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Overnight the guys were mumbling...........They were concerned about the ride route for today, especially that we were facing a climb of 1000m to get back to the Route Des Grandes Alpes. Ground we have already ridden.
As General George S Patton Jnr would say " I don't like paying twice for the same ground....ie. No retreat"
Simple proposition, instead of riding back up the Oisans valley and tackling Col du Lauteret, we load all the bikes into the van and drive top the Col and pick up where we left off the previous day.
I put the plan to the guys and it was overwhelmingly supported by votes. Next step was to tackle Ian and work through the details.
At dinner I broached the idea with Ian and he agreed.
Fast forward to Thursday AM. Up early for brekkie, bags packed and downstairs ready for the guys to load at 8:30.
Bikes into the trailer and off we forged to Lauteret. At the top, 40kms later we unloaded and made ready for the day ahead.
Can't head off without a coffee......
Off we went, long descent first then a flat rode for 30kms to Briancon.
Beautiful old fortified medieval town. Sorry that we couldn't stay longer and really explore this place.
The Col d'Izoard, our target for the day, rises immediately from the town. Something like 2300m over 19kms. Sun beating down hard, we forged on about Midday up the Col.
Ian,. Dave and Graham were behind us with the luggage etc plus they had a stop to pickup our lunch.
Almost 2 hours later we were approaching the top of the Col. I was still there with Johan and Harri.
100m meters to go, Harri had a crack and rode past Johan. I was 10m behind them contemplating how I would get over the line first.
I changed down a couple of gears and gave it absolutely everything. I flew past Johan and had 20m to make on Harri.
Luckily my timing was spot on, I got past Harri about 5m before the line.
Elated but b*****ed.
After the Col, we indulged in lunch before riding down to our night stop at Guillestre.
Good meal, plenty of chatter and more Genepis to finish a great day!
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