The mercury has suddenly shot up down here in Le Sud and I wanted to do something other than hide away in my living room this week. As I was pondering what to do with myself, I remembered this post from late last year, and got to looking at which hors catégorie climb I might be able to drag myself up in a quick overnighter. The answer was one Chamrousse, with a recent TDF climb as an added bonus.
The bonus climb had to be done yesterday, when I arrived in Grenoble. That meant a mid-afternoon start and that meant hot! It was over 30C for two-thirds of the climb, when I finally escaped the heat of the valley and entered into the high country. This climb from Grenoble up to the Vercors mountains appeared in last year’s Tour de France and finished not too far from the square I had my banana in, pictured below.
This morning I attacked (in my way) my HC climb, situated on the eastern side of the valley I stayed in. Since I can’t seem to sleep past 5:30am in the summer, I was alone on the mountain. Except for morning traffic, of course, which is pretty awful around Grenoble. The driving community there seems to have a high percentage of jackasses, too, but that’s another story.
Anyway, after a few kilometers I was finished with towns and villages and the rest of the 20 km climb was in lush forest, with the occasional excellent view. Here’s one of where I climbed yesterday – the Vercors.
A couple more from the climb. I could have stopped for more on the descent, but it was far too fun to contemplate putting on the brakes.
Finally, here is Lance Armstrong definitely not winning the time trial on my climb in 2001; one of years that he absolutely didn’t win the Tour de France.
The Vicious Cycle 
Lovely spot for a banana break! Still contemplating that move to Andorra 😉
Sam, Andorra is on hold. My little ‘crisis’ is over for the moment! I’m glad I did the research, though, since it’s good to know where you can run to in times of trouble 😉
A good way to spend some time.
Down in Nice and having a coffee on the balcony at 6:30 am and watching all these cyclists heading for their early morning rides and thinking to myself ‘who the hell gets up this early for a ride?’ Now I know Gerry. Great photos. Glad to see you’re getting climbs in. Been a bit of a write off climbing this year for me. I’ll have to watch the LA TT.
Luc, hope you are enjoyed (or have enjoyed) your time in Nice. As for early-morning riders, I think that it’s probably to beat the awful Cote d’Azur traffic!
How long are you in the south for this time?
Possibly till end of next week. Keeping a wary eye on the Covid situation. I’ve done very little cycling this year but promised myself to find more routes than the flat along the prom. Don’t like traffic but appears one has to endure some to get a good distance from town. And trying to get swimming going again. Was doing really well till all pools closed. So starting from scratch on that one too.
Enjoy the rest of the week sans masque! Do you swim in the Med or at the place you’re staying at?
In the Med down here. In pool otherwise. Had gotten myself up to 1.5km front crawl in pool but now back to 500-600 m breast stroke interspersed with a bit of crawl till I get the upper body conditioning back.