So our first Col climb turned out to be up the highest paved road in Europe, up to 2770m. Not the gentlest of introductions!
It was just too good an opportunity to miss as the pass had been closed due to remaining snow levels and a recent avalanche. Sunday was going to be the first day of opening when, for the whole morning, the pass would only be open to bicycles. A cafe in Bourg Saint Maurice, Pause Coffee and Kurtos, was organising a lift up to Val D’Isere for only €10 and then you could ride 17km (1000m climb) to the Col and then ride the whole way back down to Bourg Saint Maurice.
So 12 of us gathered in a sunny Val D’Isere and made our way past the road closed signs.
Some crazy fools were going to do it on city bikes with the poster “No pain no gain” on their baskets!
It was really hot climbing up out of Val D’Isere in the sunshine to begin with. The climb was ok, just slow and steady – mostly 6-8% climbing. Then the snow around started to get deeper and big grey clouds started to appear. I did laugh when Kristene suddenly shouted out “Where are the kilometre stones? We need some information” as at least two stones must have been buried under the snow. For the last 2km you were surrounded by snow and the wind really picked up.
We weren’t sure if it started raining (drizzle) or if we were just in a cloud but decided not to stop to put layers on but just push to the top.
At the top we had a quick photo with most of us and there was a little feeding station but the boys were really cold from waiting so we just layered up and set off down. I had arm warmers and a jacket with me but stupidly only had fingerless gloves. Oh it was so cold!!!!!! My hands were so painful and it was hard to feel your brakes (not good on the hairpins). Pete and I stopped for a quick photo on the way down and I was a shivering mess (Pete had long gloves on but couldn’t feel his fingers either).
So it was a bit of a race down to Val D”Isere to get warm but only as quickly as was safe. Back in Val D’Isere the sun was shining and the feedstation’s hot tea was the best cup of tea ever (it reminded me of kayaking through my first couple of winters in the Isle of Man with no dry suit). After our tea we felt human again and set off to Bourg, with a quick photo stop at the barrage.
Some of the tunnels are a bit hairy (dark, wet and bad road surface) but apart from that we loved the downhill. And then suddenly it was boiling hot and I was yelling after the boys that I was going to have to stop to take off my jacket and arm warmers. At that point everyone stripped off layers. And then a lovely lunch in the Pause Coffee with David, Emily and Dave, all with a discount – can’t be bad!!!!
And then topped the day off by watching the end of the England v Panama game to see a 6-1 result – happy days!
