Bastille Day

 

 

On the way up

At the top of La plagne

Lying in the sun

cycle path home

Profile of the climb today

A rare opportunity to be here in France on Bastille Day and especially at Brough St Maurice and riding up to La Plagne a climb up to 2000m from the town. The night before we all enjoyed a great dinner and fire works  at St Maurice. The next day we started off on a leisurely ride to the start of the climb about 10kms and then a 16/17km climb with varying gradients and 21 switchbacks. It was slow going but I managed to pace myself and found it a lot better than yesterday's ride . Made it to the top in 2.40 hr and then we had a drink and rode back down . Again it was a hot beautiful day .  I did find some of the switchbacks hard with a gradient of 9% and a stretch of 8% as well. Overall the legs were feeling better .Everyone made it up Ok . The heat did make it a little harder at points. Coming down was always fun but with switchbacks ,I still had to slow for the sharp corners. My Garmin died so I could not tell what speed I was travelling down. We all regrouped at the bottom and rode back via the cycle path along a river back to town. The whole ride was about 4 hours and with a break we spent more than 5 hours out in the sun .it was a long day .

I also managed to get up to Les Arcs on the Funicular operating from the town and had a drink at the resort whilst watching the Tour . Didn't manage to go to the top which is 3200m where there is still snow.

On the bike path by the river heading back to the Town