British Summer? I'm off to Annecy

Well, it's rubbish isn't it? It's our first full week of the summer holidays and we've spent a great deal of it stuck in the house. The forecast for August seems to be more of this unsettled weather so I'm just going to have to kit the entire family out with waterproof gear. We're off the Decathlon tomorrow to see what they've got.

In an attempt to get a bit of heat on our bodies, we have ditched our plans to go to Cornwall and I have just booked an apartment in Annecy, France. When cyclists ask questions about good holiday locations for cyclists who have non-cycling family in tow, Annecy always seems to be mentioned in the replies - lots of good climbing for the cyclists and loads of fun activities and beautiful French scenery and attractions for time spent off the bike. What finally swung the decision for me was Lance Armstrong's tweet about Annecy being one of the nicest places in France, if not the world. The helicopter shots from the time trial certainly did nothing to counter that view. So, we're heading out towards the end of the month. We're going to drive it, partly because I want to take bikes, partly because it's more economical for us to do it that way (oh yeh, and partly because I hate flying). I've sent off my Tesco Vouchers for the Eurotunnel tickets - now I just need to sort out an overnight stop as we don't want to do the drive in one go this time.

I've just had a look on the map and already starting to plot some routes for when we're there. This looks like a nice short one with a big climb right in the middle:
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=13932

And then there is always the time trial course from the TdF (this is my approximation of the course based on the map on www.letour.com):
www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=13934

I need to get my Tour Climbs book out tonight and find out what else is in the area and then start plotting and uploading to my Garmin. Ah, just found this site, which seems an excellent place to start researching: http://www.cycling-challenge.com/top-5-cycling-climbs-lake-annecy/

Should I get bad news on Monday, the nature of the cycling will change but there will still be cycling. The time trial course is pretty flat so I can still do that - so I will have done 2 stages of the Tour de France this year! What I'm really looking forward to though, regardless of what the cardiologist says, is taking the children onto the cycle path which goes around the edge of the Lake. We've had a few outings recently on the Trans Penine Trail and it's good fun - the kids like to shout out warnings about the piles of poo as we approach them, "horse poo, it looks like a castle" etc. My 4 year old boy gets a little tired - he's still on stabilisers and a few miles is a long way for little legs. I saw a contraption at the Bike Radar bike weekend - http://www.bikecare.co.uk/trail_gator.html It seemed a really good idea for kids who want to ride alone at times but perhaps don't have the stamina to do the same distance as the bigger riders. The bar folds up and clips onto the adult bike when the child is riding solo. It will be toss up between that and a straight forward tag-a-long, depending on what we can fit in the car.

This weekend we'll be taking part in the Manchester Sky Ride - http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/skyride/manchester - sounds like it will be a really fun day for all of us. Lets hope that the forecast is right and that we're not going to need those waterproofs after all.