So this was it. The final ride of the entire trip, and the realisation of the concept that had sparked the whole enterprise. Today, I'd ride my Willier Izoard over its namesake, the Col d'Izoard.
The Tour de France has used this pass on many occasions, and in both directions. Since we were staying in Briancon, I'd decided to ride it from Guilestre back to Briancon. We set off bright and early to drive to Guilestre, over the Col d'Izoard so I could get a look at the road, and so that we could take some photos. The weather could not have been more perfect. Clear blue skies, and not a cloud to be seen.
The drive up from Briancon is steady. The road is wide and well engineered and the surface superb. We stopped a couple of times on the way up to take photos. The views from the top were spectacular. It's not as bleak as the top of the Galibier, even though it's almost as high. Trees line the route almost to the top.
After crossing the top of the pass, the road descends rapidly into the Casse Deserte. This barren landscape is dotted with amazing rock pinnacles. The rock here is quite different from that on the Galibier. It's very sandy. The Casse Deserte occupies quite a small area of the whole climb. Then again, after the Galibier, maybe everything else looks small!
After a short climb through the Casse Deserte the road descends quickly again until it crosses a wide Alpine valley through a number of villages. The final run into Guilestre is almost flat for many kilometres. More on that later.
Guilestre has a large market in the centre of town on a Monday. We were lucky to find a parking space, and even luckier to have retained our full complement of wing mirrors after an unbelievably stupid and rude French woman seemed determined to drive her Peugot through our Fiesta, rather than giving us 10 seconds to move out of her way.
I assembled the bike while Angela headed into the local supermarket to pick up some cakes and drinks. After a very high calorie Mille Feuille and a can of lemonade, I was ready for the off. After negotiating the lunch time traffic, and more pedestrians determined to have a cycling-related accident by inattention, I was soon heading away from town and up the valley of the river Guil, which gives Guilestre its name. Soon after leaving the town, the road heads into a gorge, hugging its side. It's narrow, and has a number of tunnels. It's incredibly picturesque, but also busy. At one point, an articulated truck laden with tree trunks made its way down past me. Fortunately I'd pulled over to take a photo at the time.
The barrage in the Guil river just above Guilestre. The road clings to the side of the gorge at this point. Next to the barrage, you can just make out the entrance to one of the tunnels on the road.
The road runs alongside the river for a number of kilometres, and hardly climbs at all. Progress is swift with gradients of only a couple of percent. This flat section is the primary reason for the average gradient of this climb being quoted as misleadingly low. Once the D902 turns away from the river, towards Arvieux, the gradients ramp up significantly. There is a lot of hard climbing ahead.
The road soon straightens as it crosses a wide Alpine valley. The gradients remain quite high though. One of the features of the Izoard is that its gradient is never constant for long. Get into a nice rhythm for 7% and within a few hundred metres you'll be at 8.4%. Gear for that and soon it will have kicked up beyond 9%, or back down to 4%. It's continually knocking you out of your rhythm. Don't believe the roadside gradient indications either. It may well be an average of 6.4% for the next kilometre, but you'll probably find a short section at 10% hiding in there!
Once the valley has been crossed, there is a series of hairpin bends and steep ramps to be negotiated as the road works its way up to the Casse Deserte. The ramps do lengthen just before it's reached. It's a hard section, but the tree line is not far away, and the goal is in sight. Just before the Casse Deserte is the most misleading cycling sign I've encountered in this entire trip. It claims that the next kilometre is flat. As I passed it my Garmin was reading a gradient of 6.8% and the road was kicking up. Of course, what actually happens is that as you reach the Casse Deserte, the road abruptly swings sharply downwards for another half kilometre or so delivering you to the last set of hairpins that lead up to the Col itself. This last set is not as hard as the Galibier. The warmer weather helped too, and soon I could see Angela perched on a rock waiting to record my arrival at the top of my last climb of this trip.
Making the final push for the top
Izoard to the power 4. One director of Izoard Consulting photographing another director of Izoard Consulting who has just got his Willier Izoard to the top of the Col d'Izoard.
The track up from Guilestre to the Col d'Izoard is available on Garmin Connect
The descent from the Izoard towards Briancon is superb. The road surface is almost new. There is a combination of hairpin bends, sweeping curves and straights that are a delight to descend. In no time, I had made the turn at Cervieres and was racing down the Cerveyette valley towards Briancon. I did have to check my progress sometimes so as not to break the speed limits in the villages I whizzed through on the way down.
And then it was into rush hour traffic in Briancon. It's easier with a bike, and without too much delay I was back at the hotel. Now it was my turn to wait for Angela, who had to get the car down from the Col and through that same traffic.
The track down from the Col d'Izoard to Briancon is available on Garmin Connect
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