Cycling – APASSION https://www.apassion.com Live life with APASSION Wed, 13 Aug 2025 08:47:27 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.apassion.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-Mountain-Motif-Grey-32x32.jpeg Cycling – APASSION https://www.apassion.com 32 32 Tour de France Femme hits Samoëns https://www.apassion.com/tour-de-france-femme-hits-samoens/ Wed, 13 Aug 2025 06:12:55 +0000 https://www.apassion.com/?p=11051

Bravo Pauline!

What a treat to be able to witness the Tour de France Femme take-on the challenge of the Col de Joux Plane. Starting from the village of Samoëns the ascent combines a total elevation gain of nearly 1,000m with an average gradient of 9% and was described by Lucien Van Impe (5 times winner of the Tour de France mountain jersey) as one of the toughest climbs in France.
 
With over a week of racing already in their legs the ladies of the TdF Femme seemed to make light-work of the heat and gruelling ascent en-route to the race finish in Châtel. 
 
Whist  Anna van der Breggen won the race to the 1691m summit of the Joux-Plane with a 45 second lead over the peloton, the day was really only about one lady; The incredible Pauline Ferrand-Prévot who doubled down on her stage win of the day before to win both her second stage of the 2025 Tour but also to extend her overall lead and become the first French winner of the ladies edition of the TdF in over 30 years! Bravo Pauline! 
]]> First ride out of 2023 https://www.apassion.com/first-ride-out-of-2023/ Sun, 09 Apr 2023 15:59:47 +0000 https://www.apassion.com/?p=6921

Whilst there is still plenty of skiing to be had before the 2022-23 season draws to a close its still never too early to benefit from the glorious Spring sunshine and the stunning scenery from the saddle of a bike!

With that in mind (plus the incentive of a Sunday morning coffee in the sun) we unpacked our cycle gear, dusted-off the road bikes and tried to remember how to unclip our cleats before falling off!

A little chilly in the shade at first but we warmed to the occasion and were soon working-up a sweat just to keep-up with ‘lead-out’ man Paul. 

Given it was our first outing of the season we took the 13km ride from the chalet, along the valley floor through the village of Sixt Fer-à-Cheval, to the Cirque de Fer-à-Cheval in the Sixt-Passy National Park. 

Always a beautiful ride regardless of the season and we were rewarded with blue-skies and snow (as well as that  coffee on the way home!)

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