Friday July 19th - Cool 15ºC to 24ºC, sunny, then afternoon storms
7.30am Le Tour caravan is ready
Today we passed the 2,000k mark at an average of 80k per day on our cycling days. A great day of mixed events. 53k cycling DOWNHILL all the way from Bourg d'Oisans to Grenoble, 5hrs of trains from Grenoble to Annecy, the 19k cycling around lake Annecy and up to Puget.
It's an early start. We need to cycle 58k to Grenoble to catch the 12.26 train to Annecy. We're up at 6am and shower, pack, get the bikes out of the shed, load up, and having breakfast by 7.15am. We need to be out of Bourg d'Oisans real quick before they close the roads for teh start of today's Tour de France wjich starts from teh village where we're staying. Already its pandemonium as we ride through the streets with the caravan of sponsors cars, technical wagons, police cars and support crews already lined the streets. We detour into Jani's house to retrieve a water bottle I left there the afternoon before.
Roads closed at Bourg d'Oisans
Coffee at 35k after 1hr 30 mins
At Grenoble in under 3hrs
Packed bikes but not as squeezy as when we arrived 4 days ago
Lunch on a bench Gare de Lyon
Lake Annecy
Cycle path around Lake Annecy
Storm brewing with 17k to go
Cows = cheese country
Uphill workout to Puget
Loaded with wine - not easy uphill
Can I beat the storm to Puget? NO!
Mt Semnoz - misty and rainy
Then it's back on the road trying to weave our way through cyclists, pedestrians, gendarmerie, and locals trying to do their normal business. After 30 minutes and fearful of missing our train, we hit the open road - no cars because the road has been closed - and within 10 minutes we are past the turn off point for the day and on our way.
Amazingly, we seem to be going downhill at 25kph on a section of road we were convinced was up hill into Le Bourg. In fact on Monday when we rode in, our uphill climb along the valley from Grenoble really dropped from a 5% climb to a 2% climb, and it became so much easier I was convinced we were going down hill into Le Bourg
Today, we realised the the entire 50k we rode was actually up hill - and today, of course is the reverse, we rode almost 50k downhill into Grenoble. It seemed so easy, we barely had to pedal for some sections and after one and a half hours we had done 35k and stopped for a coffee at Vizille, a village near Grenoble. It was so effortless it cold hardly count as cycling kilometres except for the fact that when we did it in reverse it was twice as hard.
In no time at all we hit Grenoble and cycle up the main highway on a parallel cycle path that we didn't know existed until today and it takes almost 5k off our expected distance. We're travelling so well we do the 53k into Grenoble in 2 3/4 hrs almost half the time it took to ride up the valley. We arrive before 11am and head straight to the ticket office to buy tickets for Sunday from Annecy to Geneva. I'm lucky to get a girl in the ticket office who speaks English and she sorts out the tickets very quickly - we even get a discount for being over 60. And what's more, she asks for our tickets we had already bought for the day from Grenoble to Annecy and refunds the discount on those two - it pays to be over 60.
We're so early int Grenoble, we decide to take an early train to Lyon to give us mote time to change trains - up and down lifts and escalators and steps takes more than the changeover time of 15 minutes. Rushing down the subway to the platform and up the ramp, we're on the train easily and today there's only 5 bikes and a pram in the luggage area of our carriage, not the 30 bikes from earlier in the week. Most cyclists will still be trapped in Bourg d'Oisans with the road closures unless they left as early as us.
We get to Lyon with more than one hour to catch the next train to Annecy. Time to sit outside the train Station at Gare de Lyon and eat our picnic lunch. In plenty of time, we roll onto the platform for the train to Annecy via Aix-les-Bains and find ourselves sitting next to another cycling couple, Ian and Lena, students from America and Germany who tell us of their various cycling exploits and camping experiences and of getting bitten by mosquitoes and being sunburnt. No thanks.
At 4.08 we arrive in Annecy - the most beautiful village on Lake Annecy with the bluest water and millions of tourists wanting to be seen at the various bars in the narrow streets. We're out of here. And in no time we're cycling along the beautiful cycle path beside the lake to Saint Jorioz. It's busy, chaotice and exciting to be cycing this most beautiful path. After 10k we turn off and head for Saint Eustache up in the mountains overlooking Lake Annecy and biggest town near our village of Puget where we are staying.
There's a storm brewing in the mountains on all sides but we still have time to stop and buy a bottle of Rose from the U Market which is buzzing with activity because Le tour is passing through here tomorrow. Luckily there's market stalls in front of the upermarket and one is selling the local Rose for 4 Euro. We sample the wine - no need really as we're buying it anyway - buy a cold bottle, then head for the hills as quickly as we can as the skies are darkening.
The road starts to climb quickly - and we're loaded up with wine and food for a fe days so its seems just as hard as Alp d'Huez. For the next 7k we're pushing harder and harder as the storm gets closer and closer. We reach a turnoff to Puget just as there's several lightning strikes and loud thunder a bit too close for comfort. I'm peddling so hard I'm sweating in the cool air.
Then the heavens open with heavy drops of rain and in 2 minutes we race into our Chambre d'hote of Les Pralets just in time. Le Semnoz, the mountain finish tomorrow for Le Tour rises high above us and after a beer and a wine and a chat to Colette the owner we make an impromptu decision to watch Le Tour roll by 50 metres down the road from us without going a further 18k up the mountain to see the finish.
Within 10 minutes of arriving in our room, our picnic is spread out on the table and we wine and dine with views up to Le Semnoz. And now it's raining heavily. We're so glad we didn't get a later train as we'd still be riding up here in the rain.
Mt Semnoz - misty and rainy