2011 ride day two: Crest-Voland to Briancon

Cafe stop before the pain

Bloody hell, yesterday was a tough day. The first 100km were fine – fast downhill from Crest-Voland to kick off and then some half-decent group riding to keep things moving along. And then you turn hard right at St-Michel-de-Maurienne, head up the road towards the Col du Telegraphe and enter a world of pain.

The 12km ride up to the Telegraphe is tough enough at the best of times, and the road resurfacing they’re doing in advance of this year’s Tour de France didn’t help.

Final switchbacks to the Col du Galibier

The thing is, when we got to the top you know that after a short drop into Valloire you’ve got the huge and daunting 17km climb up to the legendary Col du Galibier which takes you about 2,600m and into some very thin air. It’s bloody hard and we were all pretty washed out when we got to the top.

The reward for getting up there is the utterly brilliant 40km descent all the way into Briancon and a very welcome dinner.

Looking back down from the Col du Galibier

I think it’s probably the hardest day’s cycling most of us have ever done. In fact I know it is.

Today is quite a lot shorter at 108km, but no less hilly as it takes in the beautiful Col d’Izoard and the Col du Vars before the final ramp up to Pra Loup.

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