We got to Villard-de-Lans last night, had dinner, and went to sleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night there was a ton of thunder and lightening. Luckily I slept fine. Kevin & I woke up at 6AM. We knew that 

breakfast wouldn't be served until 7:45, so we hopped in the car and cruised around town. We first headed up to the ski area, then down a goat road back into town, where we found a cafe open. We came back for breakfast and the rain was coming down, but by 9:30 or so, it had stopped. We all went outside and and built our bikes. This time mine took me about 30 minutes to get it from the box to a test ride - so I am getting better. 

We finally took off around 11AM. We headed down a HUGE gorge with all sorts of tunnels and gigantic rock walls over 600m tall. It was beautiful.  We cruised down to a town called St Jean en Rayonne where we had lunch - actually, we just had crepes with Nutella and cokes - Yummy!, and then we headed toward the Col de la Machine. 

La Machine rises from about 800ft up o 3900ft in about 10miles. The Col de la Machine was AW

ESOME! Huge drops into a beautiful gorge,  with giant tunnels carved into the rock and gorgeous views. The weather was pretty nice, rain was threatening, and we were climbing in the clouds, but we could still get good views of the sun trodden valley below. The cooler weather also helped me keep cool on the climbs, which was good.

After the Col de la Machine, we climbed a little more to the Col de Carri. We then dropped down again through a couple of small towns like St Martin en Vercors, and with about 25km to go, we took a sharp right and started climbing again - this time up to a ski area called Herbouilly. Another climb of about 10k, this one topped out close to 4400ft (started around 2200). This climb was featured in the 2004 Tour (when Lance proclaimed "no more gifts and attacked Kloden at the end for the victory in Villard de Lans). About 3km up the climb, the rain started to come down. We pulled over and hid in the trees for about 15 minutes hoping it would stop - and remarkably, it did. It was a good little rest. 

After we topped out, the final 10k was mostly downhill, but on a mountain road that was under construction. So it was a very rough, muddy mountain road. I had a blast, but I think my new Schwalbe Ultremo tires might be trash already. We'll see. 

I think tomorrow we are going to take it a little easier.

Ride stats:

Distance - about 100km/62 miles

Climbing - over 2100m/over 6700 ft 

This shows meters, not feet, but you get the idea. 

Whew!

A Plus Tard!

# posted by WebCyclery Blog @ 11:58 PM