Stage 4 - Col du Petit St Bernard (Etroubles to Bourg St. Maurice)

Friday started off badly when I took a left turn in the direction of the Grand Bernard instead of a right turn towards the Aosta valley and the majestic Mont Blanc. Etroubles to Aosta is approx 30km downhill, so as I ascended a hill out of Etroubles it struck me that I might be going the wrong way.

So once again I found myself time-trialing to get back into contention. Nice way to warm up the legs! We stopped for an early lunch at around 10am because failing to do so at that point would mean no food until the
summit. We had a splendid view of Mont Blanc as it towered up in front of us, completely covered in snow, which is the case all year around, hence the name!

Pre Sanit Didier lunch stop

The Col du Petit St Bernard is 2188m in height with an average gradient of 5.3%. The total climb is 22.6kms. Quite long, but very doable and after the mammoth Grand St Bernard it was enjoyable. Having said that, no climb is really enjoyable because there is a certain degree of pain associated with it, so bittersweet might be a better descriptor. When I hear some of the crew saying that the climb was great I always think how short the memory of a human mind really is. The experience of suffering on the mountain climbs and the elation of reaching the top leads to an overwhelming sense of achievement nonetheless...

La Thuile - Italian Ski resort, busy all year round

Writing on the road from Le Tour de France

Summit

Pre-descent View from Petit St Bernard

The group of us first to the top didn't hang around too long as it was feckin cold as. On with all the cold weather gear and a rapid descent which seemed to be all of the 30kms to our destination. Bourg St Maurice was our first French campsite and with it came those archaeic and annoying squat toilets which are the last thing a weary cyclist wants to encounter. The campsite was really nice though. The oul Frenchies have a serious fascination with camping it seems. This particular site was full of Dutch punters. You will find hundreds Dutch cycling fanatics around the Alpes. They are good skins and love to bike. Indeed our support crew are a mad bunch of hooers from Ze Netherlands. I enjoy the craic out of them immensely!

Sat would take us to Lanslevillard via the Col de L'Iseran (2770m) and the famous Val d'Isere ski resort.

Stage 3 - Col du Grand St. Bernard (Visp to Etroubles)

On Wed the 23rd June we had a rest day in Visp, a little Swiss village close to the Italian border. We treated ourselves to a large brekie and some of the gang headed off to see the Matterhorn. I chose not to do so, and instead organised my stuff and relaxed in the sunshine.

Visp, Switzerland

I'm glad I did, because what awaited on thurs was a monster climb up to the Col du Grand St Bernard - a pass connecting Martigny in Switzerland to Aosta in Italy, lying on the ridge between the two highest summits of the Alps, namely Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. The pass itself is located within Switzerland in the canton of Valais. Not just a clever name, this mountain - although not the highest on our trip intinerary - stands at 2469m. The overall distance for the day was going to be 143km, with a 41.5km total climb to the summit, hitting 10% gradient at some points.

Marcel, one of the Bike Dreams crew, lead us out for the first 20 or so kms, to ensure safe delivery of all participants to the first town on the day's route.  Somehow some of the riders still managed to displace themselves from everybody else.  Further down the road the group seemed to join up again.  The first 50kms were very fast as Roger Cull, a classy Australian cyclist and myself led out a group of riders in a train that ripped through the valley towards Sion and onto Martigny at the 75km mark.  Lunch soon followed after a small ascent up the St Bernard.

 

Wrong turn confusion!

Putting the boot down with Rog!

The afternoon heat was a factor early on again today, whilst we rode through the valley from Martigny and on the early part of the climb. There was almost no wind and the sun was beating down.  The great thing about cycling to high altitude is that it gets cooler the higher you go. Unfortunately its gets much more labour intensive and harder to breath!
The temperature typically drops 10 degress for every 1000m climbed. Rune and Damo were setting a nice tempo a head of me and I finally caught them at a set of traffic lights which led into a 6km tunnel. My friend the tunnel!  We also noticed a sign that read 350km to Nice, albeit via a Motorway.  I roughly calculated that we only had another 1000kms to go on our passage to Nice.  When the tunnel ended the gradient really kicked up, and got the better of poor ole Rune. He's a big unit and was just pushing too hard into the red zone.

Rune & Damo just in front, with the Grand Bernard summit in sight

I cursed the steepness of the climb, willing it to end, and with it my pain. I kept looking down to see if I had any more gears, but my fears were contiually realised.  I have a little picture of "The Rock" on my handbar and I drew great inspiration and determination looking at him and thinking about the suffering he endured throughout his battle with cancer. There were some spiritual moments when I prayed for him to help me, and all of a sudden a tailwind would push me up the mountain a bit. Cycling so high made me feel closer to Martin, and with his help I conquered the Grand Bernard.

The Aussies Blake and Tim were already up there and we talked about the difficulty of the climb. I noticed we were all covered in salt, such was the perspiration throughout the climb. There were large chunks of ice and snow on the roads in places which was really cool. We basked in the sun on the summit restuarant terrace and downed a few coffees and cokes as the others struggled as we did up over the final few metres.

Ice field on the summit of Grand St. Bernard

Just before setting off on the descent, road behind!

We probably hung on a little too long up there, but we were in no rush to set off again.  40km of climbing was something I have never experience before, but as we like to say at home - where there is a will, there is a way. Obviously having trained for some months previous helped nonetheless! Another mesmerising descent lead us to the Italian town of Etrouble where we set up camp for the evening. After a big feed I hit the hay early, determinded to have a good night sleep for once, which I did thankfully.

We were in for a slightly "easier" day on fri to the summit of the Col du Petit St Bernard, the little sis of the one we had just climbed, at 2188m and a total of 105kms for the day.