It's been on my bucket list for a while. It's origins date back to 2006, when I completed a rather circuitous End-to-End ride, here in the UK. After 1660 miles in four weeks, what's next? It needed to be suitably challenging, but not ridiculous. There was little chance of getting a four week block of free time again until after retirement, so it would have to fit into a normal summer holiday.
It may be a bit masochistic, but as long as I've been cycling, I've always enjoyed the sense of achievement of conquering climbs. Climbing hurts, makes you breathless and sweaty and a long climb can seem interminable. But a good one rewards all the effort with ever changing vistas, and a real sense of achievement at the top. Everyone agrees that the best one in the UK is Bealach-na-Ba, in the Scottish highlands. I've been over it twice. The first time was during that End-to-End ride, in 2006, with a bike laden with all the paraphernalia that a long distance ride entails. It even had a tripod mount for my camera! I'll admit to getting off and pushing for a bit near the top. I did it again in 2009, without all the extra weight, on my Dawes Galaxy. It felt much easier the second time, though the weather was awful. Low cloud and drizzle meant no views, and I did feel sympathy for the riders that I met for whom this was the only opportunity to make the climb.
Bealach-na-Ba is the closest we have, in the UK, to the passes that litter the Alps. Simon Warren's 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs rates it as 11 out of 10, and I have no reason to argue. It's fabulous, but at only 9 kilometers in length, and an average gradient of around 7%, it's no match for the most famous Alpine cols. Having climbed it in 2006 in good weather, and been blown away by the views, I started to hunger for more, longer climbs in higher places. The repeat visit in 2009 just confirmed it. I needed to climb in the Alps.
Now it became a question of 'how', not 'if'.
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