Izoard

I couldn't resist the temptation of another feed station and a closed road, so Ian and I rode the Col d'Izoard today. We set out a little after 7:00 and coasted down to Briançon before starting the climb. I passed, and said hello to the same guy I saw yesterday outside of Monetier, who was of course doing the Izoard as well. He had the coveted jersey from last year. We continued on up the not-too-steep grades that lead you up to the climb, and passed a farmer in his field who chuckled to himself and told us that we were about to get wet. Sure enough, storm clouds started to gather and we were soon in a deluge. It was also cold and windy. I guess farmers know something about the weather. Since we had started the climb, we continued on (actually, it never really occured to us not to finish it). As we got closer to le Laus (the official start of the climb for today), I dropped my chain, but Ian did not attack. The road up was not too bad, but I was still tired from Galiber yesterday. It was above all, very very cold. We took full advantage of the feed station (ravitaillement in French), drinking many cups of tea, and excellent blueberry tarts.


The organizers recognized me from the day before "Eddy Merckx!!" (because of my bike), and as the guy who got up early enough to get to the col before the official start of the event. They had also brought newspapers for us to stuff into our jerseys for the descent, but Ian and I had another idea: the Refuge Napoléon du Col d'Izoard‎. We stopped in for hot drinks, and the hostess was amazingly nice to us: she turned on a radiator, sat us near it, and put our jerseys into the clothes drier! She let us borrow dry shirts and fleeces, too.

Truly exceptional hospitality. We met Chloe at the Geant in Briançon to avoid the crappy and traffic filled road to Monetier.

~1140 meters /3740 feet of elevation gain

So, two famous, historic and beautiful climbs in two days. I did Galibier the "easy" way from the South, and Izoard the "easy" way from the North, so I guess I have to do them from the other sides now. I would actually really like to do the Southern approach to Izoard, since it goes through the Casse Déserte, which I only saw a small part of.

Here's the video