After yesterday’s hot, horrible stage, I began to get worried about, well, just about everything. So, while I was waiting for Rob, who was lying in the infirmary getting an IV (it’s a long story, but with a happy ending, as you’ll see), I visited a guy in a tent who hooked me up with some pills for my legs. ‘These are for tired legs’, he said. ‘The maximum dose is 2 a day, but for the Haute Route, take 6’. I was in no position to argue and I popped 6 of those bad boys last night. This morning I felt more or less human. Thank Science for science!

The stage today was short, at 111 km, but with 3500 m of elevation, it was going to be little killer. After a downhill neutralized zone we started into the first of our 3 climbs and I could really test out my new legs. They worked, but I might need to up the dosage today if I want better performance.

Essentially, the day was up, down, up, down then up, finishing in the swankiness of Val d’Isere. I rode with Rob and Mark for much of the way before they spun ahead of me. I also found fellow blogger and frequent commenter, Jan (here’s his report of today), who finished a couple of spots ahead of me today (he’s Belgian. It’s allowed). We then went back to the hotel and waiting at least 4 hours for our bags to arrive (very bad move, Haute Route organizers). Here’s our village. Sorry, this is the only photo I could muster today.

Results

On the day

Mark: 77th place, in 4:13

Rob: 100th place, in 4:18

Gerry: 111th place, in 4:22

Team Vicious Cycle: 26th place (up 7 places from yesterday!).

General Classification (over 2 days so far)

Mark: 86th place overall.

Rob: 109th place overall.

Gerry: 116th place overall.

Team Vicious Cycle: 26th place (91 teams)

We are, as you may be able to guess, pretty happy about our performance so far, both individually and as a team (the top 3 times of each team is what they use for team rankings, hence those 3 up there).

Tomorrow’s stage is the Marathon stage. Over 160 km and a dumb amount of climbing, of course. Oh, and the forecast is for 5C tomorrow morning. Cycling is fun.