Road Bike Tour Du Mont Blanc Story - Day Two

I had concerns for our next leg. Not only were my legs feeling like they had had a right old kicking, which they had, but the road from Aosta to the Petit col du Saint Bernard might be a little on the busy side. I need not have worried as it was pretty quiet and we also hooked up with some Germans that were doing the same trip and had a rolling convoy shielding them from the traffic, handy.

At the bottom of the col it was once again everyman for himself with stevie shooting off to catch everyone of the Germans that we had been riding with. Me, Nick and Andy set off at a much more relaxed pace and settled in for the 35 km climb to the top. Unfortunately I spied Stevie several switchbacks ahead and with Nick and Andy following behind I had to give chase to try and catch him up. Generally by cheating and getting him to stop I managed to drop down from my max heart rate and catch Stevie with one German fellow to go. With three kms to go we were at the front of the group with only the fast approaching storm chasing us.

Jenny bless her, was at the top, waiting with the mini bus, water, food and words of encouragement. Shortly after our arrival, Nick and Andy rode up closely followed by the huge storm. We all decided that dropping down to La Rossiere in the mini bus, eating pizza and waiting for the storm to pass was the way to go. The pizza eaten and with the storm still raging we drove down one of the best road descents in the Alps, gutted. Seeing our fellow cyclists huddled under trees sheltering from the storm we knew we had made the right discision.

In Bourg Saint Maurice it was again decision time. The storm was still chasing us to our final destination at Beaufort so we had to decide wether we wanted to do the Cormet de Rossaland climb knowing full well that the storm would catch us or drive over it instead. Nick and Andy made the intelligent decision and went in the mini bus to the top of the col and me and Stevie went for the climb.

The lower section suited me very well with it's tight switchbacks and steep grade, reminding me of a lot of the climbs that I do on the mountain bike. At the mid point the storm enveloped us, chucking rain, wind, thunder and lightning, proper epic stuff! The open top section was the hardest with nowhere to hide from the wind and rain, here I found myself taking some kind of sick enjoyment out of brutalising myself against the mountain and the elements. I think Stevie felt the same as we both really enjoyed hammering out the last few hundred metres.

Again down another great descent in the mini bus, visability was down to 10 metres, we were all freezing, time to be sensible. Down in Beaufort hot showers, stretching and warm clothes helped to put some warmth back into our very tired muscles. A beer was very much the order of the day, along with a whole load of food and an early night.