Le Route. Oh.

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

The Col with no name - Monday 5th September

Forgive the delay (its the 7th September today) but our last hotel was somewhat low-tech where internet access is not a frequently used term. Monday started with prospect of 2 "relatively short and easy climbs" - roughly 6-7 miles a-piece and nothing too steep. This is a relative term. The first passed straightforwardly enough and all was going well - and then we hit the second climb of the morning - the 'Col with no name'.

It was STEEP and it hurt like hell. And it really didn't have a name, at least that's what our leader claimed. I could almost hear strains of Enrico Morricone and could have sworn I saw Eli Wallach and Klaus Kinsky come flying down in the other direction while shouting "hey blondie".

For those of you that have never seen a 'Few Dollars More' or the 'Good, the Bad and the Ugly' you won't have a clue what I'm talking about. Tough. These are classics and you should have seen them. To make matters worse we took a wrong and ended up climbing higher than necessary. The normally calm and collected Duncan snapped and tore a strip off Dalton who shrugged it off with his usual indifference to human suffering.



Col De La Madeleine was long (16 miles) and steep in places. I was last up and proud (well, almost). Col Du Glandon and Alp d'Huez next.

Nigel

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

What it is all about

1910: At the top of the Aubisque, Desgrange (the founder of the Tour De France) and the other officials awaited the first riders. It was Lapize who emerged first, his face a perfect rictus of agony. On the stage’s final climb and with the pain of the Tourmalet still in his legs, it was at that moment that Lapize uttered the words for which he would become famous: “Vous êtes des assassins!”