Friday 5th August

8am breakfast and then back to the room to sort my biking gear out while Dave and Stu went about swapping their “knobbly” tires for slicks. The plan was to do nothing too strenuous and a tourist information brochure in my room had a range of rides to chose from. I picked one to Besse and off we set.

I'm not overly keen on the roads around this area as there's often little separation between cyclists and cars/trucks but the stretch we used to head out wasn't too bad as we had our own mini lane for the first 5km. At the first turning I was looking to go left but Dave mentioned a route that someone had recommended on a bike forum which would make a reasonable 'recovery' type ride, or warm up ride depending on how you look at it. So the decision was made to head east to the Parc National des Écrins were the road stops at La Bérade.

Within a short distance the gentle slopes we'd imagined were immediately at 6-7% and occasionally up to 10-11%. I thought I recall ordering gearing suitable for hilly riding as that was the purpose of the new bike but despite 11 speeds the lowest one was still hardwork. A 25 cog for those in the know, who'll also appreciate that's not too low. Still I made reasonable progress and although I was spinning a little too slowly for my liking I was still getting up the hills ok. I'm still a little weary of some of the 15% climbs mentioned on the Cycling Dolimiti Friulani blog but an average 7-8% like most of the climbs around here don't appear too scary now.

Dave and Stu climbing

The road rose and turned and rose some more before we came across the lake and then a little further on the 'tornanti' (hair pins) appeared. We took our time getting up there but at the top we found a nice cafe where Dave had a cheese/ham/tomato baguette and I had the chocolate fondant which wasn't really anything like the cake I asked for/imagined but was still good none the less.

Dave mid chomp

My sugar boost

After 25-30 minutes there we paid up and headed off down the hill. Stu was flying to start with and we did overtake a car before the road leveled off a little. I'm still a little wary of fast downhills after my puncture on the 167km ride in Majorca which nearly put me in the armco but I still clocked a 62km/h stretch lower down the slope without trying too hard.

View down the valley

Once back we cleaned up and then headed in to Bourg d'Oisans for a nosey around. A short cafe stop saw me trying out a Pelforth Brun, which turned out to be like a brown ale and at 6.5% was quite interesting on an empty stomach. A quick spell of rain appeared and then we headed back to the hotel where I tried to catch up on some photo editing for this site before Dave borrowed the laptop for “a few minutes to check my email” at which point I think I fell asleep at the table.

Dinner was a cheesy/eggy/battered and fried delight with salad, followed by a nice pork steak, pasta and spinach and a big piece of cake for desert. Just what the nutritionist ordered. Now 10pm and I'm shattered. Need sleep before another day tomorrow. Not sure what we'll be doing yet but the big challenge is on the cards although at today's pace it might take us until Sunday to finish it!