French Alps 2005

Thursday - Snow business

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After a decent breakfast in the conservatory, we loaded up the bikes in the basement, brought them out and got ready to go.

The first pass on today's route was Col de L'iseran at 2770m (9087ft) one of the high ones, I was hoping for snow on the top!

On the way up we passed Lac Du Chevril, there's a huge dam just behind us. The water level seems low for early in the year.

Video 5.7mb (no sound)

Just beyond the lake is the ski resort Val-D'Isere, and from there the road really starts to climb.

Halfway up the North ramp of Col de L'iseran, Dave J and his Suzuki SV650, the scenery is stunning.

Patto taking a picture from the same place, you can just see Val-D'Isere in the valley bottom

While riding up the Col, Patto reported seeing a 'fat mountain beaver' scampering off the road, we all agreed it was a Marmot, but the name stuck with us and 'fat mountain beavers' are what they became...

I think the picture says it all, 2770m/9087ft, how cyclists get up here I don't know.

180deg video panorama (no sound)

It was 10.30 when we arrived but the Cafe didn't start opening until we were just leaving :(

But we did find a large patch of snow in the shade of a peak for us to play in.

Poor man's sledging, John H showing how it should be done.

Sledging video 6mb (no sound)

After playing for quite a while in the snow, we set off down the mountain looking for a cafe.

8 miles and 3000ft lower down, we found Le Glacier des Evettes

Patto showing us just how big that 'fat mountain beaver' really was - HUGE!

From the bottom of Col de L'iseran to the next pass (Col du Telegraphe) was around 40 miles, all we needed was a drop of fuel to help us on our way...

On the way we passed by Fort Marie-Therese on the other side of the gorge, we all stopped for photographs, it's an impressive sight.

Finding fuel was becoming a problem, the only fuel seemed to be on the wrong side of the motorway in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne. We ended up squeezing through a gap in the Armco just in front of the peage to get to the fuel on the other side, then having to ride back 3 miles the way we had come to loop back round again. Phewww! What a pain!

The ride up the Col du Telegraphe (1556m/5104ft) was a steep climb, at the top was a Cafe, it looked nice, but we didn't stop as we'd just had drinks at the filling station. Instead we pressed on for Col du Galibier.

And what a stunner Col du Galibier is!

This is the North side were we rode up, you need to click here for the full size panorama, 500kb

And this is the view south, again click here for the full size Panorama, 719kb

There's a tunnel through the top of the mountain that joins up the two Cafes shown in the pictures above, if the weather was bad it would save you riding the extra 300ft over the top.

The car park where the above two pictures were taken from, our bikes are abandoned in the middle, click here for the full size Panorama,

There were all sort of people on top of the pass, including this Canadian Grandmother who decided to stand her grandson on Patto's red hot bike seat for a free ride, you can guess the result: every time his bare feet touched the hot saddle, he cried :)

It was 3.30 when we started heading down the mountain, it was so hot, thoughts were turning toward hotels and swimming pools, Briancon was only 22 miles away so we headed that way.

Just before Briancon we came to the ski resort of Villeneuve, the GPS guided us to the Tourist information who found us the Hotel Plein Sud (they have a pool!) The hotel was only 1.8 miles away in Chantemerle and listed on the GPS, so we rode straight there.

Book in, dive in, just what we needed!

Then Dave J said, "Hey I've found a steam room!" -  WOW!

Gorillas in the mist

So you sit in the steam room till you're near passing out, then jump in the pool to cool off, then do it all again, what fun!

Later we had a few beers in the bar then went looking for a meal. Nearby was the restaurant La Ca'Bassa, the chef came out to meet us and sort out the order, really nice people and an excellent meal.

And so ended another brilliant day in the mountains, tomorrow we had Col de l'Izoard and Col de Vars to look forward to.

The second days route and 135 miles completed

From the GPS, today's vertical track profile.

Garmin trail and waypoints download for today

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