Bright sunshine this morning - the weather was definitely trying to make up for yesterday! We decided to have a relatively easy day today, and head over to Sestriere in Italy to watch the Tour come past. We actually followed the same route as today’s stage for much of the way, into Briancon from the south and then heading north-east towards Montgenevre and the Italian border. The ride to Briancon was pretty busy this morning, presumably with people coming to watch the tour come through the town. However, once out on the other side we were out on an open road up to the village of Montgenvre, a relatively low pass at 1860m (about 500m above Briancon). The first few miles were slightly downhill, and with the wind behind us along the straight road we were flying along at a nice pace in the company of plenty of other cyclists - it seemed like half of France had come to watch this stage! [Read More…]

This morning brought us another grey, dingy day. We had breakfast and got the bikes ready, in a rather half-hearted fashion; only Vince seemed very keen to get out and go for a spin. For my part, my legs were tired enough from yesterday that wet weather seemed like an excuse to have a day off today! Apart from Vince, noone really fancied a cold and wet ride, but equally, it was very frustrating sitting around indoors. As time edged on towards lunch we held a council of war to decide one way or the other, rather than letting the day pass us by. Si’s outline plan for the week had been a ride today - somewhat shorter than yesterday’s - and then a day’s walking tomorrow, possibly with a swim in a lake he’d seen on the map in the next valley. The consensus was, that since walking in the rain is less unpleasant than cycling in the rain, we would swap Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s plans, and go for a walk up to the glacier today; hopefully the weather tomorrrow will be nice enough to ride, and if not, we’ll probably go anyway. After all, that’s why we came!
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