Villars-Colmar to Barcelonette: Epic Day on Col d'Allos

June 6, 2017

Woke up, got outa bed, dragged my fingers through my hair, on the way downstairs I finally woke up, went to the cuisine and ordered a cafe au lait, ahhh ah-ah-ahhhh, ah-ah-ahhhh, ah-ah-ahhhh.

View of the mountain opposite our chambre d'hote in Villars-Colmar.

The sun's rays were poking through the clouds and we were hoping for a good day with sunshine because today's ride is over a 2240 metre summit, the Col d'Allos. The temperatures were cool, around 10 degrees C, as we descended from our chambre d'hote to the main road. Immediately we started our 27km ascent, passing through Colmars.

We popped into a small grocery store in Colmars to stock up on yogurt and bananas and our favorite beverage, Orangina, but when we exited the store David's front tire was flat as a crepe. The culprit was a piece of wire only 3mm long from a blown steel belted tire. It took a few minutes to replace the tube and in that time the clouds dumped a load of rain several km up the valley and were on their way to make some other pastures greener.

One of the better spots to get a flat tire.

Not sure what was inside but this looked...er...creative.

The highest cols are often marked with signs indicating their final elevation, average grade and distance remaining. Our first col d'Allos signs indicated a grade of 1% but that quickly changed and as we rode above the ski resort, La Foux, it rose to 8%. In any case, our goal is always to spin at a rate that allows us to maintain a sustainable heart rate. This is possible due to a good deal of physical preparation, and the nearly 1:1 gear ratio of our lowest gear. Along the way we stopped to say hello to the donkeys.

Our fingers were crossed that the clouds would hold onto their load today.

The ski resort was mostly deserted so we had the place to ourselves save for the occasional hiker, moto and camper van. The alpine flowers were flowering in all their glory and it became clear we were in marmot land when a stubby little fellow took a plunge off the upper bank of the mountain, bounded twice across the pavement in front of us and took a flying leap onto the lower bank, finally settling when he landed on the porch of his den. When we stopped to look more closely, we noticed furry brown bodies scurrying around on the mountainsides, exclaiming 'home free' as they landed at the door of their dens.

Alpine meadows in bloom near col d'Allos.

I've never seen so many globe flowers at once. WOW!

Marmot land. The hillside was alive with the cute little fuzzy butts.

The wind picked up as we rounded the summit curve and it was distinctly cold. We quickly took our obligatory summit photos and threw on our warm gear for the descent. Just then, it began to hail and as I rounded the first turn I discovered a small refuge so we dove in to warm up over a couple of coffees.

A quick photo and we were off the summit like Jack the Bear.

This refuge popped up at the right time, at the summit of the col d'Allos

Soon, the sun was out so we resumed our 20k jaw dropping descent to Barcelonette. The road itself is an engineering wonder and was often only a single car in width, much like our local cycle trail network. The drop offs were precipitous on several occasions and it made me wonder how on earth the cyclists in the Tour de France get down these passes. On the downhills we have to be cognizant of the heat building up in our rims so we stop regularly for photos, temperature checks and to let our hands and forearms rest. We learned that it had snowed 10cm just 3 weeks ago so we were not too surprised to find snow on the roadsides. Streams were gushing and small waterfalls were plentiful along the route.

Looking back up towards the summit from the steep downhill.

Looking down on our descent towards Barcelonette.

It's always a relief to let off the brakes and allow the bikes to free fall for the final glide onto the flat valley floor. In this case we rolled into Barcelonette, under clear blue skies and a wisp of a tailwind. Barcelonette is a very pretty and vibrant town in the Ubaye Valley, only a short drive from the Italian border. It was named after the home city of its founder and in summer it fills with tourists pursuing mountain sports like white water rafting and kayaking, paragliding, hiking and cycling. Right now, it's moto season. After a rest in our hotel room, we enjoyed strolling the town and then settled in for dinner of salad, pizza and molten chocolate cake.

Street in Barcelonette. I'm sure this is clogged with tourists in July and August.

View back on the mountains we rode through, from Barcelonette.

Entree of salade tomate was followed by pizza and mollieux de chocolate with creme anglaise and chantilly.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 814 km (505 miles)

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