16. Grenoble - Barcelonnette

Friday 14 June 2013

182.5 km

Elevation gain 3,157 m

Riding Time 8 hrs 8 mins

Average Speed 22.4 km/h








The longest stage of the tour, with by far the most climbing - this was the one I was secretly dreading and is the furthest that I have ever ridden.

Weather started cool and misty (after a storm during the night) near Genoble, warmed up considerably around Gap (mid 30s) and then heavy rain close to Barcelonnette - ie a bit of everything.


JP's special racing bike !

I left JP and Marie in St Nazaire les Eymes around 8.45. JP wanted me to ride his 1920s bike but unfortunately the brakes were not operational - at least it would have been fast downhill  !!.







I changed my route compared to the map shown and took the Route Napoleon. Despite the mist I enjoyed the first part of the ride up through Uriage and onto Vizille, a key town in the French Revolution. It is just after Vizille however that things went rapidly downhill for me, or rather uphill - here the Route Napoleon climbs about 600m with the slope averaging around 10% - really hard work ! At the top is the famous statue of Napoleon astride his horse. In general there is not much flat road on the Route Napoleon and another tough bit is the Col Bayard which rises to 1,250m again with very steep portions.

After the very rapid descent to Gap (touched 74 km/h) the road to Barcelonnette included another long climb, before getting copiously rained on 15 km from the end. My hosts are Bernard and Elizabeth (parents of ASM Rugby President Matthieu Louppe), and Laurence joined us later together with Géraldine, who will be tackling the Bonnette with me tomorrow. We had a great meal and I went to bed tired but happy to have this stage behind me ! Also riding tomorrow are Hervé, Jan and Michael.