At the end of yesterday’s post, your intrepid heroine and hero were taken aback/aghast/stunned that they were going to have to climb about 7 km in rain carrying all their food and gear for the day, up one of the steepest grades of le Tour. Will they make it? Read on and find out.
We’d overcome both closed road and navi revolt to find ourselves dropped at the base of the climb to La Plance des Belles Filles. The only way to go was up, unless we were to abandon the Tour like a rider after a bad crash. Mentally girding our loins, we strode off, following a crowd of people strung out along the visible part of the climb. Not only were there fellow walkers, there were bikers; cyclists who wanted to be able to say they’d ridden that part of Stage 10 of the 2014 Tour de France. They ranged in age from families with children to older men and although they might not all have been moving very quickly, they were moving. Amazing!
On the way to the top
Our plan was to be near the finish line, so we continued up and up, past a few people who had already staked their claim on the lower slopes. (Those slopes were filled with cheering spectators during the race.) We sweat, took off raincoats, unzipped layers, re-did them all when it began to rain again and repeated that sequence for the interminable amount of time it took us to get to the area not far from the finish where the road leveled off for a bit. Here the party feel was on, with souvenir stands, food and drinks for sale, a gigantic TV screen, porta potties and people. But our destination lay still further on, past the 22% grade that waited to break the riders’ hearts after they would have already ridden almost 161 km, at the finish line. (more…)
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