After our great ride up the Alpe d’Huez, Steve and I took a rest day and drove up to Chamonix…. because everyone needs to go see Chamonix!
We drove the slow, windy way through Megéve going up to Chamonix so Steve could see that part of France. Then, in Chamonix, we sought out the Trois Roses restaurant where I had eaten before and it was just as good as the last time.
With a days rest, we were ready for our ride up to the Col de la Croix de Fer. Steve rode this route up to the summit three years ago, but I was not able to ride. I had previously rode up to the summit from the other side, but wanted to attempt this route. I knew that it had some challenging grades, but was encouraged by our ride up the Alpe d’Huez two days ago.
We drove to Saint Jean de Maurienne and found a place to park on a side street, just a few blocks off the designated route to the summit. It was a little on the cooler side, but we knew it would warm up pretty quickly so we were anxious to get started.
The route we were riding was about 28 km and had significant elevation to climb to the summit. We were able to monitor our progress on the climb by reading the monuments that mark each kilometer of the climb. It lets you know how many kilometers to the summit, the grade the you will have for the next kilometer and the road number.
Everything was going well, but after about 8 km, I noticed that the route monuments suddenly changed to the Col de Toussuire. I did not mention it to Steve since we were following his GPS which he had on his bike and which we considered as gospel. But, after riding up the road, a while, Steve said he thought we were off route. We stopped on the side of the road and figured that indeed, we had missed a turn about 3 km down the road. We took the opportunity to catch our breath, drink some water and eat some food, then turned around and found where we erred. For ONCE, I got lost again, but it wasn’t my fault this time… a first!
Back on route, we rode up to a crest on the route where we rode through 3 short, well lit tunnels and then had a nice gentle downhill for a while. Then the rode flattened out for a while before gently starting back uphill. We took the opportunity to keep a decent pace but not over doing it, because we knew there were some steeper sections coming up soon. We rode through the village of Saint Jean -d’Arves while the grade was still fairly gentle. Next was Saint Sorlin- d’Arves and the road started to get steep again. These last 6 km was the section of the route that I was worried about because I had driven over this several times and knew it was steep. I still felt pretty good, but it was starting to wear on me and I could start to feel it in my legs.
With about 3 km to the summit, I finally bonked. Bonking is were you completely run out of energy and begin truly suffering! Yup, I bonked. The last 3 km were a real struggle for me, but being so close to the summit, I was not going to be denied and and finally got there with Steve waiting for me.
With the hard part over with, I was able to recover a little with the downhill and started feeling better. That was good because we had two short uphills to negotiate on the way back to the car. The ride back up to the 3 tunnels was pretty easy and we were able to ride a pretty good pace using the big ring on the front derailleur. The next uphill was not as easy and I feel it in my quads for sure. But by then, we were only a few km from the car and this time, it really was ALL downhill from there.
Once back in Saint Jean de Maurienne, we found an open Boulangerie for lunch and had a good ham and cheese sandwich, the french classic Fromage et Jambon on Baguette! And a well deserved eclair too.
I was contemplating the ride while eating my lunch. I was not feeling really great about having bonked in the last 3 m of the ride. Then it hit me! Steve had led me up the Route of the Col de Toussuire… for almost exactly 3 km! of steep uphill. I am not sure how he knew that I was going to bonk at 3 km to go, but…. It was a conspiracy I tell you, a true conspiracy!