Giaglione – Lanslevillard 37.27km 🚴♀️ 3.41.31 ⏱10.1km/hr ⬆️ 1330m (Suuz 1461m) ⬇️ 665m 🌡26C (felt like 35C)
Well a sweaty night it was. It was so hot that neither of us had a great sleep. Mas woke up just before sunrise 🌄so she got out to shoot some pictures. Once Suuz was up as well we had breakfast together with some older mountainbikers. They were impressed with our cycling. Suuz was not impressed with their eating habits. We said goodbye to the lady and left around 7.30am. We hoped it would be a little cooler, but before we hit the first hair pin turn we were dripping in sweat again. We had to get up the same road that leads to the bar and it was still really steep. Unfortunately nothing had changed over night.
Once we hit the main road it got a little better but it took us half an hour to catch our breath. For half of the 23km climb we were followed by a small Hungarian van. They were supporting a dude who walked/ran up Mont Cenis, pretty impressive, he was going about the same speed as us (aka slow). After our coffee ☕️ break in a little roadside restaurant that just opened in Bar Cenis we definitely lost him. We also ate the muffins we took from the hotel and although they were wrapped in plastic they tasted pretty good. And we got some fresh mountain water out of the tap outside.
The Mont Cenis climb 🏔was pretty smooth with some steep pieces. Overall it was just long. And it was hot. We were absolutely soaked in our own sweat. After about 14km we reached the French 🇫🇷 border. It was nothing more but a sign, but we were excited anyway since we finally reached our seventh country!
So what we are going to miss about Italy 🇮🇹?
- The wine
- The food
- The wine
- The food
- The bike paths
Once in France somehow we thought we were almost up, well that wasn’t true at all. We still had to cycle up about 9 kilometres, but it seemed the forrest was clearing and the landscape opened up, so they had us fooled. The surrounding was nothing but stunning. All these high mountain 🏔 peaks around us. And like ten hair pin turns right in front of us. Where the first two hours were really quiet the last hour of climbing, cause that’s what it takes us to get up a 23km climb, got a little busier. Especially the hair pin turns that followed each other shortly. Nothing like the Slovenian Vrsac Pass though. We stopped a lot of times to make pictures but it looked like it got more beautiful with the second.
Once we were pretty much up, the Cenis lake got in sight. This bright blue coloured mountain lake. And not much later we were at the top! We completed our Alpentoetje #1! And a new PR 🏅for Suuz. Her first time above 2000m on a bike 🚲 and the most climbing she’s done so far, kudos 💪🏻.
We stopped at a bar to celebrate 🎉 it with lemon Soda and some food. Let’s say the Soda 🥤was good. The croque monsieur was made by a monsiour who does not know how to do it and since they did not want to take the jambon off Mas could choose between a cheese 🧀 baguette 🥖 or a cheese 🧀 baguette 🥖. Well she chose the first. It wasn’t good, but it was really expensive. Lesson learned, we take our own the next time. Oh and yes good reader, WE CYCLED FROM BALKAN 🇬🇷🇦🇱🇲🇪🇭🇷🇸🇮🇮🇹 TO BAGUETTE 🥖🇫🇷!!! Yeah so that was a short cheer since we are not quite there yet but the first baguette 🥖was on the table, into the mouth 👄 and hopefully tomorrow into the toilet 🚽(at least what is left of it).
So, downhill. Well not the one we expected. We went down, and then we had to go up again? Really!! Well it did give us (read Suuz) time to make a photo shoot of some cows 🐮 with very weird plastic spiky things in their nose. Information ℹ️ about what that is is more than welcome. So after the cow 🐄 shoot it was all the way down. Fourteen kilometres in a little over half an hour. So we are climbing for more than 3 hours and are down (okay still at like 1500 meters above sea level) in 37 minutes. It could have been even shorter if this Belgian maniac didn’t park his car 🚙 smack in the middle of the road just after every hairpin turn to make pictures. I do question if he has a brain 🧠 at all. Oh and he did it again just before the village …. it’s a miracle no one got hurt.
We arrived just in time at the hostel in Lanslevillard to be able to get a room key 🔑, otherwise we had to wait till five o’clock. We were there just after one o’clock I think. We are sharing a room with two others, but there are no others yet so fingers crossed 🤞🏼. After a well needed shower 🚿 we walked into town to get some food. Not realizing all restaurants do not serve food after two o’clock. Even the grocery store closed its doors 🚪. Luckily we found one place where the chef wanted to make an exception for us. It was really tasty, but also expensive. Again, lesson learned, tomorrow we’ll get our own lunch 🥗 before the shops close.
Walking through town we hardly noticed anything indicating Le Tour is passing this town tomorrow. We do see a lot of cyclists, a lot a lot. The Col L’Iseran is famous in the Alps, not only because it’s used many times in Le Grand Boucle but mainly because this 2770m mountain 🏔is the highest paved mountain pass in Europe 🇪🇺. Apparently it has a lock down tomorrow cause of Le Tour, but even if it is open in the morning we do not want to cycle there with all the campers, and probably some drunk people up there spending the night on the mountain. Have a look 👀 on television 📺 tomorrow and you will see what we mean. Instead, we’re waiting it out and will cycle the Col L’Iseran the day after the Tour.
We went back to the hostel, played a game, had a beer 🍺, and made dinner in the shared kitchen. It wasn’t the greatest, but it did the job and it was easy (vegetable soup and baguette 🥖, what else). Afterwards we went outside and watched the thunderstorm ⛈ over the mountains 🏔 for a while. It was supposed to hit us as well, but it never did. Forecasts in the mountains are tricky, but also really important for us. We need to become more mountain smart. We blame the internet, it’s too easy to look things up and get confused about it even though it might not be true. We went to bed pretty early and happy that we still had the room to ourselves.
