10,000km and counting

WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS GRATUITOUS CYCLING CONTENT

The last period has been boredom punctuated by significant milestones to briefly alleviate our state of mind, finishing off with a trip to Tour de France nerd heaven.

Our descent out of the Dolomites started well, with a 60km bike path through a cliff-festooned valley. The path was more of a road, with on/off ramps, solar powered flashing road signs, and lanes. From there we went west via various lakes that were not particularly inspiring (Idro and Iseo) and got rained on quite a lot. The milestone in this section was hitting 10,000km of biking for the trip. Even having done it, it seems almost impossible one could cover such a distance on leg power alone.

Back at our previous nemesis of boredom, the Po River, we busted out 2 big days to cover some ground. 126km to Pavia, and 168km to Turin. This was our longest day so far, so again we were briefly excited, if a little tired. Two days in Turin to recover, eat gelati ($50 on icecream in 2 days), and people watch. The Turinese are an interesting bunch with builders straight out of a Village People video, punks with spray painted hair, and clothes that would get you locked up at home, either for indecent exposure or lunacy.

Then it was time to get back into the Alps and have a go at some of the climbs from the Tour de France that we all (ok perhaps not all) have followed with rapt attention. There is always drama surrounding the Tour, either by design as when it started in 1903 as a publicity stunt for a newspaper, or mistake like an Englishman riding himself to death in 1967 on a concoction of amphetamines and cognac and uttering the famous last words "put me back on the bike". We are spending a few days in Briançon to relive a few of these dramas on the climbs surrounding the town.

This started as we crossed in from Italy via Sestriere at 2033m where Lance (nobody dare ask Lance who?) won himself Tour number 1 of 7. Next day was a ride up the Col de Lautaret 2058m and the Col de Galibier, which at 2646m became the highest point we have biked to. After the sweltering lower down we woke up to fresh snow on the hills around our tent and a freezing blustery day. Donning thermals we did a 20km gradual climb to the Lautaret where the clouds cleared for us and there were mountains all around, with hanging glaciers and all. An absolutely stunning area, followed by another 8km climb up a barren and spectacular road to the Galibier. This is one of the classic Tour mountains and houses a memorial to the creator who once declared that the perfect Tour would be one where only one person finished (or survived??). Not much lingering at the top, just a dash down out of the freezing wind.

It was a huge climb for sure, but with 10,000km under our belts it certainly doesn't go down as one of our hardest days. But it's scary to think that le Tour will blast up here in a weeks time at twice our speed, while climbing 4 mountains of this size and 200km+ in one day of 21. And we thought we were hard.

That'll do for now, we'll innundate with more Tour info after we've watched a stage next week.
10,578.1 km later
C&D

PS Awesome photos to come, stay tuned