'Le Brouillard' - 'The Fog'

Yesterday, June 29th, was my eleventh day in France and my eleventh day in a row on the bike.  I have been trying to mix some easier days in with the hard efforts and I have been feeling pretty good.  The weather yesterday was completely different from the day before.  Gone were the blue skies and the baking sun.  It was cool and a sort of fog was creeping down the Col d'Ornan.  It seemed like it might rain, but like it probably would not.  I got a late start and rolled into Bourg d'Oisans for lunch.

I had thinking about riding one of the back routes up Alpe d'Huez that Hank and I had done a couple of times last year.  The route is the road up from Allemont to Villard Reculas and from Villard Reculas to Huez on the shelf road that wraps around the mountain.  I see this road every time I come down the Col d'Ornan into town.  Here is a picture I took today of the cliff face and the shelf road above it from the bridge on the valley floor at the bottom of the Col d'Ornan.  You can just make out the shelf road in the picture, but it is clearly visible to the naked eye from town.

And here is how it looked yesterday as I spun back out Bourg d'Oisans after lunch.

I thought to myself I have got to get up into that cloud and see what it's like.   And so I rode up to Allemont and started up the switchbacks to Villard Reculas.  As I started out the air was reasonably clear.

I saw the first deer I have seen in France, a small red doe.  It was nowhere nearly as cooperative as yesterday's posing goats.  It bounded off before I could even get out my camera.  Then as I rode up things started to get foggy.  I could see banks of fog rolling down the mountain and I rode in and out of the white for a while until finally I was engulfed in fog.  I was wondering if it would be wet, but it was just cool, which was fine because I was warm from climbing.

It is a steep climb up, you are actually knocking off about the first fifteen switchbacks on Alpe d'Huez, and finally you come into Villard Reculas.

Villard Recluse sign on right side of the road.

From Villard Reculas the road becomes a one lane shelf road along the cliff face with a bit more climbing into Huez.  Initially the shelf road was totally inside the bank of fog.  I was wondering if the main route up and down Alpe d'Huez was also totally enshrouded in white, but about half way along the shelf road I popped out into the clear and I could see Bourg d'Oisans in the valley below.  Still the fog came down at times, billowing over the road like dry ice off of the stage of a rock concert.   As I came into Huez there was a great view of the some of the lower 'lacets' or laces of Alpe d'Huez.

And from about the same spot you have a nice view of the town of Huez and the town of Alpe d'Huez above it.

I had finally ridden out of the fog bank and it was plenty clear so I decided to ride the last five turns up to Alpe d'Huez.  From there I dropped back down into Bourg d'Oisans where I treated myself to a chocolate eclair and an Orangina before my ride back up to the Col d'Ornan.  Another great day on the bike: 5,400 feet of climbing over 41 miles.  This is the Garmin map readout for the day.

Col du Glandon, Col de la Croix de Fer Redux

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the French Alps.  It was sunny, hot and clear, and I did not wake up in the morning with any particular riding route in mind.  If I was smart, I would have taken it easy after my ride up the Col du Galibier the day before, but I am not particularly bright, so I decided to ride up the Col du Glandon and see whether or not Mount Blanc was visible from the top.  The sky was clear as a bell when I finished the first part of the climb up to Rivier d'Allemont.

The obligatory memorial to the war dead from the First World War in Rivier d'Allemont.  Every French town, and I mean every town has one.

Right after Rivier d'Allemont there is a big down hill.  It is a big climb to get out of this dip and continue the climb up the Glandon.  Also, as you head down the switchbacks into this thing, you realize that you are going to have to climb back out of this same hole on the descent from the Glandon.

The down hill after Rivier d'Allemont

Aa you climb out of the hole the reservoir damn below the Lac du Grand Maison comes into view.

towards the end of the reservoir the top of the Col du Glandon comes into view.  It is off to the left.  The road to the right is the last few kilometers up to the Col de la Croix de Fer.  You can actually see the Auberge du Glandon, the little cafe at the foot of the col from here.  Below is a picture from closer up.

There is a herd of cows off to the left and above them the short road up to the top of the Glandon.  Up a short path above the parking lot at the top of the Glandon there are four stone pillars that line you up in such a way as to frame where Mont Blanc should be in the distance.

It's hard to see in the above photo, and not much easier to see in the below zoom shot, but Mont Blanc was there.

I dropped back down to the Auberge du Glandon for a sandwich and a couple of Cokes, and then I spun up to the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer.  There is a little bistro up there right next to the iron cross.

There are usually several herds of sheep near the top of the cols as well as their shepherds and sheep dogs, but they must have had the day off as all I saw yesterday were cows and goats.  There are two quad chair lifts on either side just below the Col de la Croix de Fer and one of them was inexplicably running.  Nobody was on it.

On the way down the pass some of the goats struck majestic poses for me.

It was hot on the road yesterday and I cannot remember a time when I pushed more fluids into myself.  Every cafe I entered I ordered at least two Cokes or Oranginas.  It's on days like this that you are really grateful for the public potable water fountains in every little town.  I lost track of the number of bottles of water I drank.  When I got back to the King of the Mountains Lodge I immediately drank four large glasses of water.  I felt okay and I did not have any cramping, nor have I had any cramping on this trip.  It was a good day: 57 miles of riding, 7,000 feet of climbing.

I would have written this blog last night, on day of the ride, but we had some internet issues here at the KOM Lodge.  I had a great ride again today.  The weather was quite different, and I will blog about it tomorrow.

A lesson learned (maybe)

At the end of my last post I mentioned that I had a little adventure on my way back down the col du Lautaret and I learned a bit of a lesson (I hope that I learned it) that I would like to share with you now.

Here is the lesson:  Even if you develop a great plan to deal with an unforeseen crisis situation be sure to reevaluate and, perhaps, reformulate the plan when faced with an immediate change in that same unforeseen crisis situation.

This is what happened:  Aside from getting stung by a bee or a wasp on my left shin just below the top of the Col du Lautaret during my descent from the Galibier (I get stung once or twice a summer.  If you ride enough it happens - you hit a bee or a wasp and it panics and reflexively stings you.) the descent was going well.  But when I got below Le Grave I could feel that my rear tire had a very slow leak and that it was going flat very slowly.  I road it that way for several miles and then realized I needed to do something about it.  I had two spare tubes with me and two 16 gram CO2 cartridges - each one capable of inflating a tube.  So I thought that I would stop and just re-inflate the tire with one of my two CO2 cartridges and just nurse the bike home.  I got the first cartridge out and it was dead.  I had been given a spent cartridge.  Here is where I should have reassessed the plan, but no, I was so in love with the my plan that I got out the other cartridge and re-inflated the tire.  This worked great for about half of a mile then the tube blew completely.  Now I had two spare tubes and a half charged CO2 cartridge.  I thought I might be thumbing home from there, about seven miles from Bourg d'Oisans, but I thought what the hell, I'll stick in a new tube and see how much CO2 I have left.  The tire inflated to about 60 psi (I typically ride them at about 110 psi.)  It felt super soft and unstable, but I rode it very slowly all the was into Bourg d'Oisans like that.  There I borrowed a pump and pumped the tire all the way up to 110 psi.

What I should have done was reassess the plan as soon as I realized I only had one CO2 cartridge.  I should have immediately put a new tube in and then inflated it.  So the lesson for the day was when the circumstances change reassess and do not be overly attached to your original plan.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is the elevation of the Col du Galibier.  It is one of the highest in the French Alps at 2,645 meters or 8,677 feet.  It is a big climb, but the elevation at the top is lower than the top of a lot of the rides I do in Boulder, and nowhere near as high as the elevation of the high Colorado passes.  Independence Pass, for example, is at 3,687 meters or 12,095 feet.  It is a lot more fun to climb with all that extra oxygen.

Today was day nine in France and I made it a bit of a rest day.  I wrote some postcards then rode into town to mail them.  Even though it was a rest day I wanted to get out and spin a bit.  Here is the view down the street I spin down when I leave the King of the Mountain Lodge in Le Rivier d'Ornon.

And here is a view of Rivier d'Ornan from just below town.

About a kilometer down the road this is the view down to the Romanche River Valley.

I rode into town where I mailed my postcards, visited the bicycle shop, and had some lunch.  Then I spun back up the col to Rivier d'Ornan.  It is about a five mile climb, but it is not terribly steep, a bit steeper than the ride up to Jamestown for my Boulder friends.

There is some traffic, but it is a pretty col, and I look forward to riding back up it at the end of each day.

For my rest day I had an easy spin: 14 miles and 1,450 feet of climbing.

Le Col du Calibier via le Col du Lautaret

Just over a year ago, on June 19th, 2010, Hank Brandjten and I rode the Col du Galibier from the north side.  We had Hank's wife Ki drop us at the bottom of the Col du Telegraphe and she went up with us as a support car.  We had a lovely lunch in Valloire in the saddle at the top of le Col du Telegraphe, then Hank and I started up le Col du Galibier where things started to get cold and white.  Climbing up in a snow storm is no problem, but descending in a snow storm is not much fun.

So Hank and I were cheated out of our descent down the south side of the Col du Galibier.  We wisely loaded the bikes into our car on top and Ki drove us home to the King of the Mountains Lodge down the south side of the Col du Galibier and then down from the Col du Lauteret.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the French Alps and there was no chance of any snow on top of the Galibier, so I decided to ride from the KOM Lodge to the top of the Col du Galibier from the south side. It was my eighth day in France and my eighth day in a row of hard riding.  The route started out the same way as my last two days of riding did with a descent from the KOM Lodge down to Bourg  d'Oisans and a ride up the Romanche River Valley.

After the first bit of climbing along the river I came to the first of many tunnels on the route up through La Grave to the Col du Lautaret.  I had passed through the same tunnel twice already on the last two days of riding and I was getting used to it.  The signage with the bike with a red slash through it in the photo would make one think that no bicycles are allowed in the tunnel, but actually it means that the bicycle lane is ending.  There is another sign just beyond it telling motorist to keep a meter and a half between themselves and cyclist when the motorist have an opportunity to pass - even in the tunnels.  The safe passing signs are fairly common and by and large the drivers are much better at sharing the road with bicyclist than American drivers are.

Legally you need a tail light on your bicycle in the tunnels.  I have both a small head light and a tail light on my bike.  Alberto Contador and his team got stopped by the Gendarmes within the last week or so for not having tail lights when they were previewing the Tour de France course.  Contador's team tried to argue that the headlights from their support cars were enough, but the gendarmes made them load their bicycles on their cars to pass through the many tunnels.  Two of the tunnels are 700 meters long.  I have no idea what the gendarmerie would have done had it been a French team without tail lights for their bikes.

As always there were some beautiful views along the way.

Soon I had passed the spots where I had turned off the road on the last few days.  This route over the Col du Lauteret is the main route between Grenoble and Briançon, through Bourg d'Oisnans and Le Grave, and I was making the fairly gentle ascent along the river up to Le Grave.  

There were several flashing signs letting drivers know that the two cols were 'OUVERT' - meaning 'OPEN.'  The Colorado Department of Transportation, CDOT, would do well to copy this system for Independence Pass.

This sign's flashing message about the pass being open alternated with an admonition to drivers and bicyclist to 'PARTEGEONS' - 'SHARE' the road

I had lunch in Le Grave.  The view below was from the patio of the restaurant on the main road in the middle of town.

Here is the view back on Le Grave from further up the pass.

Another neon sign above Le Grave saying both passes are open.

And the road keeps climbing.  Notice how the terrain is getting more Alpine.

Looking back down the pass

Finally, after 30 miles of climbing I came to the top of the Col du Lauteret.  

The last time I was here it was snowing.  Yesterday it was beautiful. I didn't even need my jacket for the descent.  From here if you go straight on the main road you drop down into Briançon.  But a left turn off of the top of the col takes you up le Col de Galibier.

Notice all the motorcycles coming off of the Galibier.

It's another five and a half miles of climbing to the top of the Galibier.  

The view back down to the buildings on top of theCol du Lauraret

One of the big last switchbacks reminded me of the big bend at the top of Independence Pass, but there was still lots of climbing to be done.

The big bend on the Galibier

Still climbing.  It's hard to see, but the little dip in the ridge line in the bellow photo is the top.  There are several switchbacks below it.

And finally I made it.

They say that the camera puts on five pounds.  As Hank says there must have been a lot of cameras up there.

On the descent I stopped for half of a sandwich at the top of the col du Lauteret.  A big herd of sheep had come down to the col.

It was 72 miles round trip from the KOM Lodge to the top of the Galibier with 8,200 feet of climbing.  I had a bit of an adventure on the way back that I will try to blog about latter.  No big deal, though, really.  It was a fun ride!  Ciao.

Le Freney Balcony

Today was my seventh day in France and I got out for my seventh big ride in the row.  To say there is no rest for the wicked would be a bit of an exaggeration, because once again I got up around 8:00 AM for breakfast then promptly went back to sleep until about 11:00 AM.  Part of my problem is that I am up until all hours writing this blog, but even when I go up to bed I wind up being unable to sleep and I usually read until around 2:00 in the morning.

To be honest I don't see this as being that big a deal, because 1) I am riding a lot and I need to recover and 2) Even if I don't leave the King of the Mountain Lodge until late in the morning I still have eight hours of daylight to ride in.

Today I had my eye on riding Le Freney Balcony also known as the Le Garde shelf road.  This is the only sneaky way up on to the main Alpe d'Huez route that I had not ridden before.  The road is clearly visible from Bourg d'Oisans, it is a big gash all the way across the cliff-like hillside.  So as I sat on the patio in front of a restaurant in Bourg d'Oisans I could clearly see my destination.  Once again I am going to crib a map from another website (a map that I have cribbed before) that shows the various routes up Alpe d'Huez.

Once again if you click on the map it should show a larger version.  The Freney Balcony is the only road bike route onto the Alpe d'Huez road that is not highlighted on the map.  It is route D221A, at the bottom of the map, roughly paralleling the green route which shows the Col de la Sarenne route I did yesterday (minus my side trip up to Le Deux Alpes on the south side of the valley.)

After lunch I road up the Romanche River Valley on that same green route (on the cribbed map) that  I had followed the day before, passing through some tunnels and by the turn off I had made to the right up through le Travers to Le Deux Alpes. This is the main route between Bourg d'Oisans and Le Grave and beyond that to Briançon.  In the small village at the bottom of the road up to the Freney Balcony and the ski station of Auris I made a right hand onto the route - D221A.  The climbing was immediately steep and relentless.  So much for this being any sort of a rest day.  But I felt good.

Above is a photo of one of the lower switchbacks.  

It was a hot day, and after a fair bit of sweating I could look across the valley and see the Travers shelf road I was on yesterday (Above.)  The climbing eventually got easier and I was soon confronted with a choice:

Should I just ride across le Freney Balcony AKA La Garde shelf road to the Alpe d'Huez road or should I ride up to the ski station at Auris?  As my buddy Hank would say, "When was I going to be there again?"  Besides, the sign said it was only five kilometers.  The sign lied.

The first switchback on the way up to Auis

I think what the sign should have said would have been '5 Kilometers to the next sign that says it is now 5 Kilometers to Auris.'  But eventually I got there.

If you are wondering what the ski station of Auris is like in the summer, think what Aspen Highlands or Bachelor's Gulch are like in the summer.  Quiet.  Auris is kind of like Bachelor's Gulch in that it is another base area for the Alpe d'Huez ski area.  The general store was open though, and I had a 7-Up and a nice chat with the owners.  

My faithful steed at the ready in Auris

I am guessing Auris is at about the same elevation as Le Deux Alpes, because I could see Le Deux Alpes across the valley from the upper parking lot - the end of the paved climbing.

From Auris I dropped back down to the Ferney Balcony.  This is yet another tiny one lane shelf road which is perched on top of an absolute cliff.  There are a few tunnels and avalanche sheds.

You would not want to fall off of this thing.

World's smallest avalanche shed.

Eventually I popped out in the small town of Le Garde, which is about five turns up from the bottom of the Alpe d'Huez climb.  It sounds like you would be close to the bottom, but these are some of the biggest switchbacks.  From there I descended into town for a well-earned gelato before the obligatory climb back up the three quarters of the Col d'Ornan and home.  It had been a surprisingly big day with about 5,400 feet of climbing over about 42 miles of riding.