A day late as I was a
bit tired last night.
I'd planned today as a
long day riding the high passes, and what a day it turned out to be!
I'd worked out an approximate route taking in a number of the climbs
used during the Tour de France. I started by riding Col de la
Madeleine and Col du Glandon, both fairly easy roads giving good
views of the surrounding mountains.
The
town of Huez is more than half way up the climb to Alpe-d'Huez,
another TdF favourite. I road up to Alpe-d'Huez, but the town was
very busy with traffic and there appeared to both road bike and
downhill mountain bike events taking place. Also, a lot of campervans
had already 'claimed their spot' for the TdF stage to be held on the
18th!
Didn't
bother stopping as it was so busy and turned around and road down the
spectacular road. There were dozens of cyclists riding up – every
one much fitter than me!
After
that I had quite a ride to the next stage of my route – the climbs
over Col du Galibier and Col du Télégraph.
On the way it started getting colder and I had a shower or rain just
before Galibier.
Touring
tip: if your riding suit has a Gore Tex liner which you remove for
riding in hot conditions, don't leave it in your hotel room when you
go out! I got pretty wet going over Galibier, but luckily it was warm
and sunny when I got over the summit, which dried my suit.
However,
it was even wetter and very misty going over Télégraph,
so misty that I didn't see the fort or even the sign at the summit,
and only realised I'd passed it when I started going downhill. At
least it was sunny again in the valley so I dried out a bit!
From
there it was a fairly straightforward hour and a half's ride back to
the hotel, or it would have been had there not been a very heavy
thunderstorm! So bad that I stopped to shelter under a tree and to
transfer everything from my suit's pockets to the topbox to stop them
getting wet. It was obvious that the rain was on for the night, so I
rode back getting thoroughly soaked in the process. By the time I got
to the hotel, every garment I was wearing was soaked through and only
my feet were dry.
I
shot some videos whilst riding over the passes, hopefully there will
be enough reasonable footage to edit something together when I get
home.
Most
of the rest of our group rode similar routes, but Stuart, Gareth, and
Terry D managed to get as far as Italy, only getting back after dark.
This
was to be our last night in Chambéry,
we're starting the trip home tomorrow.
Song
of the day:
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