Semnoz via Col des Leschaux

A noisy Bastille day evening with fireworks, coinciding with a heatwave and a France v Spain semi-final wasn't conducive to sleep in Saint Jorioz on the shores of Lac d'Annecy. But I watched the first half on a big screen in the neighbouring village and actually slept quite well after the festivities ended and the temperatures eased a little. It was nice to be able to stroll to the patisserie for a proper coffee and pastry in the morning before heading off along the superb 'voie verte' towards Sevrier in the Annecy direction. Here, I started climbing right from the lakeside up the very gentle slopes of the Col des Leschaux. This was perfection, an easy but long climb dictating a pleasant relaxed rhythm. It heads gently south on a lovely quiet road, remaining at a steady 4% throughout. The col is at a crossroads in Leschaux village, and after a gel I took the Semnoz road up hairpins to the west. This is, as expected, a complete contrast - more like a standard Alpine climb. Much steeper, much harder from the start. But the hairpins are very long and the gradient was still manageable, and I was feeling reasonably good. Dark clouds were gathering to the south, as predicted, and this added a slight sense of urgency as I certainly didn't want to be caught on top of Semnoz in a storm. They soon dissipated, and the hairpins ended too as the road heads north up gentler slopes to a final steep climax on the open meadows of the summit. Lovely climb: I believe the TdF has been up it just a few times and perhaps only from Annecy, which was the way I now descended. Although as cautious as ever, this was wonderful and I did get some speed up on the gentler slopes towards the bottom. It emerges, quite suddenly, close to the centre of Annecy which is obviously a very stark contrast! I ambled in to the famous view of the old town from Quai de Vicenza but it was incredibly busy so I headed towards the lakeside pretty quickly. Here, I picked up the wonderful voie verte immediately. Although also very busy, this was a perfect route back to the van. I decided to extend the day though, so had lunch near Saint Jorioz at a cafe actually on the cycle path. Thus fortified, I had plans to extend perhaps to Albertville or the Forclaz and felt great along the lakeside to Duingt. However, black clouds had now gathered in earnest at the southern end of the lake and very quickly gathered themselves into a very sudden and very violent storm. All hell broke loose for a while, with whirlwinds whipping up dust and loud thunderclaps. I sprinted back to the van which I reached just in time (albeit a little wet) after 68k/1300m. Within a few minutes it had passed but I was changed and driving north by then!