We arrived Saturday and drove down to Bourg d'Oisans, .... this is the "mecca" of European cycling with such revered climbs as the Alpe d'Huez, Galibier, Col d' Fer, Col d' Madeline, etc, etc..... But I have to tell you....it is the one lane back roads into villages from era long ago that make this a spectacular place to cycle. We have already ridden up Alpe d'Huez from Allenmont via Villard Resculas, across the D211A to Mizoen with sheer cliff drop offs of 2000ft to the valley floor......on to Besse and the Col Sarenne finishing on the back side of Alpe d'Huez. We are talking SERIOUS climbing.....
And today we rode up to Villard Notre Dame on an ancient road cut into rock with blackout tunnels on up to Villard Reymond and over to the corkscrew climb up to Oulle........ You need lots of gear as these back roads will test your fitness, your strength, your tenacity, and your will to survive. But ......... it is something that cannot be passed on by the spoken or written word.....or by photo.......
the climb up to Oulle...... (and the return descent is as challenging)........ PS. Beth was the first one up this bad boy....
5 comments:
Wow...what an experience that must be. I'm getting vertigo from the picture...
So by a lot of gears you mean a 32 and a compact? or just your normal 25...or did you compromise and use a 27? Spectactular as pictures must be breathtaking in reality.Please tell us you did not do all this in one day!
That last shot is very cool. Fun times, maybe we can have our team camp over there next year :)
I put a 27 on, and I am glad I did. We did the climb up to Villard Notre Dame, then up a gravel/dirt road to the gap and over to Villard Reymond for a "corkscrew" descent, then up the climb pictured to Oulle and back to BdO.... a disk brake would be nice for the descents
Teenie and I are 34/28 and using all them. Very long grades over 12% are common with short pulls up over 20%. Bird is right, no words are picture can describe what this is like.
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