Day 3 - La Berarde

After 2 days climbi HC rated mountains we decided that today should be one of rest. However in true European professional cyclist form we did go on a 'recovery' ride. It consisted of a mere 42km but included about 960m climbing to La Berarde, a small village at the end of another magnificent road amongst the now familiar but still imposing French Alps. 'Smoko', as our resident plumber Lionel calls it, was at a local restaurant and again we were treated to some tasty French cuisine, namely crepes with blueberry jam and the obligatory espressos.
The ride back to Venosc was much less strenuous but no less spectacular. We had climbed for 2 hours along gradients of up to 10% but the 1-4% sections now feel essentially flat if not downhill! This made for a pleasant surprise on our return journey which we achieved in about 15 minutes. There were two of us worthy of further mention regarding this ride. Firstly, Bryce (now known as Briss courtesy of his masseuse) unfortunately missed this ride as he swore last night that until he had a cluster with a 28-tooth cog he wasn't going anywhere near anything with wheels again - he was later seen to procure one from a local bike shop. Secondly, Barney has risen even further in our toughest-man-on-tour competition after discovering he had ridden the majority of today's climb and possibly the previous two days, with his back brake rubbing against a buckled wheel. Awesome effort Barney. We were nearly home when as luck would have it we came across the most quintessential (Chambo told me I had to use that word) French market featuring salamis , cheeses, home brew and cured hams. We purchased all bar the latter but only because no one could actually fit the ham in their jersey (although I did contemplate trying to tie it to my crossbar). Lunch, now taken care of by the aforementioned and not-so-elusive French market, was shared amongst the ten of us in the chalet's outdoor entertaining area. Fittingly, the dining was done overlooking the still very snow-covered peaks that we had just been eye-to-eye with on the road to La Berarde. Conversation, as witty and intellectual as ever, centred around whether we should spend the afternoon drinking beers in nearby Le Bourg D'Osains or at take the Gondola to the top of Alp D'Huez (& drinks beers up there). The former won-out so Andy and Sim (our 2 personal tour guides) kindly drove us further down the valley and we attacked a few bike shops, patisseries, restaurants and even a pharmacy - we are on a cycling tour after all !

Tomorrow is a big day. We will finish our climb on the monster that is Col du Galibier using Col du Lautaret as a warm-up. This will be just shy of 2000m climbing but will provide a 45km descent to massage our legs back to some sense of normality before we arrive home. Can't wait. Signing off from Venosc Au revoir Dr Carl