Day 6 - It doesn't get much better than this

What an absolutely stunning day of full-on cycling', mildly amusing mayhem (at the end of the day) and minor catastrophies. The latter came courtesy of our beloved friends, messrs Walsingham and the Fip Flop Kid (Tim - for he occasionally wears them while cycling).

Walsy hit the tarmac on the descent from Col Du Vars- a stylish fall from which he emerged (thankfully) relatively unscathed. The climb itself was another 13 miler in searing heat but wonderfully challenging all the same. Thankfully the form book was restored to some semblence of normality as I (Big Nige) cruised home in second place [Editor's note: really? What form book? What normality is he talking about?].

Cole del la Bonnette followed and was more demanding, in the way that the delightful 2 year old ends up sapping your life blood and making you want to murder the little darling.  It started ok, gorgeous Alpine scenery, moderate climbing, but the kilometre marking posts carried a theme which became slightly unnerving.  They went 5%, 5.5%,6% - you get the picture.  By the time they were saying 8.5% it was hot, 15km into the ride, and the rolling pine forests had become a lunar landscape.  We had sheep for company as Nigel and I rolled gently up the ever increasing incline.  Almost at the top we found a bereft Tim, sitting on the side of the mountain counting the Marmottes on the hill.  Either he had come over all David Attenborough, or he had shredded his tyre to pieces qnd was waiting for the van.  In true Top Gear tradition, we left him to it and carried on.  After the last Km sign we arrived at the peak: except we didn't.  It should have been over, but instead of the gentle 5% Charles had promised we were confronted with a 1 in 5 slag heap for around 900 metres of absolutely brutal climb.  At the eventual top the ubiquitous German bikers had crowded around the altitude sign, denying us our final pleasure.  No matter. With Tim swept up in the broom wagon we had the best 24km descent of the Tour - absolute bliss with rolling turns and a great road surface.  No Porsches to overtake like th emoring, but a majestic run off the mountain with simply stunning scenery for company (and Nigel's Kamikaze descending).  A beer at the bottom to wait for the van was interrupted by a text from the boys:  you are 30km from your destination.  More adventures were to follow...