Happy birthday, Dave!
“Dear, I think I’m going to climb the Col de la Madeleine this morning. See you for lunch.”
And so it went. I think we saw no less than 50 cyclists each day of our “tour”. Cyclists of all ages and shapes, sizes and abilities seemed to, well, just cycle. We saw a couple of organized tours along the way as well; each tour had probably 10 – 20 cyclists. They were wearing either local club or professional team wear. Remember, and this is important, cycling is half riding, half style……
Day 2 started out nice, sunny, warm and just daring us to do 3400 meters of climbing for the day…… On the agenda — Col de la Madeleine in the morning and Col du Glandon in the afternoon. I didn’t feel so bad; typically the Tour de France riders do these two climbs and then finish off with Alpe d’Huez — all in a single day.
Terry had sag vehicle duty in the morning. We finally saw him about half way up la Madeleine. We stopped at a wonderful small cafe/hotel for some Coke and a shandy (remember, Dick and Dave grew up in Manchester).
Aravis and Saises were just teaser climbs. Today the Alps showed their best. Here’s Robin rounding switch back, oh, number 53 for the day. Looks more like a grimace than a smile there, dude.
And the top.
And just how did those cows get to the top of this mountain, eh? Most of the mountains we cycled were pastured to both cows and sheep. Many of the cows had bells hanging from their necks. Now I’m a farm-boy, but even I can’t remember cow bells while I was growing up.
I have to admit, however, that the ringing of cow bells from a herd of animals is rather soothing, especially at kilometer 24 of a 26 km climb. But more on the cows later.
Dick at the top:
Dave at the top:
Group photo at Col de la Madeleine:
Easy descent, no problems. Lunch at St. Etienne-de-Cuines. And what would you do on a full stomach? Why, climb Col du Glandon, of course! The afternoon was warm and humid, just right for a 26 km attack on Glandon.
Dick took over driving the sag van. Here’s Terry and me somewhere on the climb. Like I mentioned, Aravis and Saises were teaser climbs. La Madeleine and Glandon stretched on and on and on and on.
Remember those pesky cows? Well, we determined that France has developed a new species of bovines — mountain cows. Look at the picture above; see the slope of the land at the far left? Now look (closely) at my finger in the picture below. I’m pointing at a cow, a cow with a bell around its neck, of course, on the side of that hill!
Those mountain cows were everywhere! Remember that I mentioned that many of the hills were pastured by cows and sheep? Well, do you see any fences behind me on the picture above.
Now, note what I’m wearing — nice, bright red shorts. Starting to get the picture? You guessed it, I had a small run-in with some cows. Mountain cows are not the nice docile creatures I remember from my days on the farm. These are bred and raised to be more than a bit rugged and self-sufficient. And of course, if someone with bright red shorts comes riding along and startles them?
Near the top of Glandon, just when the road turns to about 15% or so grade, and after I did la Madeleine in the morning and I’m just about dead, some cows were strutting around the road. They were also just a bit agitated as their owner — and two of his dogs — were trying to corral them to a lower pasture. Then I come along. Hmmm.
Bossy (as she’s excitedly eyeing me and trying to get the attention of her friends): “All right, gals, who’s in it with me?!? I’ll knock him down and you gore him!!”
If Bossy had attempted to attack, I think she would’ve won. I was starting to see Elvis; I was within 2k of the top and I didn’t have enough energy left to outrun her. Maybe down the hill.
Here’s a look near the top of Glandon. Guard rails on the roads? We don’t need no stinkin’ guard rails!
Dave: “All right, I’m done. Dick, you take over.”
Near the Col du Glandon, I’ve had it. Outrunning the dreaded mountain cows, the altitude, and the steep grade all took their toll. Terry trudged on but I needed to stop every 200m or so. I finally make it! Robin is some minutes behind me. Terry, Robin, and I all start to descend as the rather cool breeze starts to get a little wet, as in rain. Terry streaks ahead quickly and we don’t see him until we reach Bourg-d’Oisans.
The rain started soon after we started the descent. Wait! More climbing? Robin, did we take the wrong road?!? We stop for directions and are assured that we’re on the correct route.
The route took us into Bourg-d’Oisans, about 40k from Col du Glandon. For safety sake, we (tried) to keep our speeds under 50 kpm.
Terry beat all of us to the hotel by about 20 minutes — he was motivated. Here is the top reservoir of a two reservoir system used by EDF — the electrical company. Power is generated from this system during peak power usage. During low power usage, the water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper. Interesting.
Sorry, no pictures of us gulping beer at the hotel — it was pouring rain.
End of day 2. Statistics:
- Start: Albertville
- End: Bourg-d’Oisans
- Distance: 124 km
- Climbs: Col de la Madeleine and Col du Glandon
- Total gain: 3100 m