Villard-Notre-Dame, Villard-Reymond and a lot of gravel!

This morning was filled by a leisurely breakfast, procrastination,  some bike fettling and finally retail therapy. I charged my Di2 battery, as I seem to be changing gear a lot! Then I replaced the batteries in my power metres as they have been getting low.

I headed to town to look for some alcohol and to see if there are any Galibier jerseys around. Casino was busy, and when I finally cleared the checkout, this is the bill I got. I seem to have qualified for every money-off deal under the sun!

I only bought two bottles of fizz and a box of wine!

I went into Cycle et Sport, the largest cycle shop in town, and was tempted briefly by an Alpe d'Huez cycling hat, but decided against it. I headed back to Le Velo Jaune ready for a short ride.

For the afternoon, I had originally intended to cycle to Allemont, and then climb to the Pas de la Confession, via Villard Reculard. I got ready and set off, but when I got to Bourg, I remembered that I meant to look for the road to Villard-Notre-Dame, to see if it was open. There had been a landslide on it recently. I went in search, and discovered that it was indeed open. Since I had my lights with me I decided to ride up there. I've never done this ride before. The lights? There are four tunnels on this road, and none of them have lighting.

A whole new perspective on the valley

The road up this side gives a whole new perspective on the valley. It's narrow and steep, with the gradient frequently at 10%, but the surface is good and there are lots of places to stop and take in the views.

Proper, old style road markers

Many roads in the Alps now carry the plastic versions of the yellow-topped route markings. The road to Villard-Notre-Dame still has its original stone markers with the distances carved into them.

The tunnels are...  basic!

There are four tunnels on the way up. The first is very short, but the other three are curved and long enough that you can't see the exit from the entrance. A good front light is essential for these. Luckily mine was fine. As I came out of the first long tunnel, two motorcycles were heading down, followed by a push bike rider who seemed to be making use of their lights. He didn't have any. Further up I passed other riders coming down without lights. I didn't envy them. There is a steel rope each side of the tunnel, that you can hold while walking through even though it's pitch black. I wouldn't fancy that though.

The balcony road to La Garde

Further up there are good views across the valley to the balcony road that I was on last Friday.

The road to the Col du Lautaret at Le Clapier

There are also good views to the end of the valley where the road to the Col du Lautaret and the Col du Galibier starts to head up. Le Velo Jaune is tucked away in the trees just below and to the right of the lake.

The road to Venosc

A little further on, the view opens up into the valley which leads to Venosc and on to La Berarde. I'm hoping to ride up there before I leave, but another landslide has blocked the road, so I may be out of luck. The geography in this part of France is always on the move!

Now that's what I call a waterfall!

The road finally swings around to face away from the Romanches valley before the final push up to Villard-Notre-Dame. And then the fun really begins!

Made it to Villard-Notre-Dame

Once through the village, the road turns into this.

Strada Bianchi anyone?

It's a gravel track for several kilometres. In places it's steep, reaching 10%, and the grip on a road bike is marginal. It's also perched precariously on the side of the mountain, and has fallen away in places. At one point I was riding up a 10% section, struggling for grip, when I looked down to my right and could see straight down to the valley floor nearly 1000 metres below. Definite motivation to keep pedalling!

The road to Alpe d'Huez starts at the roundabout about a third of the way up this photo

I stopped a couple of times to try and get a photo of the road up to Alpe d'Huez. This side of the valley has great views of it, but the light was getting a little difficult. By now it was nearly  thunderstorm o'clock once again. Trying to get going again, on a gravel slope is not easy. At one point, I managed to pull a wheely and get wheelspin at the same time, while failing to pull away. I'm afraid an anglo-saxon expletive might have escaped my lips!

The road finally reverts to asphalt once more at Villard-Reymond. From there the descent is fast and quite exciting. Although it is in a forest much of the way down, there is little protection and some sheer drops. Some of it is fast with good sight lines, but there are also hairpins, and many have fine dust on them, the result of rock falls. It's not good for grip!

Near the bottom, the road crosses a river and then climbs again for a short way before joining the road to the Col d'Ornon. I headed back down to Bourg. I'm getting reasonably fast on this descent, but eventually caught traffic and was forced to just cruise down the final kilometre or so.

Back in the valley, I once again caught the rain, but this time only about a kilometre from home. Didn't get quite as wet as yesterday though. Details of the ride are on Strava.

In the evening, Martin and I headed to La Muzele in Bourg for dinner, and then for a beer in the Cafe de Paris. We bumped into a friend of Martin's while we were there. Pierre was born in France, but lives in Sidney for part of the year, and Bourg for the other part. He leads rides while in Bourg, and seems to avoid winter anywhere!