Womens Cycling in Baselland: BLVF meets CdCC at the TdF

The Club des Cent Cols is a community of cyclists who visit and "collect" defined passes, or cols, from a global database of passes they maintain. I joined this group a few years ago and have been expanding my collection ever since. They hosted an organised a trip to see the Tour de France, when it visited Alp D'Huez this year, and I went along for the ride.

https://centcols.org/

I love cycling in the mountains, I have always loved mountains. Growing up in Scotland means mountains are for walking, normally in the rain with added snow and sleet for extra difficulty. When I started cycling, about 10 years ago, the mountains seemed like an insurmountable obstacle and I never expected to be able to get to the top. As I cycled more, I started to believe I could get up one. After much reading and planning, I tried one. My first experience was Sustenpass. It was amazing and I could hardly believe I managed it all under my own power. I loved it. Slow plod up the road with the reward at the top of the view then the wheech back down again. Wonderful. I started doing more and more. When I found the club a few years ago, I realised that I already qualified to join - and so the adventures began to expand. The rules of the game are - cycle 100 recognised Cols and 5% need to be over 2000m.

The trip:

The plan was to cycle in the Alp D'Huez area, see the race from the side of the road and collect some cols - ideally over 2000m.

I drove down, arriving at the Gîte late in the afternoon. Once I had checked in and managed to put my bike back together, I met the others on the terrace. We were a group of 6 altogether, 2 would arrive the next day as they lived closer. We had been sent options for the next days full day ride - no race watching just collecting cols. There were 2 versions, once climbed up the Alp with all 21 corners, the other joined the road higher up and missed out the lowest 6. I had read that the balcony road was brilliant and wanted to do that, the others wanted to full Alp D'Huez experience so we agreed to meet part of the way up the climb.

As it turned out, we didnt meet at all due to my balcony road being a disaster area. I climbed towards it and noticed a sign indicating the road was closed. It was strange as there were a fair number of cyclists coming on the other direction - having used this road - so I continued. At the junction - more signs - telling us all not to go. Still more people were coming in the opposite direction. I asked if it was OK, was told "sort of, you will need to carry your bike". so thought it should be fine. I had my gravel creation with me so was OK with poor surface. Or so I thought. This is what I saw:

Poor surface but OK - then I saw this and was a smidge concerned - its a vertical drop on the left.

I crawled over on my knees pushing my bike up and over then crawling over myself. There were about 5 of these rock falls. I got help from some other cyclists for the most difficult one - this was not a fun ride. I passed others coming on the opposite direction and advised them not to go. Once asked if it was dangerous - answer - yes.

Once past the rocks, the road was indeed great - I hope they can fix it. I joined the main climb at La Garde to the sight of hundreds of other cyclists, cars and commotion. This would be like this all the way to the top. I climbed up the pass in a group, sometimes squeezed between traffic and the road edge it was madness. This was the day before stage 19 - which would finish up the climb and everyone seemed to be there to get their climb in before the big day. Along the way I got my action photo taken. When I got to the end I was very hot and in need of refreshments. Unlike most of the others on the climb, my days wasnt over when I got to the race finish line. My plans were Col de Poutran and Col de Sarenne. Poutran was not very interesing, Sarenne was a dream of a climb.

Col de Sarenne is basically the other side of the mountain and you climb again our of the village and within minutes you are met with spectacular views and quiet roads. This road is the opposite of Alp D'Huez which makes it a brilliant way to continue. The road had been closed to traffic in preparation for the race so there were only some cyclists. It was great, when I reached the top there were goats welcoming the cyclists around the pass sign. They looked bored.

This is the view just after the summit looking down the climb - note the huge zig zag

It didnt take me long to get to the bottom and just had 4km to climb to the Gite again - this was steep and I was pleased to get back and have a well deserved beer.

The others were back before me. At dinner the discussion was what route to do the next day - they wanted to watch the race, I wanted to do less climbing so went on an adventure on my own up gravel climbs just behind village. I managed 3 of the 4 cols I attempted as the road was rough, steep and full of goats, so I skipped one and went on to 3 and 4 of my planned route. These were great and I realised I was on the next mountain over from Col du Sarenne and had a perfect view of that road for my lunch break

Col du Sarenne from across the valley

I got back early and had to wait outside till the Gite opened again. Melt melt

When the others got back late and had had a great time with stories of the Caravan and the race, we decided that the next day we would go to the 2 cols I had seen that day then walk down to watch the race pass later in the afternoon. Plans settled, we went for a well deserved sleep.

Next morning, we tried to eat as much as possible for breakfast., but there is only so much bread and jam I can cope with - I was missing my porridge. We set off, only a short distance but a decent climb to the view of Col du Sarenne I had done the day before. This time we had an even better view.

I was on my gravel bike, the others were on road bikes which made the ride more difficult both going up and coming back down again. It was great, slowly making our way to the top and the views. When we got to the very top col, we were quietly admiring the view when we started to see huge birds - these turned out to be vultures! It was brilliant to just stand there and watch them float around us. We must have seen about 10 individuals altogether.

After spending our time admiring the view and the birds we went back to the village, got changed into normal clothes and walked to see the race. It had been a great day so far, more to follow!

Down at the roadside we met someone we had been talking to the night before about the race and he had a tv - so we could watch the race from the behind the car :). The build up continued, more and more people arrived on the roadside and after about an hour - the helicopters were heard heralding the arrival of the race!

This boy had such a good time - making the riders smile with his antics and was gifted 2 bidons for his trouble.

It took over 30 minutes for the various parts of the race to pass us and everyone was clapping and cheering all the riders as they started their last climb of the day. Its a great experience to be at the side of the road, but at a section where there wasnt a huge number of fans and no madness. Once they had all past us, and the small boys had calmed down from all the excitement - we walked back up the hill to the village and dinner.

The night before a small boy and his dad had told us they too were going to watch the race so when we sat down I asked the boy if he had seen the race. His dad smiled and the boy brought a bidon from Pic Nic Post NL out from under the table - ta daaaaa!!!! Handed to him by a rider. It sat next to him all evening and I am sure they now have a fan for life.

Next day we left early, had breakfast in a beautiful bakery in the village of Le Bourg-d'Oisans before I set off for my 6 hours drive north.

What a fantastic few days - the scenery, the race and the company.