Tuesday, July 8, 2008

La Route des Grandes Alpes Day 13: Allemont to La Chambre

58.3 km total
Col de la Croix de Fer 2,067m
Col du Glandon 1,924m

Today we planned a short stage because we did not want to climb Col de la Madeleine the same day as Col du Glandon. In doing so, we would have plenty of time to first go to the top of the Croix de Fer before jumping over to the lower Col de Glandon. Well, we didn’t exactly jump any of them.

The road up to Col du Glandon gets very steep quickly after the Barrage du Verney. When we reached Le Rivier d’Allemond at 1,254m, we thought we were done with a good part of the climb. Surprise! We would descend from there for quite a bit, guaranteeing a decent grade over the remaining distance to the Col de la Croix de Fer.

After Barcelonnette on day 10, this was the 2nd time we got pretty close to our earlier road down to the south. Indeed, right behind the Aiguilles d’Arves lie Galibier and Valloire. We were clearly completing our tour. A short backtrack from Col de la Croix de Fer brought us to the col we really had to cross today, the Col du Glandon.

Even though the weather was back to sun and heat, the chill was very present here. All I wanted to do was descend. So we ended up missing the lined up blocks that indicate the view on Mont-Blanc. No big deal. We’ll get to see Mont-Blanc again from other places.

The descent from Glandon is steep, too steep for pure fun as the sometimes poor road surface requires too much braking. We could not imagine that the 8,000 Marmotte riders would have gone faster when they came down this very same mountain the past weekend. But, we knew our friends Will and Martin had managed to complete the race on time and their feeling of satisfaction would more than compensate what they endured. Well done heroes!

We arrived well in La Chambre where as always, everything was ready for us.

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