A Three Col Day

I made it to the top of Col de la Core yesterday.  It's a long haul getting up there but worth the view.  Thirteen kilometers with most of the climb at 7 or 8 percent.  For those of you on the Nacogdoches Bicycle Club, think 13 Hayter Hills stacked one on top of another.

Below is the view from the top.  The climb starts at the bottom of the valley that you see in the background.

The top is 1395 meters.  That's 4577 feet for my metrically challenged friends.  The climb begins in the town of Seix (yes, that's pronounced sex) at an altitude of 510 meters.

After the Col de la Core, I rode up two more climbs: the Col de Portet and the Col de Catchaudégué.  It took me a few minutes to find the base of the first climb.  It was an unmarked one lane road and much narrower than those county roads in East Texas.  It was pretty rural, and I actually thought that I heard banjos playing at one point during the ride.  Oh yes, the horse flies were ferocious for about 2 or 3 kilometers on the Col de Catchaudégué.