Tanya hadn't originally planned on doing this col as perhaps this would be a rest day (that doesn’t exist in Tanya’s vocabulary) after Alpe d’Huez before we did the next few climbs. It also isn’t as popular (or famous), which mean that we mostly just encountered vehicle traffic and not too many other cyclists. In terms of the scenery, it was definitely just as scenic and a bit easier than the others I thought. We started out in a Bourg d’Oisans, where we’d been camped for the Alpe d’Huez climb the day before. It was a beautiful sunny day out but still quite chilly – probably around 11 or 12 degrees when we headed out. Megs was driving again today and since Rod had driven Mägge’s VW (a T5 California) on the Croix de la Fer day, Hille insisted he drive the van today. I forgot to mention that yesterday, after our return from Alpe d’Huez, all the guys had played several energetic matches of table tennis at the campsite –Rod and I on one team, Mägge and Hille our opponents. Canada vs. Switzerland and the Canadians ruled supreme that evening...I love table tennis so that`s why I had to mention it. Anyhow, back to today...

The entire route we were planning on taking was probably around 75-80 km and would take us to the next campsite in Briançon. I don’t know the average gradient to the col since we hadn’t looked up the information prior to setting out and the ride is usually done from La Grave, which is only 11km from the top. The first section, up to Mont de Lans, was a gradual uphill with a few steep sections. This section was a partial repeat of yesterday’s loop. Once we got to Mont de Lans, which was the turnoff point to the campsite on our loop, we stopped for a quick bathroom break. There was a defribulator by the washroom so I thought I should get a photo by it just for laughs after my incident at the end of Telegraph.

We then headed off again, down the Valle de la Romanche, towards Lauteret. At this point, we started seeing the all-too-familiar cycling road markers again indicating that we were indeed headed toward the Col. It was a very gradual climb for nearly the entire ride as we were riding through a valley. Just to be clear though, it wasn’t like cycling along the Richmond dykes - there was a minimum gradient of about 3% at any given time, and even if there wasn’t a gradient, I was riding with experienced and strong cyclists. Shortly after starting up again, we saw Megs pulled over at the side of the road, so we stopped to say hi and she told us that there was a long tunnel up ahead so she thought it might be safer if she drove behind us through the tunnel – like a real support vehicle! I had some lights on my front and rear of my bike but we thought it would still be safer to have Megs behind us. So we started up and rode at a near sprint pace (at least it felt like a sprint to me) so that we weren’t holding up traffic. Megs said after that I was doing about twice as many RPMs as the others. Megs escorted us through another tunnel or two and then she went on ahead. For then next hour or so, we were riding right alongside a river and treed riverbank while on our left were steep mountainsides. We kept on riding at a steady pace and I was keeping up for most of the way with Rod, Tan and Hille. When we got to La Grave, we stopped to regroup and spotted Hille sitting outside having lunch at a restaurant. I asked him to refill my waterbottle in the washroom for me since we weren’t ready to stop for lunch yet (the plan was to stop on top of the Col). I wanted to do a little detour at this point to ride up to a scenic viewpoint, right across from the Meije glacier. I had spotted a little section in one of our pamphlets from a local TI that the town of Le Chazelet was very scenic. It didn’t seem too much of a detour from where we were headed but it was a very steep climb up to the viewpoint. Rod and Mägge weren’t too keen on it and so continued on the main road towards Lauteret. Tanya said she would come along wth me as it was safer to ride in pairs in unfamiliar territory and especially since we all didn’t have cell phones to stay in contact. I borrowed Rod’s compact camera so Tan and I could get some pictures at the viewpoint and off we went. We took a wrong turn and soon ended up on a cobblestone street in the middle of a tiny town. Figuring that we were in the wrong place, I decided to ask for directions to our desired destination in my not-so-fluent French. There was a delivery truck driver parked and unloading goods so I went over and asked for directions – I was expecting him to half shake his head in non-comprehension but he instead started giving directions, en français. Turns out we just had to go past the upcoming tunnel and take an immediate right turn and we’d be on the road we were looking for. Tanya was most impressed that I had managed to ask my question and in turn understand the response. Within a few minutes, we were headed up the steep road. Almost immediately, I had to switch into my lowest gear. I was a bit surprised at how steep it was because I had told Tanya earlier that morning when I was looking at the map that it was only a 0-5% gradient. Later on that evening, I looked at the map again and it turns out I had missed the double '>>’ and it was actually around 9-15% - oops! About two kms up the road, Tanya noticed that she had a flat! So we pulled over as she began to change her tube. I had a small pump and she had brought a spare tube so were ok. Of course, Tanya was not impressed – she absolutely hates getting a flat! Road bike tubes need to be inflated to a much higher PSI than my hybrid bike so it was going to take some effort. Tanya soon found the small piece of metal lodged in her tire and once she got that out, began to switch tubes. About ten minutes later, we spotted a bright blue van driving up around the bend...could it really be Hille? Sure enough, it was! Turns out that Hille had decided to follow us up to check out the view, too, and good thing he had. He even had a full sized floor pump in the van which would make things go a lot quicker. Tan suggested I continue on up the hill since she would catch up to me and also since we didn’t want to keep the others waiting too long up at Lauteret. 

 I plodded up the hill and the views over the valley and of the mountain looming over us, La Meige (3983 m), were amazing and worth the effort in my opinion. Tan caught up to me in a bit and we still had a couple kms to the final viewpoint, but we decided that we should turn around since it had already been about a forty minute detour by this point. We speedily descended and turned back onto the main road towards Lauteret once again. We were both getting pretty hungry by this point so we only stopped for a couple photo ops along the way and within about forty five minutes to an hour, we were at the pass. The views climbing up out of the valley to the pass were really beautiful, both looking back on where we’d been and looking ahead to the pass. The total elevation gain from La Grave was 814m and a distance of about 11km. The pass wasn’t nearly as high as some of the others but we were both starving by this point and ready for a break. The rest of the gang were parked at a restaurant at the top and were just finishing up their meal. They rubbed it in our faces and we were going to sit down to eat, too, but the kitchen was closed for lunch – it was around 2pm now. Hille and Megs laid out a delicious picnic lunch within a few minutes consisting of salads, cheeses, breads and yoghurt. They even got out a table and chair; so we relaxed and ate our lunch as we watched the sheep grazing on the mountainside and took in the view over the valley and the steep mountains on either side. It only took us about ten minutes to devour the spread.

Rod, Tan, Megs and I walked up to the nearby Alpine Garden to have a peek around. We weren’t expecting anything to be in bloom but thought it would still be worth checking out. It was a well laid out garden with lots of informative panels and there were a few plants still in bloom. Megs and Tan hung around a bit longer as Rod and I headed back down to continue on with the rest of the ride. On the way back down from the garden, we passed an apiculturist and decided we should pick up some local honey. Since we didn’t have any money on us, I got some from the car, ran it back up to Megs and they picked two bottles up when they returned: one was acacia and the other wild alpine flowers.

Rod, Mägge and I then headed off down the other side of the pass towards our final destination for the day, our camping in Briançon. The wind was really blowing hard on the way down and thankfully it was still sunny out. I nearly got swept swideways by a gust of wind as I came speeding out of a tunnel. Just to give you an idea of the speeds I was doing on the downhill, it was probably in the range of 40-50 km/hr (Rod and Mägge on their road bikes were faster). Doing those speeds on a bike and getting nearly swept sideways made my heart race a bit and consequently slow down a bit, too. Rod also gave me some tips on speeding up my descent when he saw that I was sitting too upright and that my jacket was catching the wind like a sail. Trying to get your chest down close to your handlebars is not an easy position to hold when you have a weak core and a back that’s already sore. In fact, writing this blog many weeks later, I still have a knot in my back that I’m guessing is from all the riding I wasn’t in shape for. We eventually hit some flats and even a few, really short uphill sections on the way into town. Megs, Tan and Hille passed us eventually and made their way to the campsite. We hit a lot of traffic in Briançon and were glad to get into camp. The traffic on the rest of the ride hadn’t really been too bad so I guess I noticed it all the more. Coming into Briancon, it was really exciting to see the fortified medieval town, perched high up on a cliff, that we’d get to explore in the coming days. Megs and Rod spent some time debating which site to choose so we’d get the early morning sunshine (unlike in Bourg d’Oisans). We all hit the showers and it was exactly what I needed after a long ride of approximately 70 km. We were running low on clean clothing so I hand-washed a really large load that evening and was gone for so long that the others were beginning to wonder what had happened to me. We had spaghetti carbonara with a baguette and caesar-like salad for dinner; I ate lots. We went to the reception area after to catch up on a few emails and research the next campsite – and slept like a log in anticipation of our final ride tomorrow with everyone.