Day 5 Plan

May 29, Le Bourg d’Oisans to Bourg-St-Maurice (200 km, 3299 m)

Col du Lautaret, Col du Galibier, Col de l’Isearn

Your ride today is as beautiful as it is hard. The scenery is stunning on top of Galibier, the vast views, the

clear mountain lakes, the smell of pine forests and the laidback atmosphere in the mountain villages give

you reason to slow down and soak it all in. From the Col du Telegraphe you descend into the Arch valley,

where Hannibal might have traveled through in the year 218 BC.

Now you get a bit of almost flat before your 33 km climb up Iseran begins in Lanslebourg. However, only

400 m will be climbed over the first 19 km (with the exeption f a short stretch), but after Bonneval sur Arc the

real climb starts and you concer 900 m over 13 km, some of it will hurt, usually the last 2,5 km with its 8-

11%.

Maybe you can beat our 1h 52 min record….

That was the plan--but actually we didn't do any of this.  The day's signature climb, Col du Galibier, is not yet open as the top is still clogged by snow, so Howie, Rich and Nel caucused and ad-libbed a new route.  While we were flattered by the fact someone thought we could actually ride 200 km and climb 3300 m on the day after Race Day (which, on the ground experience has taught us, usually amounts to 20% more climbing due to the ups and downs of the "flat" sections of the rides), none of us really thought we'd do the full route.  We're good at changing plans on the fly, responding to leg and heart conditions.

We did not get cheated by the revised route.  We climbed the following 2 major profiles, which belie the steepness of many shorter sections on these climbs.