After the first 5 days of riding and generally travelling around the place there were a number of observations worth noting;
1. Lotto numbers are easier to predict than the French weather
2. French drivers are exceedingly more cyclist-friendly than those in Australia
3. There is a noticeable absence of broken glass on French roads, sharp shards of French stick maybe, but no glass
4. French coffee is ordinary
5. They don’t have QWERTY keyboards which makes typing all this stuff incredibly frustrating
6. 130km/hr freeway speed limits are a pleasant change
7. If you get car sick, don’t drive around this part of the world. If you like rally driving, you’ll love it.
It was time to leave the country and try out another part of this years Tour so off we drove to Martigny, Switzerland, where they commenced Stage 16 of the Tour this year. The pros had come through the day before so it was a very different experience to our highly atmospheric Col de la Colombiere one, but by no means easier. We were to take on the Col du Grand Saint Bernard, or Big Dog Mountain as we preferred to call it. It was a shorter ride but the first 40 odd km’s to the summit was ALL uphill - no descents and no flat sections. Almost the whole way in the easiest gear on the bike. About half way up it was time to replenish supplies and slam down a Coke. I found a good photo opportunity with one of the friendly locals at the servo we stopped at;
My bike with a local resident
About 6km’s from the summit it got very steep (again!) and it started raining which was unexpected given the weather forecast predicted the opposite. It was also freezing cold due to the elevation as once again we were well above the snowline. We were relieved to get to the top where we hurriedly put on what little warmer clothing we had with us and made a beeline for the van before hypothermia set in…3hrs up, just over 1hr down. Apologies, no summit photos available - they would have been blurred due to shivering anyhow.
It was back to Chamonix that afternoon where we spent a bit of time relaxing in the very picturesque town centre with an impressive backdrop of Mont Blanc - it’s huge, much more than just a pen. This was a very lively, enjoyable place with a lot of character.
Brendan posing in Chamonix
Km’s ridden: 85km (485km total)
Metres climbed: 1,900m (13,050m total)
Elevation: 2,473m