With Laurence, Rob, Kat, Dean, Netty, Jim, Dave, Terry and Dan (who provided the initial idea and the planning behind it all)
Thursday 28th June 2018. After work today, Dean and I collected a hire van from Easirent in Preston at 5:30pm before driving back to Warton to load ten bikes and luggage before a trip to France. Ten of us were heading to the Alps for a two-centre stay where we planned to tackle several of the famous alpine climbs over the next few days. Dean and I were designated van drivers and the other eight would be packed into a couple of cars.
Friday 29th June 2018. Laurence had previously had some trouble with his bike and a wheel was at the bike shop awaiting collection on the Friday morning. I called at the shop, picked up the wheel and popped it into the boot of the car and returned home. I then promptly jumped in the van and we then drove over to Hull to catch the afternoon ferry to Rotterdam. Yes, you’ve guessed, it was only when we were arriving in Hull did we realise that the wheel was still in the car! Thankfully, Terry had thoughtfully brought spare wheels and could loan one to Laurence so he could continue to ride with us. First disaster averted.
After boarding the ferry at 6pm, we found our bunks and then had a terrific meal before exploring the ship. Some of the party may had enjoyed the free entertainment on board, but I wasn’t too taken with the cabaret, so I passed on that and went to bed.
Saturday 30th June 2018. After a good night’s sleep, we left the ferry at about 9am with Laurence & I still in the van. Skirting Antwerp & Brussels in very heavy holiday traffic, we swapped drivers at a service station in South Belgium and Dean drove the van to our final destination at a town called Saint-Jean-de- Maurienne while I cadged a lift in a car. After a late meal at the Hôtel Saint-Georges, we hit the hay ready for the adventure to begin the next morning.
Sunday 1st July 2018. It was after 10am before we were organised enough to begin riding since we had to unpack all the bikes and make sure that they were all still roadworthy after the bumpy journey of over 800 miles.
Our first objective was to climb the Col de Chaussy by way of Les Lacets de Montvernier. Translated as ‘the laces’, this magnificent road was completed in 1934 and is almost invisible from below as it snakes left and right through 17 hairpins in just over 1.5 miles (that’s one every 160 yards!). This accounted for about 270 metres of the more than 1000 metres we had climbed by the time we reached the summit at noon. After refreshments, we descended to Saint Martin sur la Chambre where the group split up with some keen riders heading off the tackle the Col de la Madeleine. I chose to return to the hotel, but not before I had a second crack at Les Lacets. I didn’t go all the way up the second time, just far enough so that I could get some decent pictures – I didn’t want to stop on the first ascent. I was back at the hotel by 3:15 where I had a walk around town until our meal at 7pm. Early night so that we’d be ready for the huge challenge of riding the two passes of Col du Telegraphe and Col de Galibier tomorrow.
Monday 2nd July 2018. Today’s the day. We were on the road by 8:15 and I was soon in the town of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne facing the biggest climb of my life. Before me was the Col du Télégraphe (7.3 miles, climbing through 850 metres). The climb was not as fearful as I had thought, and I was at the summit by 10:20. This was only part of the story, however, since the top of the Télégraphe is virtually at the foot of the Col du Galibier which was 11 miles of constant climbing, mostly at 8-9%. The last half mile was the hardest and had sections of 11 and 12% as it reached the snow line. July with snow on the ground! The summit is the eighth highest paved road in the Alps, and stands at 2,642 metres above sea level, but I’d done it! By 12:30, I could say that it was all downhill from here. This wasn’t quite true, but knowing that my destination was over 2.1 km lower than my present position gave me quite a bit of comfort.
The descent was splendid, not too hairpinny, nor too cold. We stopped for a brew at a cheese shop part way down (goodness knows what it was doing there, but it gave us a welcome break). We took on more sustenance at Valloire before tackling the Col du Télégraphe again, this time from the South. This was easy: just 3 miles and 165 metres height gain.
Once back at the hotel, we relaxed for a while before packing for our departure tomorrow. We’re not going home yet, just changing bases.
Tuesday 3rd July 2018.
Today was a transit day, when we moved from the hotel in St Jean de Maurienne to a gite in Bourg D’Oisans. Most of the group cycled there over the Col de la Croix de Fer but I had volunteered to take the van to Bourg D’Oisans so I just cycled with them over the first pass, then headed down the Glandon valley back to the hotel before driving to the next stop.
The Col de la Croix de Fer was certainly the most scenic route to date, covering rocky passes, through typical alpine pastures, lush green valleys and spiky mountain tops. From the top of Croix de Fer, it is only a very short distance up to the top of the Col du Glandon, so in some ways I can claim to have scaled that pass too, but I don’t think it counts. The real climb to that pass is from North-East.
Descending the Glandon valley was the best yet – very steep in parts, but sweeping bends and not too many hairpins. I was still picking dead flies out of my teeth hours later!
We didn’t plan it, but it happened that today was the time for the roads over both the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col du Glandon to be closed to traffic. Every Tuesday in July and August, one of the major passes is closed to motor vehicles and given over to cyclists. What a civilised country this is.
It isn’t a great distance to Bourg D’Oisans but since the passes were closed to vehicles, we had to travel the long way round which was approaching 100 miles. So that took about two hours and we arrived about 3:30.
Tonight we’re sleeping in a gite at the foot of the Alpe d’Huez, another famous Tour de France climbs which we are planning to tackle on Thursday. Tomorrow we thought we’d have a rest day in between the serious climbs.
We’re having a barbecue tonight, which we’d carried from UK. It was delicious, and despite the weather looking a bit doubtful at times, we managed to enjoy it in the dry.
Wednesday 4th July 2018.
To call today a rest day would be untrue, but with just 1,280m climbed and 42 miles ridden, it ranks as an easier day than the rest of this week. We rode up the Montée de La Bérarde. This wasn’t a ‘col’ which is defined as the lowest point of a ridge or saddle between two peaks, but instead, just a climb to a village located at an altitude of 1,720 m the end of the Vénéon Valley. It is the last inhabited place before the mountain huts and high mountain peaks. Despite that, it didn’t feel isolated, and we had a fine meal before taking a descent the same way we came.
Once more, I am going to say that this was the most beautiful and picturesque day so far. Everywhere I looked there were snow-capped peaks, in front of impossibly blue skies. The hills didn’t really matter amidst such glorious scenery.
At one point, we were climbing a series of hairpins and could see down to the same road many metres below us. At one point, Rob called down to Jim who was climbing several zig-zags below us. Jim couldn’t hear Rob calling, but an old lady mid way between us did hear and realised the problem. She then began calling out to Jim down the mountain, but in a wonderful French accent; “Jzeem ! Jzeem!” But he still couldn’t hear. It made us chuckle, though.
At the top of the valley, there was not much to see, but there was a pleasant restaurant and plenty of opportunity for sunbathing (for some). We didn’t spend too much time here before heading back to see the same beautiful scenery but from the other direction.
On the way back, we diverted to another tiny mountain village called Vénosc. There was nothing there but I can now say I’ve seen it.
I did a bit of shopping for a cycling vest tonight. I found one I liked, but the medium size wouldn’t fit. Neither would the ‘large’! So I had to buy an extra large which, of course, they didn’t have in stock. However, the nice man in the shop said he’d send one on to me by post. I believed him, but I hope it arrives…
We had thunder and lightning tonight, so I hope that will clear the air and maybe become a bit cooler.
Thursday 5th July 2018. This morning I set off at 7:30 to climb the Alpes d’Huez which wasn’t the longest, highest, or steepest climb and certainly not the prettiest: instead it was a relentless nine mile ascent on a busy road with 21 hairpins. Not much fun. And to add insult to injury, my climb hasn’t even been registered on Strava as the ‘official’ one. I know I did it, but since Strava doesn’t think so, so it never happened. Very annoying.
After we had gone over the summit, the scenery opened up so we had a magnificent descent down the Col de Sarenne. Just as we were reaching the foot of the descent, Laurence had a puncture – the first of the week which is quite remarkable considering that we collectively cycled about 2,200 miles. It was also lucky that it happened at a very convenient (and safe) spot.
We were back at the gite by 1pm, but, risk averse as ever, I wanted to move on from here to get a bit closer to the port to reduce the chance of us missing the ferry tomorrow. We have about 650 miles to drive (probably over 11 hours in a van) and the ferry leaves at 6pm. So Dean and I decided to drive about 220 miles North this afternoon, leaving the others (in faster cars) to follow on tomorrow after an early start.
We found a small, cheap hotel (well, it was more like a cupboard with a couple of beds in it) in Dijon. When trying to find somewhere to eat, we managed to drive onto a car park which had a restricted height barrier – on the way out! Goodness knows how we managed to do this, but I spotted the barrier just in time. We had to drive out through the ‘in’ lane to avoid taking the roof off the van. Every day’s an adventure.
Friday 6th July 2018. We were on the road by 7:30 today (there was nothing to stay in the hotel for) so we had a leisurely 440 mile drive to Rotterdam, arriving at about 4pm. The others arrived not much later than us, but they’d travelled a bit quicker (and I think, set off sooner) so we all had a welcome pint on the boat as it pulled out of port.
Saturday 7th July 2018. Disembarking the ship at 8:30am, we were soon on the M62 and arrived at Warton by 11:20 where we unloaded most of the bikes and Laurence and I headed home. I’ll return the van tomorrow after driving 1,735 miles.
