Le Tour

Woke at about 4 am, it was pouring, thunder, lightening, wind. Oh dear. Eventually went back to sleep and got up around 8. It had stopped raining but was looking pretty miserable. I eventually got up packed a bit, ate, waited a bit. It started to clear and the tent started to dry out! I waited more, finished packing, waited some more. The sun came out! Finally around 10.30 I left, bought some food and I finally set off up the Col at 10.40.

The road was already closed so there was just cyclists, pedestrians and tour/police traffic. Really pleasant. As this is not a mountain stage and the Col is still a fair way from the finish it is no where near as busy as somewhere like Alp d'Huez. Having said that there are still a lot of people about.

The start of the climb is just rolling along the valley floor. I actually really missed Paul here. There was a PMU sprint point set up for the Tour. There were already quite a few people there and someone had a big cow bell and was ringing it when riders came through. If we'd had a sprint there it would have been great :)

It was quite a while before the road really started to climb but boy did it. The first main stretch was 10 % (based on the KM signs on the side of the road) and a later bit was 13 %! And then a K or two later we came to the official start of the Tour climb! I'd been in granny for 20 minutes by then :)

From there on it was pretty much a slog the whole way. As I had panniers on I got lots of Allez, Allez's and Bon Courage! All very cheering. Then, quite strangely I thought, the Gendarmes stopped cyclists from midday. Walking only from then on. Bugger. Of course everyone got back on their bikes as soon as the Gendarmes were out of sight. Fortunately I was only 3 K's from the top and I only had to walk about 500 m of that. Not that riding was much faster of course :) I finally got to a spot about 100-150 m before the Col.

What I didn't realise is that the Col is not the top of the climb so I really don't know where I am in terms of TV viewing. Oh well, I'll study it when I get back to Oz. I got there at about 12.40, so two hours to do the climb. Pretty good. My only stop was to talk to an Aussie who I have seen on TV, he tries to see all of the stages.


I had a nice spot on the left hand side of the road and an American couple. A bit later a French group came and stood next (almost on top of) us. I had a touring bike which got them talking and the American Scott had reasonable French so we all got talking. Wine was shared, Cote de Rhone, baguette, chocolate, chips, cheese. All very cheery.

Then it started to rain. Did I mention how cold it was? I had my Goretex on and then had to put my PolarTek on underneath that and then had to add long fingered gloves and thermal longs. I was quite cosy until it all started to soak through. Eventually the Caravan came through. I got a Polka Dot cap which I kept, a lunch bag like the riders get, and a bunch of things I gave away (clothes washing detergent, 2 caps, newspaper). I also got a pack of nuts, which I ate, and a bottle of water (handy) which I took in a very pro tour rider like way. The girl handing it out had it in her hand and I just reached up and grabbed it, just like the riders :)


The caravan seemed much longer than I remember, it was very good. It was funny with the caravan cars. They are mostly convertibles, the girls inside are in jackets and soaked from the pouring rain. It doesn't look anywhere near as much fun as it did the two times I saw it on the Alp, in 30+ temperatures.


Eventually the riders came through, the were actually early. Sylvain Chavenal and Heinrich Haussler were in the lead with Txurrruka having been dropped a little earlier. A few minutes later Lance came through at the head of the main pack. I tried to get a photo but it didn't work out. They were all very intense, it seemed like a big battle was under way. (Watching TV later that night it didn't seem to be the case.) Then hoards of others came through, Voekler (suffering), Cancellarra, O'Grady (suffering), Rogers (focused), Thor Hushovd (suffering). Then came the autobus with Mark Cavendish (relaxed and he lost the Green Jersey today), Beppu the Japanese rider and all the other sprinters. We all thought it was over then and people started to pack and leave. Then about ten minutes later one lone rider came up on his own. He was really suffering, people were pushing him (he made it I think).


Then it really was time to go. Continuing on up the pass didn't seem like such as good idea now. But oh well, that was the choice I made. Of course there were thousands of people, bikes, cars trying to go up or down the mountain. At times it was walking speed. I eventually made it to the very top then there was a bit of a coast, riding mainly on the left hand side, before a major intersection where I went in the direction of the Grand Ballon. Hardly anyone went this way so it was very quite. Still raining of course.


The ride was initially along the top of a ridge before the climb itself. It was blowing a bit of a gale, and did I raining. But the climb wasn't really that long or steep. At the top it was a bit sheltered so a couple of photo's. Then the start of the descent which was a bit scary because of the conditions. I took it nice and slow. Eventually the descent stopped, around 800m and I started what was the last climb of the day before crossing the Col Amic. I took a short video here!


Then the long fairly gentle descent to the bottom of the valley. I got ahead of a long line of RVs here and managed to stay ahead of them because of all the switch backs. By and large a very pleasant descent.


We went through a town a couple of K's before Cernay, there was a Logis de France with a restaurant so I went straight in. Lovely. Dry. They even helped carry my bags up. After a quick shower I went down for another lovely three course dinner. An appetiser, Kir, a local Terrine, a glass of Riesling, a Turkey drumstick in mushroom sauce and Tiramisu for dessert. Ahh, bloated.