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The original plan for today was to cover 120kms plus >3000m of climbing, starting from St Foy Tarentaise straight up towards Col L'Iseran and finishing in Valloire after 2 big mountains.
Thats not exactly how it played out for all of us.
For starters the weather forecast was for +30deg and sunny and what we didn't forsee was how strong and dry the wind was after lunch.
We struck out on the Col de L'Iseran right outside our hotel door - 35kms to reach the summit at 2770m. It looked reasonably long but moderate in gradient. Although it turned out to be tougher than we all thought.
17kms on the climb we stopped for coffee at Val d'Isere (billionaires playground) and pressed on towards the top.
As we rode out from Val d'Isere we could see Mt Blanc clearly behind us, the white cap unobstructed by cloud!
As usual Ian was at the top with the van and had all the lunch material ready to go.
After lunch it was the descent of L'Iseran to tckle. The downslope was complicated by a massive headwind that made riding really tricky and the lower we went the hotter it got. Ultimately we made it to the bottom and had 15kms of flat undulating road pressing into this "bone dry" galeforce wind.
That really took the sting out of us, and we had 60km to go still.
In dribs and drabs we rollled into a smll town half way down, Lanslevillard. Regrouped and rode on towards StMichel de Maurienne.
Luckily the 35kms into this town was mainly slight downhill grade. Never the less, it ws still tough going with the headwind.
At StMichel du Maurienne, the lure of a cold beer was too strong. Only Kev, Johan and Chris pressed on to finish the day with Col du Telegraph. The rest of us drank beer in a street side bar.
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