Wisely started much earlier today (again had to sneak out of the campground before the office opened to avoid paying 12euros to sleep for 6 hours) and began the long crawl up to the Col du Telegraphe. After yesterday, I have a better idea of what's in store for a climb in the French Alpes: sustained grades of 8%-10% for many miles, gradually whittling away the meters up to the top. Today I actually met another touring cyclist on the way up- a Spaniard who spoke a bit of English and was making his way back home to Barcelona.
From here you lose about 500M down to the ski village of Valloire, where I took a long lunch and coffee break before setting out to tackle the beast that is Col du Galibier. There are a massive amount of cyclists riding these roads, along with plenty of motorcycles, RVs ("caravans" in French) and of course cars. The drivers are all really good: very courteous to cyclists and very confident behind the wheel. With all the blind switchbacks and cliffhanging road, it's nice to feel like your surrounded my competent and confident motorists. Every so often there are roadside trash bins designed specifically for cyclists to toss their energy-supplement wrappers into (although the roadside is still littered with trash... get a clue, roadies!)
The Col du Galibier was the first ever mountain climb introduced into the Tour de France, and is still a legend today- one of the very highest passes the Tour has ever climbed. There is a monument to the late, great climbing legend Marco Pantani along the way (never mind that he was doped to the gills and eventually died of a cocaine overdose... he's still a badass.)
After hours in the saddle suffering one slow pedal stroke after another, you occasionally turn to look at where you've been... and you understand just
why this has seemed so tough:
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| Col du Galibier approach from the east |
I was headed to Briancon, and if you note the sign that's 35km away.... and aside from a couple of soft-pedal rollers, it was
all downhill... for 23
miles!!! These descents are crazy, and crazy fun. The roads are so steep you quickly accelerate to upwards of 40mph, then have to slow down to 10mph for a hairpin switchback that you really,
really do not want to overcook.
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| dropping off the Col du Galibier |
On many of these roads are the traditional painted messages left by Tour fans cheering on their favorite pro racers. These are the roads that all the legends have ridden up and down, many many times faster than me but without the luxury of stopping to snap a photo.
On the way down, I blew through the Col de Lauteret... which required no climbing on my part but is another major pass coming from the western valley. I don't know if it's fair to add that to my bag of Cols or not... and anyway it's just a measly 2058M :)
Into Briancon for the night and a day of rest tomorrow, then tackling another round of serious climbs following the "Route de Grandes Alpes" on my way to the Mediterranean Sea in Nice. The fun's only half over!
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