July 9th Day 5

July 9th Day 5
Beuil -> Barcelonnette 75 km
Col de la Couillole 1678m
Col de la Bonette 2802m
The Ride Today
From Beuil follow the D30 up and over the Col de la Couillole and descend to
Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée to turn right onto the lM2205 -> direction Saint-Êtiennede-
Tinée and the Col de la Bonette.
The climbing begins - a 53km uphill. Gently at first but after 30kms (Saint-
Sauveur-sur-Tinée) the gradient increases. Average from here is 6.4% with a max
of 9%.
The Col de la Bonette is one of the highest roads in Europe
2ikm downhill to Jausiers and a further 9kms to Barcelonnette.


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Day 5 and yet another clear blue sky day. From the Beuil hotel it started with a gentle descent, once Simon had attached the donkey from his antics the previous day, and a couple of hundred meters of climbing to the Col de la Couillole. Then it was a relaxed and very scenic downhill to the valley floor, taking in views of a hilltop town, the surrounding peaks and multiple short tunnels.

Then the gentle climbing began towards Saint-Etienne-de-Tinee. A relaxed way to kick off the day for the next 30km as we headed toward lunch and the impressive Col de la Bonette. Geoff spotted a bike path that took us along side the road for a few kilometers and Wayne was feeling so good he couldn’t help but roll off the front of the group as he sensed the food was getting closer. With only 3km to go the fun and games started and the old one-two was used to soften Wayne up for a couple of short attacks. He kept coming back for more so more was dished up and he happily accepted.

Into the town square and lunch was ordered, again with the assistance of Agnes, and le Grand Phillippe was quick to make himself right at home. A slightly cooler day today and the team were enjoying it.

Drink bottles filled and suncream on, we were off to the top of the highest sealed road in Europe, the Col de la Bonette at 2802m and another 24km of climbing. Geoff had clearly had one coffee too many and he was off with the hammer down.

The line stretched and the chatter stopped as the heavy breathing took over.

Simon again had difficulty containing his troublesome suncream and had to pull over to contain the mess. We stopped briefly a little further up and Wayne took the opportunity to drift up the road and disappear around the corner before anyone had noticed. With only 8km to go we regrouped for the final time at the old garrison.

From there we enjoyed more of the awesome views as we continued to climb and once at the Col we had to continue up and around a loop on the top road at 12-15 percent to the highest point (and the finish line of our 53km climb).

From here it was all downhill and with an open and flowing descent everyone was having a blast. Al captured plenty of great footage on his GoPro and after a 21km downhill we started cruising the final 9km to Barcelonnette. But temptation got the better of le Grand Phillippe and Simon who cranked up the pace on a gentle downhill run into town for the last 5km. We sat just over 50km/hr and again the chatter disappeared, the heavy breathing returned and someone was seen dangling off the back ….

Yet another superb day in the Alpes!!!!  by Dave