Stage 9 - Jausiers to Entrevaux (Col de la Bonette)

July 1st, stage 9, and Nice almost within touching distance.  Today was going to be a serious test of endurance and we had given ourselves the best opportunity to survive the day by getting locked at the campsite bar in La Coldamine the night before.  Between the start and finish of todays stage of 150kms lay the highest paved road in Europe: Col de la Bonette (2802m) and the Col de la Couillole (1678m) which didn't even get a mention in our itinerary for some reason.  Given that we had a long and steep road ahead of us we had a 5.30am wakeup, with a 7am departure.  We had some eggs with bacon for breakfast which was perfect hangover (still drunk) fodder.  It made a welcome change from the daily granola munchfest we had become accustomed to.  I think I was almost the last person to leave the campsite, as was now also customary.  Marcel the bag man used to joke that he would have to remember to leave room for my luggage on the truck, as I was always last.  I was happy enough to start a little later than everyone else as I wasn't worried about catching up and enjoyed the few miles of tranquility on my tod.  

The start of the ascent to the Col de la Bonette was only a little down the road, in a southerly direction out of the town of Jausiers. The morning air was brisk which gave me the impetus to drive on to keep warm.  Nonetheless, I knew that in a couple of hours there would be a river of sweat on my brow as the French Summer temperatures soared.
I had grown to love the morning ascents over the preceeding 2 weeks.  Soon I joined up with Simon Hayes of Bicycling Australia and decided that I would chit chat with him and enjoy the countryside instead of burning up the mountain.  Cycling up steep mountains can be somewhat of a counter emotional activity.  On one hand you want to take your time and experience all that the mountain has to offer, but on the other hand you want the suffering to be over as soon as possible.  The only way to achieve the latter is by cycling at the limits of your ability.  Sometimes if the gradients are steep and the distance is long, no respite can be found, even by going slow and its a matter of simply digging deep to find the strength to get you over the top.  It was clear to see quite early on in the ascent to Bonette that the landscape was stunning and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible, stopping to take photos on this our last big climb of Les Dix Alpes.

The col itself is part of the Mercantour National Park which is one of the nine national parks of France in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department.  On the ascent and from the top we could see a wide number of other mountains, some of which we had already traversed including the Grand St. Bernard. 
From Jausiers in the north, the climb is 24,1 km long. Over this distance, the climb is 1589 m. (an average percentage of 6.6%), with the steepest sections at 9%.  The pass has featured in the Tour de France four times (1962, 1964, 1993 and 2008).  I remember in the 2008 stage where the lead rider over the top - John-Lee Augustyn - crashed dramatically on the way down.  He did, however, receive 5,000 Euros for the leader over the highest point of the Tour, also known as the "Souvenir Henri Desgrange".  Words cant really do this mountain justice, so to illustrate the beauty of the Col de la Bonette here are some pictures.

Halfway up Bonette, facing north towards Jausiers

Facing south towards the Cima

Alpine lake not far from the summit

 Getting steeper close to the top

Cime de la Bonette, viewed from the northern ascent from Jausiers. The Col de la Bonette is marked by the gap in the centre of the picture, while the circle road takes a loop up and around the Cime de la Bonette, before joining the col behind the ridge

Famous scene from TdF2008 where the ascenders were on the right of the tv screen and the descenders were on the left...

"Maca" with just a km or so of 15% gradient to go to the top of Col de la Bonette

The summit of the Col de la Bonette at almost 3000m above sea level - air is fairly tight up here

Very fast and dangerous descent!

With around 5kms to go to the summit I decided to make a push for the top.  My legs were full of juice after having taken it easy for most of the climb.  I cannot emphasise how much I enjoyed this Col.  Towards the top the oxygen got very thin and again I got that feeling of being very close to my mate Martin who has gone to the great gig in the sky.  His presence was palpable.  There were scenes of great jubilation on top where the Les Dix Alpes participants gathered for photos and patted each other on the back.  We all enjoyed a lovely descent into Saint Etienne de Tinée, apart from Aussie Thomas who spilled himself en route.  He was not seriously injured thank God, and surprisingly turned out to be the only crash victim of the tour!  Saint Etienne de Tinée is a lovely little town, the directions out of which seemed to be a little confusing.  It took us quite a while to find the correct route towards our next climb.  We formed a train and powered down a few miles towards the town of St. Sauveur sur Tinée where we took a right hander and began a very hot ascent in the direction of Roubion and the Col de la Couillole.  Now, I was expecting a nice gentle hill after Bonette and the first part of the climb was quite scenic as I cycled alone along a road etched into the side of a cliff, overlooking a canyon. There was a village perched way up on top of the hill and I said to myself, surely we're not going up there?

 Roubion

An hour or more later, with 2 empty water bottles and a seriously salt encrusted jersey I arrived at that little village, Roubion.  It was such a pretty little place in such a far flung location but I was too frazzled to really give a shit.  The Garmin on my bike told me that I still had a few hundred metres of climbing and some 20kms to go before the summit so I trudged on, my face stinging thanks to the sweat and the inhumane afternoon heat.  The roads were the worst I had come across since Les Dix Alpes had begun, and did nothing to appease my disgruntled mood.  In stark contrast to the morning's climb, the summit of the Col de la Couillole was probably the least interesting peak of the entire 2 weeks.  I think my face in photo from up there betrays the fact that I was totally shattered, but I was so glad to be out of that hellish valley.  Greg, Annabel, Rune and Pete were there when I arrived and we stayed no more than about 5 mins before we began the descent.

 Summit of Col de la Couillole with Greg & Annabel in the background

Roger, Colly & Pete in Entrevaux

After a coffee stop a few kms down the mountain, Roger, Pete, "The Big Unit" & I embarked on what could be classed one of the greatest and most interesting descents we had undertaken.  The section of most interest was from Beuil via Rigaud on the D28 where we passed gushing rivers, incredible hairpins and grandiose canyons.  Afterwards Pete described it as like being in a computer game.  The face was frenetic and we went from 1634m to 346m in no time.  Back out on the main road to Puget Théniers we noticed a big change in the temperature and the landscape.  Coming back down close to sea level is always going to cause a change in temperate, as you gain almost 10 degrees per 1000m.  This time the change had been dramatic however, and we were truely baking in the heat.  There was much more of a Mediterranean feel to the houses and towns as well.  We stopped to take some photos in the pretty town of Entrevaux with it's castle and then proceeded on to what would be our last campsite of the tour.  After a seriously shoddy shower which I had to run around in to get wet, we sat down for some food and wine with weary limbs.  Like the last day of the Tour de France we just had a processional ride ahead of us on Friday towards the boulevard in Nice.  As we were tucking into our grub some 2 hours after arriving at the campsite, none other than Tim "timmanybeers" ambled slowly in the front gate.  He had taken a wrong turn and ended up climbing a third col and a days total of well over 200 kms.  He was a broken man!  Jaap legged it over to the bar and brought back a stein of beer (one litre) which is promptly polished off.  It was a well deserved jar.  When we got to the bar later on in the evening, the owners didn't seem particularly eager to sell us beer so Annie got herself in at the taps and kept pouring until the early hours of the morning.  We had conquered the 10 Alpes, and much more besides.  We were all very excited about finishing in Nice the following day...

Timmanybeers after 215kms and 3 cols!  Well deserved...