Galibier

I saw a sign earlier in the week that Galibier would be closed to cars today, so I got an early start and rode up the famous col. This time, I was lucky enough to have essentially no wind on the ride up to Lautaret, and was surprised to see that the road closure also involved some bike support infrastructure on the col. I motored up the climb, enjoying the amazing views of the Cerces along the way, and looked for the parking that we will hopefully soon be using to climb the Tour Termier. Along the way, I passed a busload of Scots in fluorescent high visibility vests and helmets walking up the final steep switchbacks. At the col, I parked my bike and got a ridiculous picture of myself.

Some people were setting up tents with a feed zone, which I assumed were somehow associated with the road closure, which was itself probably associated with some kind of organized ride. I was pleasantly surprised when one of the guys manning the feed station approached me and told me that I could help myself to hot coffee, tea, pizza, and various other goodies!

This was at 8:45 in the morning (It took me ~1:43 to cycle up from Monetier. I have a feeling that that is quite slow, but I was worried that it would be a lot worse than it was, so was holding a little bit of juice in reserve). Everyone was very friendly and helpful, and they informed me that that the government was sponsoring an event where they shut down one famous col a day for five days. Earlier in the week had been some low altitude cols, including Noyer, which was in this years Tour. It was all very cool, and free! One of the guys even let me use his MacBook Pro to delete some files off my helmet cam, so I could record my descent. It was a beautiful ride in perfect weather, only slightly marred by yet another flat tire on the way down. One of our friends told me that she saw me on the evening news, cycling by.

It turned out that I was the first one at the col that morning, too, since I was up so early. When the second guy showed up (who I had seen near Monetier), he said something like "I'm the first!", to which the others responded in the negative and pointed to me. If only it was due to my massive power, rather than my adaptation to early morning wake up calls, care of Alex. One other key piece of information was that the next, and final col to be closed was Izoard -- tomorrow! I was not planning on doing back to back cols, but the feed station and camaraderie might change my mind. Next year I might try to do all the cols, since you get a special jersey if you do them all.

Here is the video with the typically excellent choices for music:


In the afternoon I went climbing at le roche qui repond, where I did a funky climb with a waist jam, and blew the crux of that damned 7a+ again. On the way back to the Chalet, we took my wheel by the excellent Ricquet Sport, who found tiny pieces of metal near the spokes on the inner rim, removed them and retaped. Here's hoping it works!