Cycling from the sky to the sea

Last summer Holmlands Founder, Cameron Hall, took on the epic Route Des Grandes Alpes, cycling 675.9 km from Morzine to Nice, in six days with six friends.

Cameron was commissioned to write an article for the 2017 Summer issue of Morzine Source Magazine, detailing his adventure of one of the world's most famous cycling routes.

The article was published as a four page spread, available across Morzine this summer, with an extract below...

"As someone who likes to plan and loves a challenge I often find myself booking things in the diary way in advance, only to realise I may not have been all too kind to myself later down the line.

During Christmas 2015 whilst visiting my family in Cumbria, the weather was atrocious and being confined to barracks, cabin fever crept in, the laptop came out and I began to investigate things to do in the year ahead.

Unlike normal people, who would happily sit back, relax and watch their favourite Christmas movies, whilst munching on a mince pie; within 10 minutes I had booked myself a place to compete in Ironman Zurich. Why couldn’t I just watch Home Alone like a good kid?

With Ironman booked, I knew the best way to train would be through a series of events – the boredom turned to panic and my calendar began to fill up with a host of long distance swimming, running and cycling events, all equally big challenges within themselves. Yet something was missing…

In order to truly prepare myself for the 226km self-propelled event endurance race, I wanted something that would push me more than the Ironman itself …and when an old friend got in touch to ask if I would like to join him cycling the The Route des Grandes Alpes, I said “pourquoi pas?” … without knowing what I’d really signed up for.

The executive decision was made to put a hold on refitting my kitchen and instead buy a new bike (much to my parent’s disappointment - even my thirties I still get that disapproving look as if I’d just spent all my pocket money on football stickers and sweets instead of new school books or something equally boring).

With my new bike, complemented with a fetching pink lycra number, I was ready as I’d ever be to cycle my way from the mountains to the sea, starting in Morzine with our final destination, Nice.

A motley crew of seven lads had been assembled to take on the challenge, with a support van in tow – what could go wrong?

Our destination on day one was Notre Dame de Bellecombe, and as our itinerary master Jamie had explained to us, it would be a leisurely 65km ride to help break us into the week.

97.5km and over 3000 vertical metres later, we soon realised that our schedule wasn’t perhaps as detailed orientated as it could have been. ...."

To read the full article click here and go to page 30 of the Summer 17 issue.