Day 7: Galibier

This is the big one, the highest road ever used in the Tour de France.  At six or so miles at eight percent, the climb itself is unremarkable, except that it almost never varies from the average grade, so it's a real grind.  It starts at 6500 feet, so oxygen is in demand.  To get to it you have to finish another categorized climb; either the famous Telegraphe or the Col de Lauteret.  I was hoping to do the Telegraphe side but don't have the time to get over there.  The Telegraphe is steeper but the Lauteret is several miles longer.  Pick your poison.

First photo is what the Lauteret crest looks like; fairly beautiful I'd say.  The second is the view of the valley I came up, almost from the top of Galibier.  The third is the monument to Henri Desrange, who conceived of the Tour and kept it going in its first years.

And now that I'm in cycling country, I'm getting a lot of encouragement from the locals.  In other places in France, however, I'm considered just as crazy as I am at home; it's just a form of insanity they are more familiar with, so it comes across as disinterested sympathy and not incredulity.  But what I am putting myself through is no better understood here except by other cyclists.