duMTBhings n°13: Around the lake in 80 days (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence/Var, France)

Enjoy the ride and burn some calories from the comfort of your home.

44.3Km, 632m elevation gain

i went camping in Bauduen next to the Lac de Sainte-Croix, decided to challenge myself and went around the lake with my bike. (it’s a 63Km trip if you follow the road) it went pretty much smoothly… well… i did get a slow puncture… that almost made me crash… i also broke my chain, made me waste 30mn to fix (i changed the tube as well since i was stopped and fixing sh*t) … oh, and my phone died at the very last bit and i was kinda winging my way around, sorta looking the map on the phone here and there, but unfortunately, that last bit … oof,… it took me 2h45 to do 41km of both road and easy path (not bad), and 1H10!! of brutal hiking misery through rocky terrain and cliffs to complete the last 3km… bloody nightmare… it’s all there, i thought my camera stopped working at some point but apparently not, enjoy me cursing and hating myself, throwing my bike around and being out of breath. xD

my phone died so the gpx file is incomplete, but if you’re ever over there, just take the path that climbs the hill instead of the one that follows the lake. i was just being lazy and didn’t wanna push my bike up a hill and it cost me an hour of pain and suffering… (there was even signs that i read that said: don’t take this path!!! it’s a pain in the bum and it’s unsafe!!! but suuure, not for me!! im better than everyone else aren’t i!!! xD) anyway, here’s the map:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lOs06BQEsl8dZOLWObSw-dmSAQymRKEO/view?usp=sharing