It hurts all over....
After yesterday's rest day in Morzine (washing, sleeping, eating!) it was back to business today with the hardest stage of the Tour so far. We had 4 categorised climbs to get through, the largest of which was the infamous Col de La Madeleine, a 25.5km HC category climb. (HC means "Hors category" or "beyond classification"...)
Here is the stage profile of what we did:
To add to the severity of today, we had to do it all in over 30 degree heat, something that took its toll on the windless sections of the climbs. In the last 2 days cycling, we have ascended the height of Mount Everest.
The first climb of the day was the Col de La Columbiere. I have done this once before, but from the easier side that we were to be going down today. The way up from the Sconzier side was over 14km in length, and took us up above 1600m. A beautiful climb, but steep over the last 3kms.
From there is was "down-up-down-up" as we conquered the Col des Aravis and the Col des Saises. The early part of the day was made easier by the fact that Mum and sister Uschi were still here, and offering encouragement every 2-3km on the climbs via yodelling or holding up the massive " GO Q GO" banner. They left midway through the stage to catch their flight to Geneva, but it was fantastic to have them here over the last 3 days. I will miss them!
There was a long 28km downhill section (some parts directly into wind so didn't feel downhill at all..) before we hit the early slopes of the Col de la Madeleine. This climb is 25.5km in length, and to aid us they have the "km to go" tablets at the side of the road that also tells you the average gradient of the next KM - very useful!
It was every man (woman) for themselves on the climb, i paced myself well enough to finish strongly. Colin did the opposite by starting strongly and blowing up in the last few km... The top lies at exactly 2,000m, and we were above some snow even at this time of the year. I didn't wait too long before starting the descent to the final snack stop at the base of the mountain. From there it was 13km to the hotel, and into a cold (then hot) bath before dinner to refuel for tomorrow's stage.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 1,643.93km
HOURS CYCLING: 59 hours 52 minutes
MAP OF STAGE 9
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