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| I think Steve may be grimacing in the storm 😞 |
View from the Aravis
Breakfast was available unusually early in last night's hotel so we were on the road by about 07:30. We continued the descent to Bourg St Maurice where we just flirted with the outskirts of town before turning up towards the Cormet de Roselend. Conditions were pleasant enough with misty patches here and there. A few km from the top it started to rain. I made an executive decision to stop and put jackets on, not least because I had my phone in my back pocket and I depend on that far too much to allow it to get wet (e.g. no phone = no blog). By the time we got to the top the weather almost seemed a little better but it was soon raining hard again as we commenced our decent. There was a small bar a few km down so we called in there to put on more clothes and warm up a bit. While we in the bar various little groups of cyclists and motor bikers came and went. Most of them dripped on the floor in the process of putting more kit on 😞. In the meantime the storm raged outside with lightning and thunderclaps separated by just a couple of seconds.
One friendly cyclists who had chatted to us despite language difficulties and who came across as a really nice bloke went out but then reappeared a little while later with an older cyclist (maybe 70yrs plus) who looked in a bad way. This poor man only had the normal summer short sleeved cycling top and shorts. I feel the bar owner should have done something for him, like put some heat on or fetch some blankets but he didn't seem to take much notice. (he was more interested in charging us an arm and a leg for the world's smallest cakes 😞).
Steve and I left soon after, once the electric storm had abated leaving us with just ordinary rain. The storm had washed all manner of rocks and stones onto the road so we took it easy to show our new tyres due respect. Thankfully it wasn't long before we were back in sunshine and taking clothing off again.
Next came the Col des Saisies, which wasn't particularly spectacular, being just a high road through a ski resort village. Finally came the Col des Aravis, which is more what we have come to expect from a col. I have forgotten the date now but we saw banners advertising the Tour de France coming this way on into July.
Today we have pedalled, grunted and groaned 118km and climbed 2720m. Incidentally, Aravis is col number 83 so, since there are actually 103 cols on our 100 cols tour, we have just 20 left to do - how hard can it be? 😃
Tonight we are recuperating at Les Etages, between the Col des Aravis and the Col de la Croix Fry.
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/100-cols-for-cancer
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