Too tired last night to update - food and crashed but woken like clockwork (ha!)every hour when church bells next door went off. Must remember to find a hotel not right next door to the church...3 cols yesterday and each a level harder than the last - but starting with the easiest first. Aravis just a warm up at around 1,000ft climb, long descent then Col de Saissies with another 3,000ft drag. The downer here (literally) was finding the road closed and aving to take a diversion - down another 1,000ft before climbingback up on a road much steeper than the main road. By the time I got to Beaufort and lunch I coud quite easily have quit for the day. To make acommodation easier we decided to stay in Beaufort for the night - it's a beautiful medieval town and I would see how far I could get up Cormet de Roseland. Well the answer is all the way but I must have been close to breaking the record for the slowest climb. Near the base of the climb you look up and see thousands of feet up a near vertical slope crash barriers for a road near the top. Must be a different road - no way this road can go up there. Yep! And still another 1,500ft to climb after that but truly stunning scenery around a large lake and then on up again through a gap in some cliffs into alpine meadows - above the tree line now. The ride back down is spectacular but hair raising, especially when you hands start to cramp from holding the brakes for so long. Legs are feeling pretty stiff today but at least will start with a long descent to Bourg St Maurice. Today will either be relaxed and gentle or another killer - just have to see how the legs feel when I start pedalling....
Total climbed yesterday - 8,245ft, total so far 15,160, not bad over 2 days!
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