Rene cycled with me out of St Cergues and all the way up the Col du Feu (1121m). He was a real star given he's normally a speed demon and had to trundle along at my steady pace with all my kit and caboodle on the bike. The climb up the col had a far kinder gradient than any of the Swiss climbs last week and definitely stayed below 10%. Most of the Swiss ascents were greater than 10%, some considerably so!
It's a good job I had fresh legs after my 2 rest days at Mary's. I encountered my 1st completely closed road! I was around 10 miles away from my destination this evening in Abondance (what a great name for a village!) and the road was completely closed and barricaded. This meant a 16 mile detour which involved more than doubling the climbs I'd already done today and it took me an extra 2 hours of cycling. My legs are so tired again now! The hardest part was doing this in baking sun and none of the water fountains I came across had drinking water. They firmly stated "non potable". So I had to ration the rather yucky warm water in my water bottles until the village of Chevenoz came to the rescue many miles later with a plentiful supply of much needed cool fresh water. Bliss! Thank you Chevenoz!
Thank you to everyone for letting me know about Wiggins success in the time trial today. Truly fabulous news! Kate, thank you for all your emails and my Dad is doing well thank you!! Great to hear from you all again - Jeanette, Emma R, Julie G, Debby, Mandie, Mel, Loz and, of course, my very lovely family. And very happy birthday to Charlie today (21 again!). And thank you to Mary for all her research on campsites for my next few days :-))
The thunder rumbling in the distance is getting scarily close and the lightening has just started to make an appearance so I'll sign off now. My 3rd Summer storm this tour in my so far seemingly robust tent!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
Yup, hearing the thunder right now and thinking of you! Stay on that mat! ;o)
ReplyDeleteNightmare about the closed road, hope your legs recover in time for more cycling tomorrow. Stay safe! Mary xx
I have no idea how you are getting up any hills or mountains with that bike!it looks so heavy, i would be defeated before i set off!
ReplyDeleteThe scenery looks wonderful, so pretty and calming, it must be a joy to feast your eyes on.
We had a lovely meal last night such a lovely place to go too. The people are lovely and welcoming and the food is good. A winning combination.
We have decided we csn't go to the Olympics we have let Stuart have the tickets for tomorrow night. Such a shame we have had the booking nearly 18 months we worked it out. a long time in the planning, we let Sylvi know we wanted to go on the list and as soon as the brochure came out we booked. Pesky knee!! It's just a couple of weeks too soon. I have been hoping we could make Saturday but Charlie is very dubious about going with all the travel involved.
I am working at home again today, much nicer than having to wait for a Taxi to come and take me into work and go when he comes to take me home. I can't wait to be fully mobile again.
I saw Wiggins doing the time trail, he is a very impressive rider and so much quicker than anybody else. It must be hard for the other guys who have peddled so hard and given everything to be so far behind him! Truly amazing.
Have a lovely day and hopefully not too many mountains to climb with your bike!!
Take care
Lots of love Mum xx
Increable ! (say in french accent)
ReplyDeleteThanks for birthday wishes. Not so much 21 again , more a case of being well over budget! I now have a couple of Team GB t shirts so at least I can pretend. Keep having a wonderful time Charlie x
ReplyDeleteStunning pic sis! You really are cycling around a very pretty place - I hope this doesn't serve as too much of a distraction as you plough away up those hills. I keep posting the link on my facebook page and get lots of encouraging comments and people are loving your updates so glad to see the technical problems have been sorted.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bugger about the road closure, not a simple end to the day then. Hope you are enjoying the storm ;-) Jxx