Day 5 Col de la Croix de Fer Redux

Today team Clydesdale took another crack at riding the Col de la Croix de Fer. The weather looked even more promising than yesterday and we got an earlier start. On his way down from our lodge on the Col d'Ornan into the Bourg d'Oisans valley Hank ran into his Dutch buddies from the rain event at the bistro in Rivier d'Allemond, so he got to hear the Dutch pronunciation of his last name again. After that, the ascending Dutchmen and the descending Hank ran out of things to talk about so he as able to proceed with our ride. Hank must have finally ridden himself into shape as he rode up the lower 8 KMs of the Col de la Croix de Fer like he had been shot out of a cannon. The difference in his performance today compared to yesterday was reminiscent of Floyd Landis's miraculous ride on the Col de Joux-Plane on stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France after Floyd had imploded on the climb the day before. Well we all know now that Floyd had, in fact, used performance drugs and blood doping.

I don't know what got into Hank, but my best guess was he was trying to impress his newly wed wife, Ki, who was once again driving our rented Renault Kangaroo. There is nothing like the presence of the fairer sex to bring out the absolute best in a man bent on making a favorable impression. And, of course, for all I know, Hank is using performance enhancing drugs.

Once again, we met Ki at the top of the first climb in Rivier d'Allemond where we had met the day before and we had lunch. And it started to rain, just like it had the day before. But it wasn't raining as hard as it had on day 4 so we decided to continue our climb. It is a total luxury to have Ki shadowing us (Thanks Ki!) in our rental Renault because if things go south weather-wise, we have the option of beating an instantaneous cowardly retreat. But today the weather held, we merely had an off-and-on drizzle as we continued the 17 KMs of mostly up to the top of the col. Finally we were able to proudly plant the clydesdale flag at the summit of the Col de la Croix de Fer. Hank was feeling so good he started to do dips on one of the markers at the top of the col - more evidence of possible blood doping. On our descent we made the extremely short side trip to the top of the col du Glandon. There it began to rain in earnest, but secure in the knowledge that Ki would save us if things got really cold and soggy we continued down.

When we hit the valley of Bourg d'Oisans we had ridden out of the rain, so we rode the 8 KMs back up the Col d'Ornan to the King of the Mountain Lodge for a well earned dinner and a quiet night of Scrabble. After 56 miles of riding and 7,728 feet of climbing, Hank was already asking me where we were going to ride on day 6. Hank has settled into a rhythm: climb, eat, sleep, eat, and then repeat.