left Chamonix and dropped the first strong painkiller that I was carrying with me all along for the trip. Felt gud. Carried on with the day

Ziua 2

Morning started off with croissants coffee butter and other french goodies at the refugio so as to get us prepared for the toughest climb that was yet to come, followed by the good ol’ hike-a-bike. Vibe was perfect, team was spot on and the fun was only just starting. After the previous day, today was announced to be shorter but spectacular with only 35 km and 1700 km of climbing. We reached the peak by mid day and went full on gas on the exposed ridge. Feeling was sublime and the team’s good vibe was only amplifying it.

Ziua 3

Entering Italy through breathtaking scenery. Needle-like peaks, glaciers and snow on the less reachable sides of the mountain were surroundings us while we were surfing through never-ending flowing alpine singletracks. Riding was second to none. La piece du resistance was the downhill straight into Courmayeur where we descended from the plateau into the woods through a crazy steep narrow dusty single track until we reached the beautiful city of Courmayeur where we were planning to spend our third night at the refugio, 1500 m above Courmayeur. What this meant ? Once you go down, you have to go up. And here we were again, after proper Italian espressos and gelatos, back to a tough climbing followed by a never ending hike a bike that beat us for the following hour(s). Night was superb. After dinner and drinks (oh yes they have the best beer up there) we stayed on the terrace and literally watched the night sky that was packed with bright stars. Satellites, falling stars, the Milky Way, and the ISS was the general show that was playing in front of our eyes, topped by good talks and nice memories that connected us even more as friends. Manu, Julien, Tito, Oliver, you have been one of a kind. I bow to our friendship. Chapeau.

Ziua 4