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Day 12: No Signal on the Télégraph - Col du Télégraph TdF Cat 1 1,566m
A rather restful day. We just climbed the Col du Télégraphe, chatted to some other cyclists on an organised sponsored trip, then came down and idled our way through a picnic lunch and the afternoon.
This is ridiculous we had just been to the top of a Cat1 TdF col and we are now describing it as a rest. How one’s perspective changed in a week!! But the truth is that the Col du Télégraphe 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 we expected from the climb up. The weather was almost perfect, blue sky sunshine with some clouds and the temperature down to manageable 20s ℃. 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 had climbed to the top of a TdF Col in the middle ring. We 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 Télégraphe or head south for the full-on HC high altitude experience of Galibier. No cycling the next day, because we were relocating the car to Briançon for our next challenge. We had decided to go via the valley roads and the Fréjus tunnel for some different scenery and a long underground mountain trip. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
Day 12: By Car to Italy via the Fréjus tunnel, then back over the top to Briançon
A very short time in Italy - we did not even stop for coffee. It was looking a bit rainy when we arrived in Briançon and checked into our hotel. The auberge had given us an upgrade to a room with a balcony at no extra charge. But as the balcony just looked straight into a building site we did wonder if the upgrade should have been to give people with balconies a quieter room on the other side without a balcony !
We set off to explore the old town, described as artistic and historic with its Vauban fortifications designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Obviously not the tourist season. Narrow streets that one would expect to be teeming with visitors were quite empty and most of the boutiques, shops and cafés were closed. Briançon really does not push its historic town. No walking tour, no descriptive plaques on key buildings and the tourist office has leaflets on nearby attractions, white water rafting etc but nothing at all about its own historic town We stopped for a snack lunch just in in time to sit out heavy rain and thunder. When it cleared, the weather remained very cloudy so we retreated in drizzle down the hill and back to our auberge. Clouds and rain remained – it felt a bit like the Lake District, just a lot higher. Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
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