Engleberg was great to revisit, but for me the real riding started in France. Graeme ‘MacPuppy’ Blance of Singletrack Cape Wrath Epic riding fame was entertaining us at the Alaskan Pup’s new Eurokennel. I don’t think the drive up the gorge from Grenoble was surpassed on the entire trip. I certainly doubt that we had any other driving section that produced the innards shifting lateral g-forces that those hairpin corners coupled with a bit of vorsprung durch technik quattro delivered. It was a great bit of road and is an enviable commute, either up or down.
The mountain plateau into which the village of Lans snuggles is surrounded by terrain that forms a winter playground and stunning summer mountain biking. If any one is thinking of riding in France I’d recommend here. A great part of the world with fantastic trails, mountain air and stunning scenery. The only problem was we couldn’t stay longer and explore more local riding.
The night was marked with a spectacular thunder and lighting storm above the village. The ride the next day took us up a slippery rock and root infested climb, along the route of which we encountered a tree that had been struck by lightning. Substantial shards of wooden shrapnel surrounded the remains of the tree for a radius of about 25m and it’s destruction was an impressive sight and reminder of the frailty of life and the power of nature. It was almost as impressive as the breathtaking views from the ridge. These looked back over the plateau and further down and across Grenoble. Lans really is heaven. Here’s the evidence.
From: Mike
Subject: Tee HeeOut on her royal yacht the Queen was enjoying the sea air when she spied a man in the water off the port bow – clearly being menaced by a very large shark.
Through her binoculars she could see it was Christian Ronaldo, struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 20 foot shark! The queen ordered the captain to change course to try and save the poor man, but she knew the yacht’s top speed would never get them there in time.
At that exact moment a speedboat containing three men wearing white England shirts sped into view. One of the men took aim at the shark and fired a harpoon into its ribs,immobilising it instantly. The other two reached out and pulled Ronaldo from the water and, using long clubs, beat the shark to death. They bundled the bleeding, semi-conscious Ronaldo into the speedboat along with the dead shark and prepared for a hasty retreat, when they heard frantic calling …….
It was the Queen calling them to the yacht.
On reaching yacht the Queen went into raptures about the rescue and said to Beckham, Rooney and Gerrard (for it was they) “I will give you a knighthood for your brave actions. I thought the England team would hate Ronaldo after the world cup, but I see that my England team are true heroes and should serve as a model for sportsmanship to other countries.” She knighted them there and then, and proceeded to sail away.
As she departed Rooney asked the others, “Who was that?!”
“That,” Beckham answered, “was our Queen. She rules the commonwealth and knows everything about our country.”
“Well,” Rooney replied, “she definitely knows F***all about shark fishing. How’s the bait holding up ?”
R O T H A R . C O M 