Mountain biking in the snow

It's been a while since I've done mountain biking, what with our four months spent in Asia and all... So I was quite happy to accept Philippe's invitation to join him for a bit of cycling at the wonderful Massif d'Esterel. The original plan was to join up with a group of "local lads", but seems that the local lads chickened out due to the somewhat chilly weather, so it was just me and Philippe in the end, then.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the weather was indeed somewhat chilly - in fact, the temperature was below zero in the shady part of our route. Which actually meant we ended up cycling in the snow at times! Which was actually good fun, and not as difficult as I expected. I did take it quite easy going downhill.

I even accepted the challenge to cycle up Mount Vinaigre - I had my doubts about the viability of that one,since it does take a bit of hassle cycling up to the top, at the lofty altitude of 614 meters (OK, fair enough, it doesn't sound very impressive, but it seemed that way from a couple of hundred meters downhill...), and given my lack of recent practice.

But, I agreed to the folly, and even made it to the top! And the view from up there was as magnificent as ever! Cycling around this beautiful part of the world is one of the things I will miss, once we make our way over to Japan...