Col Des Aravis & Col Du Tamie - 7 June 2010

Today was the day after Julian had mashed his hand and the day we would be riding

up the Col Des Aravis and the Col Du Tamie.

Like every morning we tucked into a hearty breakfast cooked by Amy and Chris.

It was always hard to leave the table as there was always so much food, but as we we were going to be 

working ourselves hard during the day it would have been rude and dam right silly not to have eaten as much as possible.

The Breakfast

The Daddy (I mean Mummy). Amy pouring her favourite brand of sugar

into what would be another great dessert.

The Feet

Ade and Inaki have style - you have to hand it to them.

...and if a distance shot wasn't enough - check this out.

The Hand

Mmmmmmmmm scary - like a scene out of a horror movie. Julians hand was just getting bigger and bigger.

The Route

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_des_Aravis

The Profile

Average : 5 %

Length: 11.5 km

Height start: 910 m

Height top: 1486 m

Gradient: 576 m

The Crew

Compression socks - stylorama

Not sure why I was given the finger, but

Will fixing my headset - wheel was not feeling right so was great to have an expert

fiddle with my gear - rode much better after that. :)

About to start our ascent of the Aravis - Fari has gone on ahead again.

We fill our water bottles and contemplate the climb before hitting the road.

Grant making his way to the top of the Aravis. There is a storm cloud a brewing.

Raph followed closely by an Army vehicle.

Col Du Aravis

Ok - so leg warmers and gilets to the ready - looking forward to a great descent.

Or perhaps maybe a banana first.



Did you mention banana? :)

So it turned out that some guys wanted more than a banana.

The descent was good and it was then that we split into two groups. One group took the flat back to the van and Fari and myself went up the Col du Tamie.

Col Du Tamie

The Col de Tamié is situated in Rhone-Alpes. Starting from Faverge, the Col de Tamié ascent is 10.1 km long. Over this distance, you climb 392 heightmeters. The average percentage is thus 3.9 %

The Profile

Average : 3.9 % Length: 10.1 km Height start: 515 m Height top: 907 m Gradient: 392 m Maximum: %

My feet hurt