Well, this is what we came for, to have a go at one of the major cols, one of those made into a household name by regular inclusion in Le Tour. The one that got the nod was the Izoard, south-east of Briançon. To make life easier for cyclists, and to eschew maps, the classic climbs & routes have a series of signs, every kilometre, featuring distance to the col, current elevation and the percentage gradient to be enjoyed until the next such sign. Sometimes the gradient information is encouraging, and sometimes not.
We left Vallouise at roughly 1030, fully intending to take the whole day over the venture. The route suggested by the above-mentioned signs takes riders away from major roads as much as possible. Thus the back road to the second town, Guillestre, held to the quieter bank of the river and consequently featured possibly the biggest gradient of the day, with many miles still to go to the col. Fatigue, particularly of those legs, still complaining fiercely from the 'walk' up La Blanche on Sunday, had already set in.
The climbing started straight out of Guillestre, although the official starting-point of the Izoard ascent was yet to be reached. From the river at the bottom to the col marker at the summit, it took over three hours of grunt. We did, however, stop for a recuperative coffee half-way up. A priceless decision; the body coped much better with the second part of the climb, post-coffee, than with the first.
The top was strewn with all sorts of folks. French school parties, Euromotorbikers (the col is on the Grande Route des Alpes), fellow cyclists, walkers and assorted bumblies doing not very much, apart from buying mementos they did not want or need from the kiosk. Obligatory photos were taken, drinks guzzled, bidons refilled and arm-warmers and gilets donned for the descent to Briançon. Monsieur Garmin told us later that the temperature on the descent was 46 degrees F - chilly. You would not want to be flying down without an extra layer or two.
Between 15 & 20 minutes later we were down in Briançon. Top speed 39 mph. Nice. It's good that you get a great ride when you pay such a steep entrance fee.
The route back to our starting-point was once again beautifully marked via backroads with those waymarkers. The final job of the day was to get une flute from the boulangerie in Les Vigneaux before climbing again, back to the billet. We arrived at 1755. A major day.
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