Wednesday, September 25, 2024

SAINT-ETIENNE-DE-TINÉE FRANCE DAY 146 195 km.

Woke up to a gorgeous day, blue skies and crystal clear and cold. Started off on another route I was going to do but turned around and continued  on the Route des Alpes cause with such fine weather I didn't  want to miss those stunning vistas. 
But it wasn't  long and was in heavy fog and bitterly cold, at 1*C my fingers were aching with pain to where I felt nauseas and was afraid I was going to barf in my helmet, that's  how bad it was and with my fingers so cold I can't  unstrap my helmet. Had to wait till I cold pull over which felt like ages, found  my other gloves after ten minutes and then was good to go. 
The fog was gone as I started up Col d'Izoard which is at 2 357m and 53 km in length with a 12% grade and the roads were all dry so was really enjoyable to cruise up and down the pass. Got to the bottom of it and the next pass was closed so had to backtrack over the pass again and do a 100km detour to get back on the route.



Got back on D902 up Col de Vars at 2 111m  29kms in length which takes you to Jausiers.

At Jausiers I took D2205  which takes you over Col de la Bonnette which is the highest  road, not like I was told by those Austrian cyclists. It just kept on going up and up to 2 802m and is 47km long with some old wartime bunkers near the top. At the top there is another road that goes to a peak and back around again maybe 3km but had a sign saying closed , so I went through luckily because they had a plaques at the top stating the height which makes it the highest  road in Europe again.


No comments:

Post a Comment

LEH. 23 TO 27th August 2025

Have been held up here due to the rain and snow in the mountains and passes. So have just hung out in the room most the time and ventured ou...