I'd fogotten how class it was to cycle in the alps :-) We headed down
through Annecy on Saturday in 30c heat and over the climb of the Cret
de Chatillion - 1700m and 18km long. It seems such a minor col but at
that
height its hard to forget that its only 160m shorter than l'alpe
d'huez.
We suffered over that a bit as its been a while since we'd ridden in
france and we were both shadows of former selves!

We felt a bit tired getting up at 5am and on the big ride on sunday we
managed to get there 15mins late and everybody except one other rider
had gone!!! We never really seen them again. We were on our own all
the way to the Galibier after 60miles! I blew a bit going up the
gentle slopes of the Lauteret (40kmlong!!) But a stop by the Henri
Degrange monument near the top to get my card stamped was welcome as I
stuffed myself with bread,cheese,cakes, nuts etc etc
Then our second setback hit us, as we ended up in St Jean-de Maurienne
instead of St Michel de Maurienne.
we had gone 11km too far down the valley :-( The climb of the Croix
der Fer was actually meant go via the Col du Mollard with a check
point enroute. After a puncture in 35c heat we decided to give the day
up as a bad joke and climb the Croix der Fer direct. We got 1k up the
road and had to follow a diversion. We suffered bigtime on the col, at
least I did!!!

I even put it into my lowest gear of 39x24! I was glued to the road
with the gradient,intense heat,thirst and tiredness. several times I
nearly stopped in the shade. I was beginning to wish I had some
dowsing rods to find water!!! there were no fountains or streams at
all, I had worked out the french for 'could you give me some water
please' and was intent on knocking on the next door of a house...but
there werent any! We seen a group of houses after about 11k of
climbing and we swung in and almost dived into a trough of water! The
difference of getting our bottles filled and cooled down was immense

Ironic thing was,2k round the corner we approached the check point
(and a large bag full of food) for the Mollard! By taking the
diversion we had found our way back on the right roads via a slightly
different,longer course than the BRA!
After a short descent we climbed the 11km to the Croix der Fer from
the village near the top it got very hard, thoughts of Theunisse going
over there in the lead on his way to victory at L'alpe d'huez in 89
kept my motivation going as we passed some stragglers. We got down the
30km descent in less than half an hour and we hammered down the valley
back to Grenoble - 11 and a half hours,8000calories,and 11 litres of
water later!!!

I have added some photos to the Photos section and a copy of my
altitude/hr/speed etc Data to the files section.

Next BRA in 2 years time- Croix der Fer first then the Galibier -
crazy suggestion but how about we do a RR UK & Ireland group trip
across there? we could get cycling jersey made for the event and get
mega sponsorship money to donate to a worthy cause such as Cancer
Research
- that Lance Armstrong fella would be retired by then, I'll have a
word with him when I go to see the Tour next week and ask if he'll
ride lol