Thursday, June 26, 2008

La Route des Grandes Alpes Day 3: Séez to Lanslebourg

76.3 km total
Col de l’Iseran 2,770m
Collet de la Madeleine 1,677m

Iseran is … huge, but not necessarily harder than some of the other climbs. The road up to Val d’Isère was not as busy as we expected.

Along the first part of the road, there are beautiful views of everlasting snow and big waterfalls. At the Barrage de Tignes, we congratulated the gendarmes who were there to pick the few speed devils off the road and present them with the bill. Not very popular, but our safety benefitted from their work. Thumbs up!

Along the Barrage de Tignes, we were happy to use our little rear light for the first time. Thanks for the tip, Will. After Val d’Isère, the real climb starts. Welcome to vertigo land! The higher up you climb the slower the cars and motorcycles go. These cliffs are steep. You feel the mutual respect among all road users.

The best awaited us at the top. Our Secret Weapon was there waiting for us, to take pictures as we arrive and to fuel our legs with food. Wow! We also found our biggest fan club here: a group of single bikers fascinated by our tandem.

As we started our descent, we immediately bumped into the perfect snow wall for a Tour d’Enfer inscription (see video tab). This was also where we first met our new friends Rosario and Karsten, aka the “Germans”. They will become our faithful partners as we will keep meeting them over and over again.

The descent from Iseran was technical. We stopped in the highly rated town of Bonneval-sur-Arc for water. Maybe we stopped at the wrong spot as we failed to find it charming. So, we rode on.

The stretch between Bonneval-sur-Arc and Lanslevillard also did not really appeal to us, maybe due to the headwind and to the blinding sun at that time of the day. But, once we approached Lanslevillard, things got better again and we enjoyed the rest of our ride to our excellent YH in Lanslebourg.

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