Day 11-Col du Galibier

Day 11 - Sunday 11th July -Col d Galibier.

Woke up feeling tired again even tho I had a much better sleep. The legs were sore and the thought of riding to an altitude of 2645m was rather daunting. We got under way at around 8.30am and had a slightly chilly ride down the drive way (the road to the main road). The cold lasted a while longer as we rode along the main road in the shadow of the massive mountains cliffs. We turned off and were into the climbing already. We had a better start to the day as it was cooler. We stopped for a bite to eat which was our big mistake yesterday. Half a sandwich with an amazing coffee. It came in a bowl and although huge was very nice.

We headed of again and climbed to Col Lautarant which was 12kms away and the Galibier another 8 again. This was an easier climb with the grade similar to Evans hill and a god surface. The traffic was heavy with lots of motor bikes heading up.

The tunnels were scary today. I stopped to take a pic and was a fair way behind every one. Guess what came up next. Yep, another tunnel. Some are ok as they are well lit but this one was horrible. Wet very dark and me with no light. Hmmmmmmm I flew through it so a car wouldn't come up behind me. It is very loud in the tunnels with them ranging from 100m to 750m. They are not very big and the motorbikes come screaming through and accelerate hard which makes the tunnel explode with noise. Some thing very different indeed.

We got to Col d Lautarant and got water and some pics which will be on the picture link in the blog. There were a lot of people there and it was a very sunny day but it was cool due to the altitude. That doesn't stop the sweating when riding up the steeper parts. A toilet stop in a totally disgusting toilet, the like of which I have only seen once before, in Switzerland. The views of the Glaciers were amazing and you can see them on the blog link.

The last leg of the ride to the top was left and it proved to be a difficult on with it getting steeper as it went up. This was made worse by the thin air making it hard to get oxygen into the blood. I was breathing as hard as I could and still struggled to get enough to keep up a reasonable pace. The last couple of hundred metres was insane with it becoming extremely steep and difficult. I hit the top, as did the other totally spent and sweating profusely. It was such a great feeling to have made it to the top of this Col. Please have a look at the pics on the blog. They are amazing with the panoramas i took turning out well again. Lots more pics and we were off down the mountain. Approximately 30kms of down hill ahead, not including our way down to the valley after we level off for awhile. That means we rode up hill for approximately 50kms today. Total distance was 115kms and took 5.5 hours of riding.

As always the ride up the drive was harder than the last time and I had a very slow ride up. Lots of pasta and bread for lunch was so needed as we left our luck to late and no food is served after 2.00pm. Crazy stuff. The ritual of the leg shunt took place and it was time to sit and watch the last 11kms of the Tour.

Every one is sitting around and all look very tired. To be expected after 3 big days and guess what. Another one tomorrow. The Col de la Croix de Fer (The Cross of Fire).
This could be the toughest ride so far given the riding we have done.

We ended up. Climbing 2370m up. Yesterday was a bit over 1900m.

Dinner again was magnificent and consisted of salad with cheese. Then we had mushroom and bacon lasagna with salad followed by a tart that was very tasty. All the riding certainly helps the appetite while still loosing weight.

Good night all from the Tools in Ornon, France.