Wednesday, June 25, 2008

La Route des Grandes Alpes Day 2: Flumet to Séez

80.9 km total
Col des Saisies 1,650m
Col de Méraillet 1,605m
Cormet de Roselend 1,968m

Today’s climbs were firsts for both of us.

Climbing the Col des Saisies was a good warm-up for the day and we would use this climb as a reference point for all the other climbs to come. From the col, we had a nice descent down to Beaufort where we stopped at the local market for some fruits and vegetables.

We had high expectations of the Cormet the Roselend and were not disappointed. Because this was a first for us, we took the beautiful standard road up and left the alternative road over Arèches and the Col du Pré for the future. Once we reached the Col de Méraillet, we caught our first glimpse of the Barrage de Roselend. There were plenty of amazing views along the lake and we stopped many times. While Katy was happy taking pictures, I wanted to keep going and get to the top.

The climb from Méraillet to the top of Cormet the Roselend was still pretty tough but nice. It is much more alpine than the lower Col des Saisies.

On top of Roselend we spoke to a group of cyclists who were doing the Route des Grandes Alpes from South to North. We learned that one of them had suffered a heat induced front tire blowout and had crashed at low speed without too much harm. Scary!

The descent towards Bourg-St.-Maurice was stunning. Arriving in Bourg-St-Maurice was a shock. The temperature change was enormous and the road was heavy with traffic!

We rode on to Séez where we spent the night in the youth hostel (YH). Great job Secret Weapon. As one of the other guests was celebrating her birthday, the excellent cook had made her (and the other guests) a huge cake. Great fuel for tomorrow…we would need it. We were so pleased with this YH that we had them book us a spot at the next YH on our road. This meant we would stop in Lanslebourg tomorrow, 15 km short of the town of Bramans, as initially planned.

No problem, we’ll catch that up later.

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