Col de la Croix de Fer

It seems like every holiday I take has to include one epic day. It somehow makes coming back home to normality a bit easier! After two quite hard days of following the tour we set out to do the classic 100 mile circuit which visits the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Col de Telegraphe and the mighty Col du Galibier. We had been very lucky with the generally unsettled weather on the previous two days, but weren't so favoured today. This shot is of the Iron Cross which gives the Col de la Croix de Fer its name. We encountered a few showers on the lower slopes but the weather seemed to be clearing and the forecast was for an improving kind of day.

My stomach had felt a bit delicate all day, I suspect as a consequence of too much rich food, and the queasiness grew steadily worse as I subjected it to more. Long days like this require a steady intake of calories so there is a necessity to eat even when you don't feel like it. If the body runs out of fuel it is really no different to a car running out of petrol. You grind to a halt. This col was the point of no return. We could either return the way we came, which one sensible member of our group of five decided to do, or carry on with the 18 mile long descent to St.Jean-de-Maurienne. Four of us ignored the rather threatening clouds seen in this picture and committed ourselves to the circuit, soon to be overtaken by torrential rain. Add in the mix of steep hairpin bends and vertiginous drops, and there was a lot of adrenaline flowing at the bottom of the descent.

Once in the Maurienne Valley the only way back is over the Col de Telegraphe and the Col du Galibier, which in reality is just one huge climb of over 2000m (over a vertical mile indeed) with a short drop into Valloire in the middle. We regrouped at the bottom of the climb at St.Michel-de-Maurienne to have some food but it really didn't sit well. When we stopped again at a bar in Valloire to catch the end of the time trial in the tour (and see Cadel Evans effectively get victory) I was feeling distinctly unwell. As the road climbed into the clouds and the temperature dropped I really struggled to generate enough power to keep warm. It was wild up there and it was simply impossible to imagine that this same desolate road was just yesterday lined with tens of thousands of people cheering through the riders of the tour. When I reached the tunnel just below the summit it wasn't a hard decision to leave out the last 100m of climb, despite the loss of my claim to be king of the mountains!

On the other side of the mountain we were met with hail and then more torrential rain. The descent was desperately uncomfortable and while we waited at the Col du Lauteret for the last member of the party to arrive (who had, like the other two, gone right over the top) I couldn't stop shaking with the cold. I felt so rough back at our gite that I crashed out without blipping, unable to face either food or beer! It had indeed been an epic. I felt like I was holidayed out and ready to go back to work!