Monday
A rather restful day, we just climbed the Col du Telegraphe, then came down and idled our way through a picnic lunch and the afternoon.
This is ridiculous we have just been to the top of a Cat1 TdF col and I am describing it as a rest. How one’s perspective changes in a week!!
But the truth is that the Col du Telegraphe and the Col du Galibier are always climbed together on the TdF, but being tourists we decided to have a night in a hotel in between :-) and from Valloire at the foot of the descent from Galibier to the top of the Col du Telegraphe at 1,566m is no great distance or height gain, although coming down seemed speedier than I expected from the climb up.
Weather almost perfect, blue sky sunshine with some clouds and the temperature down to manageable 20s Celsius.
A 4 marmot day. Well actually 4 for Sheila and 3 for John who was looking the wrong way admiring the drift of Alpine flowers in a passing meadow.
But another first – we have climbed to the top of a TdF Col in the middle ring. Could have changed down at one point, but it was a very short only slightly grippy (well not really even bottom of scale grippy) bit so we pushed through.
So to summarise: If you ever find yourself in Valloire with a bicycle, head north for a very pleasant short and steady cycle trip to the Telegraphe or head south for the full-on HC high altitude experience of Galibier.
No cycling tomorrow, because we are relocating the car to Briancon for our next challenge. We have decided to go via the valley roads and the Frejus tunnel for some different scenery and a long underground mountain trip.
A rather restful day, we just climbed the Col du Telegraphe, then came down and idled our way through a picnic lunch and the afternoon.
This is ridiculous we have just been to the top of a Cat1 TdF col and I am describing it as a rest. How one’s perspective changes in a week!!
But the truth is that the Col du Telegraphe and the Col du Galibier are always climbed together on the TdF, but being tourists we decided to have a night in a hotel in between :-) and from Valloire at the foot of the descent from Galibier to the top of the Col du Telegraphe at 1,566m is no great distance or height gain, although coming down seemed speedier than I expected from the climb up.
Weather almost perfect, blue sky sunshine with some clouds and the temperature down to manageable 20s Celsius.
A 4 marmot day. Well actually 4 for Sheila and 3 for John who was looking the wrong way admiring the drift of Alpine flowers in a passing meadow.
But another first – we have climbed to the top of a TdF Col in the middle ring. Could have changed down at one point, but it was a very short only slightly grippy (well not really even bottom of scale grippy) bit so we pushed through.
So to summarise: If you ever find yourself in Valloire with a bicycle, head north for a very pleasant short and steady cycle trip to the Telegraphe or head south for the full-on HC high altitude experience of Galibier.
No cycling tomorrow, because we are relocating the car to Briancon for our next challenge. We have decided to go via the valley roads and the Frejus tunnel for some different scenery and a long underground mountain trip.
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