The Plateau de Guirel

Nice, overcast but warm conditions today. Thanks to some specific, strategic stretches and loosening work on supporting muscles, I have managed to relieve the pressure on and consequently the pain in my thighs that has caused me such discomfort since our descent run from the Cirque d'Anglade on Friday. Bike riding uses generally different muscles to running, so I reckoned a short VTT mountain bike outing would be a good plan. We headed up above Biert towards the Col de la Crouzette and had an interesting meander along woodland paths (narrow and technical in places) and then 1.5kms up the road (12% gradient) towards the Col before branching off along more, varied woodland paths to the Plateau de Guirel, which would have afforded fantastic views towards Mont Valier if it had not been so overcast and hazy! A section of muddy, puddled track brought us back towards where we had parked. After the gear tweaking the other day, the bike is working well and I was pleased with how I had handled some of the trickier sections of the route. It was a very pleasant outing, all in all.