Run to the hills

Wherever he goes, the cows love Andy!
see all photos »

The mountains apparently sort out the men from the boys. Well, we are now men! We completed stage 7 of TdF 2007 with our day including three climbs. A cat 3 (7.1km at 4.4%), a cat 4 (4.1km at 4.2%) and the final climb, a Cat 1 up Col de Colombiere; a 16km climb at 6.8% gradient to ski resort at 1518m. A delayed start to the day as the weather was awful and a good chance of snow on the climb. We eventually headed off at about 10am hoping to start the big climb in the warmest part of the day. First two climbs were fine and then descended into Bonneville with a huge mountain in front of us. Sure enough, the route took us up there. Started the climb in good condition and finished it 1 hr 23min later. Halfway up, my Ipod, which obviously knows me well, started playing Iron Maiden, "Run To The Hills". Perfect. Very tough towards the end and just had enough in the legs to get up the last 5km which was very steep (picture last 5km into Turoa). V happy to finish our first Cat 1 climb particularly with 70km under our belts. View not great as mist swirled around but we didnt care. Lots of other cyclists on the mountain including two pros from Credit Agricole who made it look a lot easier! Anyway, after scary descent which only took 20 min, we finished for the day having done 98.5km in 4 hrs 46 min at 20.1 kph. Definitely earned our beer but much more of that ahead. Beautiful set of mountains to ride through, even if we do spend most of the time looking at our pedals! Crossed the 1000km mark today too. Boys both well and in good shape.   

Beautiful set of mountains to ride through, even if we do spend most of the time looking at our pedals!