17. Barcelonnette - Tourrette-Levens

Saturday 15 June 2013

137 km including climb of the Col de la Bonnette

Elevation gain 2,366 m

Riding Time 5 hrs 48 mins

Average Speed 23.6 km/h







On Friday we received the good news that the Col de la Bonnette was open. This enabled Laurence and Géraldine to drive directly (despite a slight delay in the hairpin bends when Laurence needed some fresh air !!) to Barcelonnette in the evening, where we were hosted by Bernard and Elisabeth. Also staying in Barcelonnette overnight were Hervé, Jan and Mike.


Before confronting the Col de la Bonnette
We met in the village at 9h30 and set off at a good pace towards the road leading to Jausiers. Laurence was driving the support car. The weather was perfect for the climb - dry, not too warm and a partly cloudy sky. The first kilometres of the climb are quite steep and the amount of talking between us decreased as we saved our breath :-). We also had to be very careful of the large numbers of old rally cars which apparently thought they were on a racetrack instead of on a narrow public highway !







Near the top of the climb, the road passed between some impressively high walls of snow, which explained why the Col had only just been opened. The temperature had fallen from the mid 20s in the valley to just 12 degrees. At the Col we could not continue onto the summit of the Bonnette which is still buried under metres of snow. So we took several photos and started the long descent to St Etienne de Tinée where we had lunch and said goodbye to Hervé and Jan. Géraldine, Mike and I then sped down towards Nice on the main road, receiving a helping hand from Patrick who was waiting for us in his car to protect us through the long and dangerous tunnels on the N202.

I climbed up to Aspremont through Castagniers as Géraldine and Mike continued on to Neway in St Isidore. I was soon home in Tourrette Levens where we hosted a pasta party in the evening with around 35 people.



2 commentaires:

  1. Anonyme15 juin 2013 à 09:33

    Mark,

    Tu as bien suivi les conseils de tonton Pancho tout au long de ton périple, évitant ainsi les embuches et autres pièges qui auraient pu freiner ta progression. C'est bien.
    Pour tes dernières étapes beaucoup de muchachos viendront t'accompagner, te prendre en photos, te toucher; des filles nues sur le bord des routes essayerons de t'attirer sur les chemins de traverses ; des producteurs de films voudront te faire signer leur prochaine adaptation de "Forest Gump" qui s'appellerait "Mark jump" ; des grands reporters élaboreront sur ton prochain demi tour d’Europe, puis d’Asie (remember that your next tourdehalfworld will not save you any effort for obvious geometrical reasons); des enfants balancerons des confettis et des fanions à l’effigie de ton œuvre ; les webmaster te pourchasseront pour ouvrir des websites www.tourdehalf.com; des échoppes vendront une nouvelle marque de tee-shirts à la mode TDH qui sera porté par Paris Hilton; tout ce monde grouillera dans une telle marée humaine qu’elle compromettra to ascension finale….

    Une personne, ton guide pour cette quête finale te tiendra à l’écart de ces écueils : L’Indien Breton.
    Il t’attendra au pied du col de la Bonette. Lui seul pourra te guider vers le sommet. Reste dans sa roue, garde les mains sur le guidon et pedale Mark ! pédale !

    Pancho V.

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    1. Unknown16 juin 2013 à 17:43

      Pancho
      Tes conseils sont, comme toujours, indispensable. Je chercherai le Breton qui vend les crêpes à la tapenade et je le quitterai plus.

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