This was MUCH harder than I anticipated! Cycling up Col de la Forclaz above Annecy

Cycling up Col de la Forclaz is a great way to ride around Lake Annecy while getting in a serious climbs and some of the best views of the lake and surrounding mountains.

Want to know what the Annecy Lake loop is like on a tourist bike? Watch this: https://youtu.be/Du9K22aG-hk?si=KpHPmIt8Fw-Mkm7c

I hired my carbon road bike from: https://annecy.takamaka.fr/en/p/road-bike-annecy

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jesus Christ that’s steep [Music] my last video I was cycling around Lake Hansy this lake on a tourist bike with basket and now I’m doing it on a carbon road bike but I’m going up a coal uh it’s going to be a very hot day it’s going to be a very steep coal oh [Music] those peaks look pretty big pretty big so Cdercloud is one of the major coals major climbs in the area uh and it has a spectacular view of the whole lake from the top of it or somewhere around there that’s what I’m gonna be doing today quite different from the pretty much flat Lake Loop i’ve already done the hill of the Lake Loop um I wish it was a bit cooler my god why is it so humid why it hasn’t been humid at all it’s so humid okay so now I’m leaving the lake loop which I did um in the last video and I’m turning off up into the mountains to go and tackle cold forkl not going to lie sort of regretting the temperature but it’s June it’s France it was 33° yesterday so today is supposed to be max 25 26 but this humidity is making me feel a hell of a lot hotter than that uh this is a nice switchback climb [Music] i mean the views already are absolutely exceptional [Music] [Applause] this first little viewpoint on the ascent at the very beginning of the ascent of the coal i mean I’ve already been climbing since the lake which is down there and yet this is only just the beginning of the coal itself jesus Christ that’s steep [Music] pretty sure I’ve seen a couple of pro female riders coming down Forkla which is nice to see [Music] so you might recognize the word Forkla which has a zed on the end from Dathlon’s range of hiking gear uh which is now being merged into another brand but you’ll still see FCLA around and I don’t know if it’s named after this pass or this town although Dathlon itself is based quite close here in Paci but as far as I’m aware the word forkl itself means like little fork um and it’s kind of used to mean call like a narrow gap between peaks uh at least that’s what it says on Catherine’s website so [Music] 10% gradient coming up where I live there are no switchbacks so you get some hills 15 16 17 20% they’re not uncommon on Dartmore or down in Cornwall uh switchbacks make that a lot easier but that’s what I was going to say before I hit this spicy bit of 10% we’re over 900 m of elevation it’s too hot man got sweat in my eyes this is absolutely brutal and in this heat oh boy [Music] oh my god i think I’m almost there on it it is so hot i’m so sweaty i left Anie an hour and 50 minutes ago and I think this is it and I’ve been saying it wrong the whole time [Music] [Music] well that was an incredibly tough climb incredibly hot but the view from the top is outstanding there are quite a few cafes up there as well and there’s one cafe that just has the best view of all um but almost instantaneously going from 100° like literally sweating out my eyeballs i’m now getting chilled because there’s a bree a very very light breeze and it’s just wicking all the sweat away and oh this is going to be a chilly descent I think and a spectacular one although I can’t film it because see that would be incredibly dangerous [Music] what a descent that was oh my gosh where’s my bike making so much noise that was epic [Music] [Music] [Music] all is good in the world here and after a nice flat white [Music] so now I’ve cycled around Lake Anacey in two different ways firstly in this video where I hired a tourist bike with a basket and then obviously in this video right here where I hired a carbon road bike i had such a good time riding the tourist bike and that was obviously not exactly the same route because I didn’t go up cold that would have been insane um but I had such a nice time cuz I just meandered around i went way faster than I would have done had I not had a class to get back for but it was still just really quite laid-back a really really beautiful route you certainly do not need a better bike than the one I was riding at all so whatever the um higher place that is closest to where I was staying at Anacey that will be fine i really enjoyed having the basket on the front as well because just I could just chuck my bag in there i didn’t need any cycling stuff i was wearing my bib shorts because it’s still 40 km but the seat was really really padded it was a very very soft seat so it was actually really comfortable you’d probably be all right i would never suggest you wear trousers or shorts with really thick seams um even with those saddles but you could probably get away without wearing bip shorts on them most people are not wearing bib shorts um so it really depends on your preference but when they’re when you just get tourists riding around obviously they didn’t bring their bib shorts with them they probably don’t even own any so I wore those because I had them with me and Bqua but then I just wore an ordinary t-shirt and it was very laidback very chill had a absolute blast if you just want to cycle down the lake to another park beach place then again that is the perfect way to do it just hire a cheap bike cycling down there the city also has like Boris bikes so electric bikes that you rent on the app for I don’t know how much it is it’s not very much a day I don’t think or per hour or whatever so they have baskets on as well and you can just hire one of those all over the place and then trundle around loads of people do that so that’s another option but I really enjoyed cycling around the lake on the tourist bike and then cycling up Forkcloud on this ride oh my god it was amazing and it does make a huge difference even excluding the coal itself it does make a huge difference cycling even just around the lake on a road bike you’re obviously going faster it’s easier there’s you know less resistance for you your tires are skinnier it was not a comfortable saddle at all it was extremely hard but the bike itself was lush gears changed beautifully brakes fine everything was fine made some rattling noises occasionally and there was a little bit of break rub but it sorted itself out so two different bikes for two different purposes really you definitely don’t need a carbon road bike to cycle around the lake that would be preposterous hire a cheap tourist bike get a basket have a nice time if you want to do one of the coals there are quite a few or go on a longer ride definitely hire a nice bike because you’re going to run into some serious hills thanks for coming with me on this one and I really hope that you also love the beautiful views of Anacey and its lake if you did enjoy this video please consider subscribing because it massively helps me keep making these videos and reach more people to help everyone cycle more thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one [Music]