Robert climbed Col Du Galibier twice today and Lyn once.The later ascent being in the car.Images of the ride will appear once we have returned to England as I do not have adapter to down load the photos.
When we planned this trip I decided I wanted to attempt the classic climb up Col du Galibier. The Col du Galibier has been crossed 58 times by the Tour de France and has seen Tours won and lost on its slopes. The Col can be climbed from two sides. The “easier” climb is from Briancon but I wanted to do the classic route from St-Michael-De-Maurienne. The disadvantage of this choice was The Col De Telegraph with an ascent of around 840m has to be tackled first. It is then 5 km down hill to Valloire where the climb of the Galibier starts.The total assent on the climb is around 2400 m.
We struggled to find good accommodation in St-Michael-De-Maurienne so instead we opted to stay in Valloire. For my trip up the Galibier I first had to climb the Col du Telegraph from Valloire, descend to St-Michael-De-Maurienne and then start the climb. It’s not the gradients that are the real challenge but the length of the climb. The slope varies from 3 to 10 % and averages around 6.9%. My speed would not have set any records. I completed the trip in 5 hours including stopping at the top and taking photos on the descent. I did all of the climb without a break. Approximate timings were 40 minutes to St-Michael-De-Maurienne, 60 minutes back to Valloire, 2 hours to climb the Galibier and then 40 minutes back to the hotel. The last kilometres from the tunnel were a real challenge as my legs were getting tired and I had to resort to my lowest gear on a few of the hair pins. I started at 8:30 am and only saw a few cyclists on my ascent. The route appears more popular later in the day as we passed a steady stream of cyclists when I returned with Lyn for my second ascent of the day, this time in the car.
Lyn stayed in Valloire catching up with the blog, doing her nails and washing the Brexton set and exploring Valloire. She was hoping I would spend longer on the ride has she had not finished her list of thing she wanted to get done before I returned.
A photo Blog of the ride written in 2005 with some good pictures.
The Grand Depart
The elevation from Valloire
View climbing up to the tunnel
The climb up
Great post & photos. Have done the Galibier myself and its a tough climb indeed.
ReplyDelete