The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Lakes and Mountains of Haute Savoie

June 5th to June 20th

Ride Director: Randy Glover
Ride Co-Director: Lucy Glover
Ride Driver: Glenn Rudolph
Report by: Jim McKinley

Haute Savoie is named for the historic regional dominance of the House of Savoy, extending for several centuries from the 11th Century. The locals, although French, often refer to themselves as Savoyards. The region is a tourism hub, with many ski areas, but is also used for timbering, farming, and, notably for us, cheesemaking. Located in the far eastern corner of France south of Switzerland, Haute Savoie includes Lake Geneva and Lake Annecy.

This was my first visit to the French Alps, and I found the region to be as often described: cool, with expansive vistas across forested and grassy valleys to permanently snow-covered high peaks. The entire ride was within what is called the ‘Montane’ alpine zone, meaning the ground was forested or covered with grass. The riding was up and down and up again, but we rarely traveled roads too steep to comfortably climb. And although we were on regional roads, most traffic stayed on major throughways, whereas we traveled secondary less-used roads and traffic was never a problem. We began the ride in Ferney-Voltaire, a suburb of Geneva and a short taxi ride from the Geneva airport. The hotel provided a spacious patio where we could assemble bicycles, and a storage room to keep bike boxes.

The first cycling day was along Lake Geneva, providing a relatively flat start. The second day started with a long climb, followed by level cycling and easy climbing, ending in La Chappelle-d’Abondance. Rain was predicted for all day, so I wrapped myself in the whole shoe cover-rain pants-rain jacket getup – and no rain. I switched out the jacket for a windbreaker, and all was good until a few miles from the end, when the sky opened up with a mountain thunderstorm. The lesson was: in the Alps, a few drops are a prelude to something sudden and serious. We proceeded up to the Col du Corbier, passing a field of cows lying alongside the road on the day’s first long uphill. On the down side, I was using and being grateful for having disc brakes, allowing a safe descent, when three cyclists passed me, pedaling furiously, chasing one another. The fourth day of riding, was through the Avaris range to Chamonix, a day with a mostly steady climb of only 2600 feet.

We had two nights in Chamonix. It’s all tourism – skiing and mountaineering, and recently mountain biking – a medium-sized town with a life-sized bronze statue of two 19th century mountaineers in the square. They’re pointing at Mont Blanc, rising from the edge of town. We had a loop ride into higher country on our day off. The social atmosphere is carefree, people wandering the central business area, street musicians. A wonderful place; I thought I might abandon the ride and stay; I looked for a dishwasher job and couldn't find one. By the calendar, we were at the mid-point of the ride.

The second week started off with the ride to Megeve, with the exhilarating descent into La Fayet and a long climb to Saint Gervais. The week continued with a two hour climb to the Col des Saisies (visited on Stage 19 of the 2025 Tour de France). The road was closed at a creek on the way up (we lifted bikes over the barricade), so no cars! From there a climb and descent to Beaufort with a climb to our destination in Areches; a long, easy day to Aix le Bains; a climb and descent to Annecy; a climb and descent around Lake Annecy; and finally a climb and descent to our starting hotel in Ferney-Voltaire.

I didn’t ride every day, having taken advantage of some of the days when we stayed two nights in the same hotel. In all, I cycled 360 miles and climbed 25,000 feet. The longest ride was 62 miles and the greatest climbing day was 3500 feet.

Randy and Lucy have led this ride before (!), and it was run efficiently. I wondered a couple of times at what must have gone into picking the beautiful settings. Every day included a memorable bike ride; the hotels were comfortable; the food was of course great (France), particularly the local bread and cheese offered at breakfast. This ranked near the top of all of my biking vacations.