Eleven days trip in the Alpes, August 1997


9 - 8 - '97, Suze-la-Rousse → Rambaud, 158 km

Bus arrives well on time in Suze-la-Rousse, at 6:31 a.m., one minute behind schedule after a fifteen hours' trip. I put my panniers on my bike and there I go. The sun starts coming up just north of the Mont Ventoux. I take the D94 to Nyons, where I have breakfast around eight o'clock. The road is very nice, quiet still, the weather is nice too, after Rosans even a bit too warm for someone who has just arrived from the Netherlands. It goes up very slowly to the 877 m high Col de la Saulce, hardly worth mentioning. It will become a very hot afternoon, with one very steep km to the Col de la Faye, just east of Serres. Around 4 p.m I suffer from feelings of exhaustion, mostly because of the heat, and decide to skip the Col de la Sentinelle (have I finally reached wisdom at the age of forty?) and from Tallard take the easiest road to Gap. From there a 3 km climb, 4 to 7 % steep, to the hameau of Rambaud. There I arrive at a very nice gîte d'étape, which actually gives me more the impression of a chambres d'hôtes. Dinner is very good too!

Today seven or eight short climbs to test the condition and get the right feeling again. The first climb is to get out of the valley of Gap. I follow the D944 out of Gap to the west, and after four or so kms can make a good pace. At Veynes I turn to the south to attack the Col de la Bassachette and the Col d'Espréaux (with the Col des Veynes in between), and enjoy the very nice and quiet roads. I decide not to turn left at Barcilonnette (not Barcelonnette), and instead have a break in Mônetier-Allemont at exactly the same spot as the day before. I use a lot of sun oil and drink a lot of water, and also cola. This poison I won't buy again: I don't like the taste anymore (I used to slush away liters of it in the past!). The ascension up to the Col des Sagnes goes in two stages of about 5 km. Luckily there are some clouds (not many though!), after which I don't descend much before I rise again to the Col des Garcinets, the eastern side of which is unexpectedly splendid/rocky. Today I do have enough energy left to add the Col de la Sentinelle. There's still a lot of RIIS on the tarmac (and I remember the descent where – I think it was Sörensen – was captured in the streets of Gap by the chasing peloton – pity him). After this I'm lucky to find I don't need to descend to Gap. Not that I'd mind another short climb, but I can think of better places than busy Gap on a hot afternoon.

Pity, the sky is thickly covered when I say Bonjour and Bien Dormie?, to chère Mme. Orcières around 7:30. (No need to say the same to the other guests: they are still in their rooms.) Madame reminds me to take my raincoat today (and how right she will prove to be). Today three serious climbs, steep, though not so long. First the Col Bayard, on maybe the steepest N-road in the Alpes, at whose summit I think it is better not to include the (even steeper) Col de Gleize. (Wise again? – well, last year, when I had only eight days to cycle around here I overexerted myself, and only at the seventh day felt really comfortable). I follow the not very special valley of the Drac, where moreover the headwind makes it very hard to get to Orcières. During the coffee-break I have there it rains, but I'm lucky (and a little surprised) to find it is dry when I mount my Koga again for the 'classic' climb to Merlette. That one proves to be an easy climb, very regular, not so steep as I had expected. However the sky looks ominous. It is a miracle I reach Saint-Bonnet without a drop of rain. I have already had nice views high up to the Col du Noyer (under very dark clouds). Shortly after Saint-Bonnet it starts to drizzle. It isn't very cold though, so I conquer this (steep!!) boy in a wet T-shirt. After the previous days it is a refreshing experience to creep higher and higher up the steep road, using my lowest gears, I think.
The remainder of the étape is just wet wet WET, around the Col du Festre rightdown COLD. And the descent of that one is LONG. Gap in the rain, with lots of cars and vans and a senseless déviation (I had better ignored the itinerary information!) is terrible. I phone home and learn that in Holland it has become hot, and from the same phone booth also to the gîte d'étape in Saint Paul-de-Vars (after I have learned the youth hostel of Jausiers, where I still passed a night in 1996, is not a youth hostel anymore).

Beautiful morning again. First the Col de la Sentinelle from the north, then 20 km along the D900B, which is okay at this time of the day. After I cross the Durance the road starts to climb, and more severely so after I've turned right onto the D7 to Selonnet. On the map you read that you have to only go up 400 m in 7 km, but in fact around l'Eygaye there is a descent of around one km, which loss in altitude of course has to be compensated for. Coffee break in Selonnet; continuation with the easy Col de Saint Jean with a very nice descent to the Ubaye (in fact the D900B again). The views over the Lac de Serre-Ponçon are really splendid, as are the first five km of the D900. My original plan had been to drop some luggage in Barcelonnette and ride up to the ski villages Pra Loup and/or Super-Sauze. However, during the beautiful morning the idea entered my head to once and for all try the Col de Parpaillon, to which readers of the Fiets magazine seem to look up to so much; it is steep and has a long unpaved stretch. (Had I planned it beforehand I would probably have had a sleepless night in Rambaud.) So like on earlier occasions I only see these ski resorts from down in the valley, a valley which between Le Lauzet and Jausiers is rather boring. I unload some kilograms in La Condamine and change to lower gears. The first 5 km or so are very steep, but the road surface is fine. Follows a not so steep part over a reasonable path through the woods, until finally there are about 9 steep kms over a terrible stony gravel road through a barren area. The road keeps winding and winding and does never seem to come to an end; the jeeps that keep passing me don't help either. At last I reach the summit, i.e. the entrance of the Tunnel de Parpaillon. It would be nice to see the view from the other side, but the tunnel is dark, wet (unpaved) and cold and long; I do not have the guts for that undertaking. I'm already glad and proud I've made it so far.

The descent offers good views, very "photographable", but I have to keep the speed down until the last part to La Condamine. The gîte in Saint Paul, which I reach around 7:30 p.m. is quite shabby, but with many randonneurs à pied it is a good place to spend a cozy evening in the kitchen. The spirit is good: after the Parpaillon I feel that for the next days I'm up to anything.

13 - 8 - '97,   Saint-Paul-de-Vars   →   Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée,     133 km

Saint-Paul-de-Vars – Jausiers – Col de la Bonette/Col de la Moutière – Isola – Col de la Lombarde – Isola – Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée

Another bad night's sleep, this time caused by a warm, crowded, stuffy dormitory. Nice morning though to "do" the Bonette, more or less together with two French guys 'sans' (bagage), who ride a few hundred meters ahead of me for ages, whom then I ride up with for a while, let them go, catch up with again, et cetera, until first one and then not far from the top also the other falls back. I remind myself too late that the coffee high up there is undrinkable. I redescend 2 km to the north and turn left for a horrible stony descent of 3 km to the Col de la Moutière. The rest of the descent is wonderful; a tiny road surrounded by high mountains, among which of course the huge black rock around which the road to the Col de la Bonette is constructed.

Alas I am not the only one to enjoy it. In Saint Étienne the shops are already closed for lunch break, so I continue with a good speed (after the bump just south of Saint Étienne) to Isola where I have a plat du jour (with even a beer!) in a restaurant that seems appropriate to park eighty per cent of my luggage. As during the morning expedition, without a foot on the ground I ride up to the highest point. (This third visit I don't need to make more photographs, e.g. from the view to the Bonette). It is a well surfaced regular climb, with the steepest two km in the beginning, with a noticeable elevation gain of 1400 meters. Down in Isola I get my things from the restaurant, and am in a bit of a hurry because of the change in the weather. I hardly catch any raindrops before I reach the destination of the day, and with this am actually quite lucky: an hour later a German VTT traveller (named Gregory) arrives who has had a lot of rain during the descent from the Bonette. It is nice he joins me, because otherwise I think I wouldn't have liked my stay in this gîte with absolutely minimal facilities. Good thing: it isn't dirty though; you could even call it funny, the way it lies there closely surrounded by houses of the people of Saint-Sauveur. You can literally look into their kitchens and almost hear them talk. I can definitely hear a radio station (or a record player) producing French chansons from 9 till 11; I'd rather had not heard it. Surprisingly, notwithstanding these local noises I sleep nowhere better than here.

14 - 8 - '97,   Saint-Sauveur sur Tinée   →   Saint Sauveur sur Tinée,     133 km

Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée – Col de la Couillole – Puget Théniers – Col de St. Léger – Puget T. – Col de la Couillole – Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée

When I wake up at 6:30 a.m. (the time I set my alarm) Gregory is gone! I find him sleeping on the kitchen table: he could not stand the smell in the bedroom! We share breakfast and leave around 7:15. It is the last day of his tour; he'll ride to Nice from where he will return by train. We decide to ride together up to the Col de la Couillole. With a gain in altitude of more than 1000 m it is quite a climb. The gradient is very regular and reasonably steep, 6 to 9 % for a long, long while, and with the shadows of the morning (and the clear blue sky) it is very pretty. Every push of the 16 km long climb is pleasure. Pity, Gregory with all his luggage attached has to let go at an early stage, owing to his speed but also to his need to make photographs. And he is also talking about a sidestep to Roure for some more pictures. I say to myself I will take pictures in the afternoon. The descent from Beuil I remember from '87: through the gorgeous Gorges de Cians.

In Puget-Théniers, where ten years ago I spent two nights (and vaguely remember the fireworks of 14éme Juillet) I have coffee with a too big piece of flan. Yuck! And ... return of the heat! I have planned a circuit including the Gorges de Daluis (similarly nice as the Cians), and think I can get there via the Col de Saint-Léger. It is quite a climb to get there through a barren landscape. I go slowly and for kilometers am accompanied by a long-tongued dog. And it is really hot. And there is nowhere I can fill my water bottle which I have forgotten to do in Puget. Near the top my doubts start as to whether there is a connection to the D2202 (the road along the river Var, through the Gorges de Daluis). That descent, moreover probably unpaved, must be awfully steep! When, after the pass and the village of Saint Léger the road hardly descends at all I get it: ça aboutit à rien. (That also answers my question why the west side of the Col de Saint Léger is not mentioned in the 'Atlas des Cols des Alpes'). During the descent I don't feel well, no, I feel weak, empty and slightly nauseous (stupid of that water bottle!). A long break on a terrace in Puget Théniers with a plat du jour has a wonderful effect and makes me feel fit again. Faraway I do hear thunder though. From this late lunch the climb from the south through the Gorges du Cians awaits me, or the more adventurous alternative over Pierlas. I have it in my head this day to 'add' the Col de la Couillole from both sides, and that's what I opt for. Halfway up the Cians it starts to drizzle and it remains like this until Saint Sauveur, so no urge to make many pictures; like this the descent from the Couillole is by far not as nice as the climb to it in the morning.

That evening and night I share the bedroom and the kitchen (in time-reversed order) with an elderly couple from Groningen, who are walking from the Lake of Geneva to the Mediterranean (an undertaking of two weeks per year). It will be the only opportunity this trip to speak Dutch (and be understood).

15 - 8 - '97,   Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée   →   Montbardon,     130 km

Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée – Col de la Moutière – Col de Vars – Montbardon

Beforehand this was the étape I most feared. Saint-Sauveur is quite low compared to the Col de la Moutière! The first kilometer up (vertically!), to Saint Dalmas goes smoothly. From there about the same gain in altitude with steeper passages to the Moutière, my condition takes it well, and then the last 250 meter or so over the Parpaillon-like road to get to the D64 from the Bonette to Jausiers. In lowest gears, minding the stones, it goes slowly, but it goes. On the already mentioned and well-paved D64 the speed goes up enormously and, alas, I cannot avoid a stone which produces a double puncture in my front tube.

After a too hasty trial to mend these perforations I quickly put on my spare tube as I think I can be in Jausiers just in time before the shops will close. And this I manage. For the third time in four days I follow the Ubaye between Jausiers and Saint-Paul. The last (steepest!) six km to the Col de Vars are the hardest of the whole trip: with the Moutière in my legs I have to fight my way against a ferocious head wind and a severe incline. I add the ugly stretch around the village Vars to get over with the short climb after les Claus. No, I don't like that first part, but I do appreciate the remaining part till Guillestre. In Guillestre I buy some food with which I put myself, the vagabond, on a doorstep in the shade. My first choice to stay overnight had been the gîte of Ville-Vieille (Château-Queyras), which I have fond memories of, but they had no place there, and now I have found a place a little closer by, however with an added (steep) ascension at the end, to Montbardon. The beautiful Combe de Queyras is not so beautiful at the end of the afternoon with the many, many oncoming cars. Some 5 km before the start of the climb out of the valley I can see Montbardon high up there, and make a picture of it. The first 300 meters of the climb are incredibly steep (15 % ?) and from then on I reckon it is 8 - 11 % all the time, with many, many lacets (and that helps). I arrive shortly after 6:30 which leaves me ample time to take a shower and admire the view over the valley of the Guil. In this small, high village, without any traffic, in a gîte with many nice hikers and bikers, a delicious dinner in the open air, this is absolutely the best place to stay. In my splendid 4-bedded room I wake up in the middle of the night. It is so quiet! And how light it is!? I step outside. It is so light because of all the stars! I have never seen so many stars! It feels like I'm in heaven up there. After this the fond memories of Montbardon beat those of Ville-Vieille.

16 - 8 - '97,   Montbardon   →   Le Bourg d'Oisans,     160 km

Montbardon – Col d'Izoard – Col du Lautaret – La Bérarde – Le Bourg d'Oisans

I start my breakfast alone, and while stuffing myself am joined by many other guests. For the third tour consecutively I mount the Izoard from the south, which brings the score south-north to 4-1, so I know which side is up next. (Next?)   No need to make photographs there. Nice, long descent.

Briançon is busy and the road to Grenoble is VERY busy. In all the villages west of Briançon (Serre-Chevalier 1300, S.-C. 1350, S.-C. 1400) I ride along long queues of cars. Well, yes, it is Saturday, and yesterday was some Christian holiday, so apart from the regular holiday traffic many French families have a long weekend and are on the road. I am just VERY happy the fierce wind from the west that I have come across with between the Lautaret and Briançon (not always facing me) is not blowing today. The descent to Le Bourg d'Oisans which I only know from '89 certainly has some impressive parts with the glaciers from the Massif des Écrins blinking in the south, and it definitely has its dangerous spots too, notably the tunnels! It's also dangerous to turn left some 5 km before le Bourg to fulfil the climb to la Bérarde. I leave my luggage at the bikers' hotel, run by Dutch people (whom don't recognize me as a compatriot – which gives me opportunity to learn about catering strategies: "make them eat pasta before you have a barbecue, otherwise we'll end up with an empty fridge".) One of the convenient facilities of the hotel: I can stow away some luggage there before I go up.

The climb I find rather disappointing; it is not that spectacular and there are many more cars than I had expected in this cul-de-sac. The gîte in le Bourg is very simple. I share an 8-bedded dormitory with a very relaxed Jésuit (or Dominican brother or something like that) who is walking around in the Oisans area, and four very young, very tattling – whack! whack! – French boys. The room is right under the roof, a roof with just one very small window, it's stuffy and warm. Bad sleep.

17 - 8 - '97,   le Bourg d'Oisans   →   le Bourg d'Oisans,     160 km.

Le Bourg d'Oisans – Col du Glandon – Col de la Madeleine – Col du Glandon – Le Bourg d'Oisans

At the start: dubious weather. And signs the road will be closed a few hours because of the Tour Féminin. Circumstances that do not bother me much. I climb the awkward (irregular) south side of the Glandon. Contrary to the two earlier encounters I don't take a break at the barrage of Grand' Maison.

At the summit I regret riding into the fog, but a French cycliste reassures me that it will be like that for only two km. When I've got out of the fog: what a GREAT descent it is! (I didn't like it in '87, when just after the top I had a puncture.)   In La Chambre: food and drinks. Follows the climb to the Madeleine, twelve years ago my first encounter with a col hors catégorie (terrible experience that was). I skip a break in St. François Longchamp I thought I would need after the hard part. Hard part? Only during the first three km, still in the humid warmth of the valley, do I have some difficulty to find a good rhythm. Also at the top I do not need a break, and just turn around and dive down. Well, not too fast as below St. François it starts to drizzle and the road is wet. Down in La Chambre I go to the same hotel as hours before and have a meal. Follows the last col h.c. i.e. the north side of the Glandon. Till Saint Colomban it is a regular 6-8 % climb. In the said village I do take a planned break, eating peaches and watching jeu de boules. The final steep stretch is quite okay too, and my spirits rise even further when at a certain moment the sun breaks through, not so high in the sky anymore, the light grazing the mountains around me, and I feel I'm going to make it without much pain.

The well-known descent is great too, so well-known to me (it is in fact the descent from two passes of which I have been a regular visitor).   I don't really need to take photographs, but I do around the lake of the Grand Maison Lake. In Le Bourg d'Oisans I celebrate this day of 'victory' with a gain in altitude of   1200 + 1500 + 1450 = 4150 m.

18 - 8 - '97,   le Bourg d'Oisans   →   La Motte-sur-Chalençon,   173 km

Le Bourg d'Oisans – La Morte – Murs – Col Accarias – Mens – Col du Menée – Châtillon-en-Diois – Col de Prémol – La Motte-sur-Chalençon

I had been quite late reserving tickets for the bus this year (I even tried a return ticket Switzerland) and for the return trip the pick-up place closest to the Alps had been Remoulins, on the river Gard, west of the river Rhône. So with only two days to go, from Le Bourg I definitely have to set my viso to that target. Today I'll do a long étape, it will prove to be the longest, with a transition from the Hautes Alpes to the middle mountains of the Drôme. After a quick descent along the Romanche I start the only col de 1ère catégorie, viz. the climb to La Morte, about 1000 m up in 13 km. Nice views to the north side of the Romanche with somewhere (thought where exactly?) the ferocious Col de Luitel. Then through rather a Swiss-like valley to the Col de Malissol, a short descent to La Mure, further down to the spectacular bridge over the Drac, up to the Col Accarias, all no trouble at all, and down to Mens for a short break under a plane tree. VERY nice weather. Lovely (well-known) road to Clelles with view onto the Mont Aiguille, towering high above the Vercors.

Lovely climb to the Col du Menée with even lovelier descent to Châtillon. What could possibly go wrong today?! Actually, quite a lot! First a short severe shower during a break with ice-cream there. Okay, that's not too bad. Then an umpteenth trial with no success to buy a new tube. Who cares!? Well, I will, when some five km after Luc-en-Diois, halfway up the Col de Prémol I have to get off: flat tyre. Umph! I had neglected the spare tube, the one that got punctured five days before from the descent of the Bonette. The tube I'm using today is leaking from under a double patch, so the best idea seems to mend the Bonette-tube (with a double puncture). Less than one km later: empty tube again. SHIT! Another try .... no luck ... bad glue ... two Germans pass by and lend a hand, i.e. glue; it seems to work, a while at least. With little faith however I mount my Koga again. Moreover, there will be no shops until long after La Motte, even if I change my route; I'll have to change my route! But first I count down to 1000, keeping my fingers crossed the patch will hold. Luckily it does, so I reach the last gîte of this tour cycling (though quite a while later than I had expected when leaving Luc-en-Diois). I'm even in time for dinner. What a dinner! I share the table with the farmers' family that also keeps the gîte going. I cannot understand their dialect, and am horrified by the things they put on the table in front of me. Yuck! I am hungry, I have no choice, so I eat.

19 - 8 - '97,   La Motte-sur-Chalençon   →   Remoulins,     160 km

La Motte-sur-Chalençon – Col de Soubeyrand v.v. – Nyons – Séguret – Avignon (almost) – Remoulins

Clear blue sky again (and a clean shaven face too, after twelve days). I had planned a nice route east of the Mont Ventoux, with three or four 'new' passes, over small roads, however with Sault as a first opportunity to possibly buy a new tube that's not a good idea. I decide to only 'add' the Col de Soubeyrand to sort of say goodbye to the cols, then redescend to the Eyguies, and follow the same road to Nyons that I rode eastwards ten days ago. The Soubeyrand is a nice open col, very quiet in the early morning. The tube stays hard during the descent! The rest of the day will be as good as flat. It is as if I have started my after-training program (which I normally don't do: after the Alps Holland is so boring!). In Nyons I take a long break to buy stuff: food, drinks and a tube. For the last there's not much choice; there's only one shop that might sell them and that's hardly open. It is open, and it does sell tubes. So with a lot more peace of mind I continue my itinerary over mostly small roads, through vineyards, lavender fields, and more vineyards. It is a nice warm (and scenty) afternoon. Pity I have to go back. I cross the Rhône just north of Avignon and CLUNK, RATTLE, RATTLE a spoke breaks. In Châtauneuf-du-Pape that happens, 34 km from Remoulins. I can fix it though; it is the case at the side of the rim that is broken, and I can straighten the wheel a bit and loosen the brake (so that it doesn't brake when I do not want to brake). When I look back, which I do every now and then, I still can see the white cap of the Mont Ventoux. The last eight km to Remoulins I follow a dangerously busy (with many vans) N100, and I reach the campground "Camping du Gard" shortly before seven. I kill the time till 3 a.m eating, writing (of which this is the final version) on the terrace of the restaurant there, and later on in a quiet corner even sleeping on the ground. When my alarm wakes me I hear some people, fellow travellers, and chatting away with them the time passes quickly till at four in the morning finally the bus, which was due at three (but had to wait in Nice for the ferry from Corsica), arrives. It is not an OAD-bus, which I usually take, and the bikes go 'downstairs' with the other luggage (instead of in a trailer behind the bus). Some people have been in the bus since twelve the previous day, the air conditioning system is broken, so inside it smells like in a pigsty. My neighbor is a funny young chap that keeps making pictures of buildings along the road, that he'll use later to build scaled versions of for his toy railway. When we happen to see a French train he is very happy. Luckily the bus makes up for the lost time, so we can get off after this hard(est) étape, in Utrecht, at the planned time, 7 p.m.


Overall statistics: 1661 km in 11 days (in 90.5 hours), 37 cols, of which 19 new.