The Ride of the Flat Tire

Today was a very hard day.  11,300 ft. of climbing, 81 miles, and we’re all beat.  The itinerary was adlibbed this morning since the Galibier is closed.  It seems like most peaks over 2200 m. are still closed due to snow.  Instead we climbed the Col du Glandon, Col de Creux de Fer and Col de la Madeleine.  They were all long with plenty of steeps.

The signature moment came when Markham got off his bike 2/3 of the way up la Croix de Fer to check his flat tire.  He was convinced it was flat.  Except it wasn't flat--it was its normal round hard 100 lb. pressure.  That pretty much describes the day--the mountains saw to it that we rode flat tires for 40 miles.

We left L'Bourg d'Oisans at 9 AM and headed up the valley, then turned off the main road and began the Col de Glandon climb.  It was a picture-perfect day and, yes, the little towns crowding the road the frequent mountain vistas were all postcard-worthy, but we've come to expect it.  Just another day in the French Alps.... .  The descents continue to be fast, technical and exhilarating, and they go on for so long that backs, shoulders and wrists can tighten up.  Our final descent was 25k, lasting over 45 minutes (with a couple stops to regroup and stretch muscles).

At the end, we were exhausted.  We loaded the bikes on the vans and drove the last 40k to our hotel in Bourg-St.-Maurice.  

We got to our hotel at 7:30 PM, to a restaurant at 8:45 PM, and had a repeat of our Le Candie restaurant service experience.  At 11 PM we asked for the check, leaving without the price-fixe menu desserts we had coming—we just wanted to get back to the hotel and into bed.  Tomorrow’s itinerary calls for much the same as today’s, but we’re going to adjust it at breakfast in the morning.  Rain is predicted for one thing; but the main thing is that our legs are fried after Thursday’s race and today’s long, long climbs and we’re ready for an easier day.