Friday, July 25, 2008
Jour 15
After watching the sufferfest that was the final mountain stage, we decided that we needed to go back up the Galibier from the other side - the way the tour went up it, then over the Telegraph, and up the Croix de Fer. Well, we got to the top of the Col de Lauteret (we drove up it because it is a 40km Highway - with shitloads of traffic) and found out that the Galibier climb was actually closed to traffic - just bikes were allowed - woohoo!
The Galibier was rather easy from the top of the Lauteret - only 8km, then we had a 17km descent, followed by a few km up the Telegraph and then another 8-10km descent. Riding the highway to the Croix de Fer sort of sucked, but it was only 10-15km. Once we got off the highway and went through town, the climb began. This Croix de Fer is a bitch. 30km long. It started out at about 10% grade for the first hour or so, then a short reprieve here and there, then another hour or so at 10%. It was also getting pretty warm, which made this one of the harder days of the trip. The road at the top was awesome - single lane, lots of switchbacks, great views - but I could have done without all the flies.
After getting to the top, it was a super sweet descent for quite a while. Having the GPS was cool because I could see what the road looked like 500m in front of me, so I knew if there was going to be a switchback coming, or if I could just let it go around a blind corner. Thumbs up on the Garmin 705!
Toby and I stopped in Bourg d'Oisan for a sandwich and some fluids on the way back. It was definitely one of the 2 hardest days that I had done.
Ride stats - About 132 km/82mi
2752m/9026ft of climbing
