Le Cure Continued
After the mega storm the previous day, we were given the option of skipping the first 10km of the route. It was mainly flat along a river, which would have been pretty, but there was another storm predicted for the afternoon so Carla, myself and a few others took a shortcut that took us straight to the base of the first climb. The first morning was a glorious and mainly gentle climb through dramatic gorges along a river and up to Col de Cayolle. Compared to the day before it was practically sedate.
The temperature started rising after lunch again, just as we started gaining altitude as we started the very long ride up to Col de Valberg. As the valley opened up, we were shade hopping again, trying to find an elusive bit of cooler air. Today however, lady luck was on our side. The sky gently clouded over but without the predicted rainstorm (yet). Spirits were lifted, legs were strong and we powered up to Valberg on the promise of beer and massages. Both were awesome. 86km ridden and 2439m gained.
I’m going to largely skip over day 3 but here is a very brief summary. The descent from Valberg was one of the most fun experiences of my life. Long, fast, twisty with gorges, tunnels and beautiful views. It seemed to be a day for collecting Col signs which weren’t significant enough to be marked on our map. The official climbs of the day were Col du Buis, Col de Bleine (must have missed the photo) and Col du Castellaras.
What had been mentioned was a climb towards the end of the day which kept having sections of well over 10%, including a couple of sections which felt like riding up a wall.
We covered the largest distance of the trip on Day 3, riding 133km with 2373m of vertical. The exact distance covered will be slightly different as we were diverted near the end due to a landslide. Tiff had gone on ahead and been able to clearly mark the new route with bright pink arrows on the road.
Got to check into the only hotel during the trip we were actually spending two nights at, as the final day was planned as a circular route, with family and friends joining the group. Things did not exactly go to plan
