“Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.”
Happy birthday, Terry!
I’m finally sleeping well. Thursday morning starts off like most mornings in the mountains in September — Fog, clouds, generally cool and damp. We pack up, say our good-byes to the Madame and we’re off. Robin drives the sag van for the morning. Guess what? It starts to rain.
We take the ‘back’ way down from Alpe-d’Huez. This is a rather steeeeeeep road; it is advertised as 12%, but I think many stretches are much steeper. And guardrails? Who needs guardrails?!? The road is black topped, but just barely. It’s a rather poor grade covering. And boulders in the road? Well, just blacktop around them.
The road is not a high-maintenance road. Many streams carrying spring thaw water do not drain under the road — they wash right over the road. In order to prevent the streams from washing out the roads, large, flat stones are placed in the road in place of blacktop where streams cross. Did I mention it was raining? Flat rocks are slippery when wet… Turns out to be a rather slow treacherous journey down the mountain but we make it without incident.
Here’s Dave flying down the hill.
At the bottom we turn onto a ‘national’ road — N91. We’re a bit skeptical about traveling 40 km on this national route, but it doesn’t turn out to be a problem. All vehicles give us plenty of room to pass, even if they are spraying road grime and water on us.
The first climb is Col du Lauteret and it rains all the way to the top — 2058 m in elevation. The top is also rather cooooold — 3 deg. C. Soooo, here we are, cold, completely wet, and near the beginning of the day. Fun.
Here’s Dick near the top. 3 degrees, eh? Who needs long pants? What a man!
Here’s Russ near the top. He’s wearing long pants — wimp!
We all gather at the top for a coffee, or two or three. Now this group looks like it’s having fun, right!?!
Near the bottom of the descent from Col du Lauteret we stop for lunch. We usually stop in a park or someplace with tables outside. But not today, IT’S RAINING! The descent was pretty easy, no super curvy roads. I would like to do that again some year without all of the rain. Robin finds a restaurant and we all have a hot meal. I’m basically sitting in a pool of water, still shivering from the morning’s ride.
As luck would have it, the bathroom in the restaurant has a hot air dryer instead of drying towels. We all take turns in the bathroom trying to dry ourselves off. A few of us don whatever dry clothing we have (we’re wearing most of what we have, anyway) and set off for Briancon.
The weather and traffic get worse. It is poring rain and Terry and I are shivering. Dave takes over the sag vehicle from Robin at lunch. We flag him down in town and abandon for the day.
Robin and Dick both have proper rain and cold-weather gear. They trudge on up Col D’Izoard. The rain lets up quite a bit but it is still cold.
Here are Robin and Dick ascending d’Izoard. Those animals!
And the top!
No problems with the descent. The hotel is 5 km or so before Guillestre. They also cater to cyclists — warm room to store washed clothes and bikes. I think there was one other room rented for that night.
That night we’re all a bit dispirited during dinner and pack it in early. The bathrooms are equipped with their own heater so Dick and I crank the heat in the bathroom, close the door and hang our wet clothes to dry.
End of day 5. Statistics:
- Start: Alpe-d’Huez
- End: Guillestre
- Distance: 130 km
- Climbs: Col du Lauteret and Col d’Izoard
- Total gain: 2377 m
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