Well, I’ve finally written someting for the website! So much to say, so little time to say it (and that’ll have to wait for another day). For now, I want to tell you about our trip to the French Alps.

This trip has been on the cards all year.

It’s not unheard of for the Moles diaspora to holiday in the mountains – Morzine in 2016, Bourg Saint Maurice in 2025, Molini, and Basque riding in Spain in 2023.

Elsewhere, there was a trip to some Belgium battlefields last year and this summer a Normandy trip to put a WW2 perspective on things (which I sadly missed out on).

However, it’s the first time in a long time I’ve personally attended a week in the Alps after listening to years of people’s enthusiastic reports.

It’s not my first trip this year though. I’ve managed 100 road miles round the Pas de Calais this spring, then another long day on the road to see Day 3 of the Tour de France at Cassel; but again those are stories for another day.

This time round, Lloyd rustled up a trip to Briancon, staying with Bike-Alp in a well-located chalet between the Old and New towns.

A road trip

We set off on the Friday with the benefit of a lift for JR and I from Lloyd, thanks to his plans to extend his holiday and rendezvous with his family in Italy. Splitting the journey into two days made for a comfortable road trip, overnighting in Dijon before continuing on to Briancon on the Saturday.

Meeting us at the chalet were Elliot and the Prof (MarkP), flying into Turin with their own bikes.

That made five of us in total and meant a room each with en suite, which suited me perfectly.

The chalet was decently comfortable and could have taken more – JamesW, JamesS, MarkC and Jem all needed to drop out for various reasons but at my age a room to myself is a preferred outcome.

We three road-trippers decided to hire bikes rather than risk damage to our own kit (which would have been out of its depth anyway).

Lloyd ended up on a super-long mid-pivot Lapierre, JR was on a large Radon full sus and I had a medium Radon Swoop 170 full sus in a fetching gold/bronze finish (with all-important tan wall tyres).

Day 1 – Serre Chevalier

The start of our riding saw lots of nervous fettling with our bikes before we got going. The weather was somewhere between 25°C and 30°C with cloudless blue skies.

I put my Funn single sided clip + platform pedals on the Swoop but found most of the rest of the bike in line with expectations. That said, 170mm felt a lot more than my usual 140/130mm Bird.

With the same tyres as I’d run at home (Maxxis DHF and DHR) the Radon felt OK, just very, very plush and a little short in the reach. I suspected John’s size of hire bike would turn out to be the Goldilocks size, but all the bikes were perfectly fine and very capable.

Our guide, Steve, ferried us up the Serre Chevalier valley in a comfortable van/minibus to Le Monetier-les-Bains and before long we were on our first chairlift.

Descending from about 7,000ft (about 2100m) to 4,500ft (1350m) was a learning experience for all – for Steve it was a chance to see how we ride (I think the answer is the same as we look?) and for each of us it was our first feel of our bikes on proper mountain terrain.

Meanwhile, the Prof – having stayed up to 1:00am assembling and adjusting his Yeti – had every opportunity to fettle to his heart’s content. Elliot simply run wot he brung.

In view of my observations about the Radon, I found the Swoop a little unnerving at first. Both the reach and the dropper compromised my climbing, almost as much as the thin air.

Fortunately there wasn’t too much climbing over the week but the brake dive was harder to deal with. In part it was because the fork was super-plush (I am now a big fan of the Fox 38 fork) but the short reach in particular seemed to put my weight in the wrong place on tight turns.

As the week progressed I found the bike to be more and more stable and my positioning and braking got more balanced. I definitely didn’t test the bike’s limits (at least I don’t think I did) but a week is a very short time to get used to a different bike. Considered as a hire bike, I was quite happy to ride the Swoop for the week.

Bike park and natural trails

Day 1 proved to be a long day. About 27 miles with nearly all of that downhill. We started on a flowy green graded trail, then blues, reds and finally a little bit of black (without troubling the crazy drops).

At one point plans needed adjusting as a planned chairlift wasn’t available but with so many options in Serre Chevalier it wasn’t really a problem.

Lunch was at the excellent Cafe Soleil at the top of the Ratier cable car, resulting in a slow start after lunch, at least for me.

After lunch we continued to mix both natural and bike park trails, finally riding all the way back round and down the mountain to Briancon.

This was a big day out with some challenging trails, particularly the final few miles that had the odd section of uphill winching (testing our sense of humour to the max).

We also sampled some very steep black sections (avoiding any suggestion of drops) and lots of ribbon-like natural singletrack. During the course of this, improbably, Lloyd’s crank arm fell off, necessitating a trailside repair that subsequently held for the whole week.

With lots of steep, natural, technical riding I loved it, but wasn’t sure I had a week of such big rides in me.

About the author

Matt is one of the founding Molefathers of the Muddymoles, and is the designer and main administrator of the website.

Having ridden a 2007 Orange Five for many years then a 2016 YT Industries Jeffsy 29er, he now rocks a Bird Aether 9 and a Pace RC-627.

An early On-One Inbred still lurks in the back of the stable as a reminder of how things have moved on. You can even find him on road bikes - currently a 2019 Cannondale Topstone 105 SE, a much-used 2011 Specialized Secteur and very niche belt drive Trek District 1.

If you've ever wondered how we got into mountain biking and how the MuddyMoles started, well wonder no more.