To Briancon: Over Col d'Izoard

June 13, 2015

After yesterday's wet morning, we were excited to wake up to beautiful clear skies again. The forecast is for the good weather to last until early afternoon and then deteriorate to rain and thunder again, so we hustle off to an early start. Once again, we give thanks to our wonderful, biker-friendly hotel - breakfast is on when we arrive in the dining room at 6:45.

It's a bit shocking looking around at the surrounding mountains this morning - none of them had really been visible yesterday afternoon. Once we rise a bit above the village we see fully white mountains on the horizon. Nothing nearby is much higher than we've seen so far, so I think the high country must have gotten a bit of snow last night.

The ride begins with six miles or so of gradual climbing alongside the Guil River. It's really full today, a raging torrent rushing past in the other direction. It passes through a narrow gorge and a series of tunnels before opening up a bit on the other side. A bit further up is Chateau Queyras, a centuries old fortification guarding the valley.

At about this point the highway splits - one branch goes east and continues into Italy, and ours goes northwest over our pass for the day and on to Briancon. By the time I arrived Rachael as usual was already ahead and on her way to the summit (I lagged as usual, stopping from time to time with the camera). This was a bit of a mixup though - one of our standing rules is to meet up at major junctions, but she wasn't there. I stood around for a few minutes gauging the chances that she had gone in the right direction, which was beyond fortunate - as I was about to start up again, another cyclist biked up, looking concerned and tired (he'd clearly been exerting himself to catch up with me). He reached out his hand with Rachael's ID pouch, containing her drivers license and credit cards, asking if it was mine. I suspect he'd chased down several bikes already, testing each one he came to. After receiving my profuse thanks, he headed off on the road to the east. If I hadn't been held up a bit wondering about Rachael's whereabouts I'm sure we'd have never connected. What a Good Samaritan! We can only speculate about how it came to be on the road instead of in her pannier.

Hey bikers! When in Guillestre, stay here in this wonderful hotel. Great breakfasts start at 6:30, and complementary laundry service. Unbelievable.

The Bike Fridays rest against this splendid plane tree in Guillestre while Rachael scrounges up some lunch for the afternoon. Looks like another beautiful day ahead.

Leaving Guillestre, looking southeast toward the Italian border. I'm not sure what these mountains are - maybe Pics de la Font Sancte?

The Guil River rushes past us as we head east toward the start of the climb.

Chateau Queyras, a fortification guarding the Guil Valley.

The climb to Izoard has a pretty similar general profile to the last few - 4000' of climbing, topping out near 8000'; and a steady but not severe gradient most of the way. The worst of it is probably about 11%. It feels harder than that though, which I think must reflect that this is our 15th straight day on the bikes (later in the day Rachael commented on this also, expressing surprise at how hard she found it too).

It is a very beautiful climb though, with a much different character than any of the others. It is famous for the Casse Deserte, an area of steep scree that reflects the erosion of the overlying beds over the millennia. At a distance they look a bit like immense sand dunes. It is all strikingly lovely and austere. We are really lucky to be getting to see it on a good day. Here's Rachael's video of the ascent.

Like on many of the major ascents, markers appear every kilometer until the summit. They indicate distance to the summit, current and final elevation, and average percent grade for the next kilometer.

Looking back on the broad meadow and string of villages on the climb to Col d'Izoard. From above it looks almost flat, but it was a steady 7-8% grade all the way.

Ascending through the Casse Deserte to the summit, Col d'Izoard

We hang around at the summit for about 20 minutes or so, taking in the views and the spectacle of a steady stream of arriving bikers. Eventually though we notice that clouds are starting to pile up pretty quickly and are reminded that rain is due in a few hours. We drop off the summit descending rapidly down an exhilarating linguini road, slowing for one crazy bend after another and then picking up speed again until the next one arrives. All of these bends near the top still bear the painted exhortations for the riders in last year's Tour de France, which summited here. Here's a video.

Below the tree line we traverse a large meadow that is dense with a spectacular carpeting of wildflowers - really beautiful, but already almost fully in shade as the cloud cover by now is nearly total. We continue on at a high speed (by our standards anyway) racing the oncoming storm. We're blown away though by the real mountain riders who fly by us at probably twice our speed. One memorable pair of Italian guys zooms past not far off our shoulder - they're riding beside each other only a foot or so apart, almost like they're yoked together - at about 40 mph or so, one hand on the bike and the other gesticulating to his partner (yes, they're obviously Italian) and then reaching for his cellphone to check something else. More nerve than I've ever had, for sure.

Some of the roadway paint from last year's Tour de France made it through the winter.

Cervieres, the highest village on the northern approach to Izoard

We arrived dry, at about 2:30. Within an hour, right on schedule, it's raining. We loafed around the room until dinner time and then walked a few blocks uphill to the upper town (the fortified, historical part of Briancon) for dinner. Briancon looks like a beautiful place to explore, but we're mostly saving it for tomorrow - we're going to take an overdue rest day to explore the town and recover a bit.

Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 932 miles (1,500 km)

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