only used caffeine to assist me up the hill.
Down the block, over the river, but now turn right at the 5-way
intersection. Only the 13 kilometer Col des Cyclotouristes (seriously)
remains unexplored from this junction. We did about 20 kilometers of flat
roads, and I found an undocumented frontage road along the highway that
was superb. I've been really glad that I got a SIM card with a gigabyte
of prepaid data, since using Google Maps has been really useful at various
points.
The Col de la Madeleine is a very famous major climb for the Tour, in use
24 times since 1969. The marker at the bottom says 1500 meters over 24
kilometers. That's 6.25 percent average. Other sources say more. For
the folks back home, Longmire to Paradise is 2700 feet over 11 miles, or
4.7 percent. Numerically it sounds a lot like Hurricane Ridge. But it
took me about five rest stops to make it. One was a long coffee-coke-tart
stop at a hotel 10 kilometers from the top in Celliers. I have no idea
what berry composed the tart, and the proprietor did not speak much
English so could not help, but it was sure tasty.
Another short rest stop was memorable. Tom pulled the van over just shy
of a stream. Another rider stopped to chat. Then a descending Londoner
saw the group and pulled in to ask Tom if he had any tape. His bike frame
was breaking apart near the bottom bracket where the carbon fiber chain
stay was joined to the metal bottom bracket. Tom produced some electrical
tape and some duct tape. Neither Tom nor I thought the repair would prove
of any use, so we wished him luck on a careful continuation of his
descent.
Made another coffee-Orangina-blueberry-tart stop at the top of the col,
joining Tom, Lars and Evan, who each had a full lunch at the restaurant
perched at 2000 meters elevation. Lars was feeling much better, though
he lost his helmet this morning, so rode up, and then down, without it.
Andrew still is not eating much, but soldiered up the whole way in
Luther's company (and arrived before me). The climb seemed much harder
than Hurricane Ridge, possibly because there are some flat sections (and
it was very hot).
Descent required one stop to rest my hands from working the brakes.
Traffic is about equal parts bicycles, motorcycles and cars. On the
descents, the cars generally have to sit behind the cycles (human and
gasoline powered), though I invariably gave them opportunities to pass in
the hairpin turns.
We finished in a new town, Saint Jean-de-Marienne, located in the steep
valley we descended into off the col. We are staying at the Hotel St.
Georges. Hotel is an upgrade - air-conditioning is a real plus. Dinner
was arranged for us across the street at Hotel Europa. It was a simple,
but delicious, meal of salad, chicken with brown gravy, pasta, rice,
bread, dessert and coffee. But perhaps it was exactly what tired cyclists
needed. Hit the hay early, passing on the outdoor concert with the Led
Zeppelin cover band. Fortunately, the concert did not keep us from
sleeping.
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