Our second col of the day
Our first picture together on the tandem (other people were taking pictures of us too)
7-8 La Chambre-Le Bourg-d’Oisans
Today was again a another though day with plenty of climbing. In fact the climbing started right from the decent from Col de la Madeleine and went up 20k to the top of Col du Glandon at 1924m. This stretch of road is once again a historic piece of road for the tour as they have been up the above category climb several times the last one being either 2008 or 2009 (I can’t remember off the top of my head). Anyway the climb itself is actually steeper then yesterdays but 5k shorter. For much of the climb we saw gradients above 8% and sections as steep as 13%. In fact I think there were only 2 sections where the gradient fell below 5% for the entire 20k. Surprisingly we were able to do it in 2hrs and 35min ride time and about 3:40 with a lunch and water stop. That means we averaged about 7.7k/hr almost a full k/hr faster than yesterday, with an average of 7.4% gradient!! After finishing this climb we realized that there was another col or pass just 2.5k away from where we were so we decided to do the extra climbing and top Col de la Croix de Fer at 2067m. After topping that climb we then turned straight back around and headed down the south side of Col du Glandon down to the town of Le Bourg d’Oisans where we are currently camped.
Tour note- Le Bourg d’Oisans has probably played one of the largest rolls in cycling history for any small town… The reason being is this town is directly as the base of Alp d’huez which is probably the most noted climb in all of tour history. So of course tomorrow we will do this climb and see how it compares with some of the others that we have done so far.
65k
Nate
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