Tour 2006, 1 - 5 July
| stage | distance (km) | climbing (m) |
|---|---|---|
| Genève - Tamié | 137 | 2900 |
| Tamié - Uriage | 148 | 2700 |
| Uriage - Barnave | 126 | 2290 |
| Barnave - Aurel | 112 | 2450 |
| Aurel - Bollène | 99 | 1300 |
| total | 622 | 11640 |
Stage 1: 1 July 2006
My tour 2006 was like a second trial: after giving up in
2004 because i got sick, i wanted to try again to the
Mont Ventoux. This was, however, not the single
goal and i also wanted to climb new passes on the way, starting from Geneva. So, i
went first from Lignières to Neuchâtel and took a train to Geneva. In my small
baggage, i had a new toy: a cheaper and much smaller
digital camera.
Riding from the train station out of Geneva proved very easy on this Saturday
morning because, at 9 o'clock, there was not yet much traffic. I went to the
south-east and passed the border to France near the
Salève mountain. I continued on departmental
roads towards la Roche-sur-Foron, where i was faster then the cars stuck in traffic
jams. I went south to a nice and quiet little pass called
col des Fleuries. A first good reason to use the
new camera. Down at Thorens, like several other cyclists, i took advantage of the
fountain on the town square to refill my bottles. The air was dry and it was
getting warm, so it was necessary to drink much. Then there was a long climb to the
Collet pass. The landscape was nice and there
were barely any cars. Between this pass and the next one, the road went only a bit
down and up again. The col des Glières was thus
very easy to reach. The difficulties came afterwards: first a gravel road for about
2 km, then a narrow, bumpy and very steep descent down to the Borne river. In the
valley, the road was first almost flat, but it climbed again while approaching
St-Jean-de-Sixt. After climbing through the
resort of la Clusaz, i did not continue towards
les Aravis as in
2001 but, instead, took right to the
Croix-Fry. The climb was relatively hard because
it was hot and because i was obviously hungry. So i had to stop at the pass to eat
a sandwich and drink some lemonade. Then i enjoyed the descent towards Thônes, but
turned left (south) before reaching this town. The road was climbing again, but
only gently, to the Marais pass. The descent
(including a small climb in-between) brought me to Faverges, where i easily found
the way south to the Tamié pass. The climb was
not very steep and i reached the pass shortly before five.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Les Prés / Lignières | 0 | 920 | |
| Les Gravereules | 1 | 940 | 20 |
| St-Blaise | 9 | 470 | - |
| Hauterive | 11 | 550 | 80 |
| Neuchâtel | 14 | 480 | - |
| >>> Genève | 14 | 370 | |
| Moussy | 36 | 570 | 200 |
| La Roche-sur-Foron | 39 | 530 | - |
| Les Fleuries | 47 | 920 | 390 |
| Thorens-Glières | 53 | 650 | - |
| Le Collet | 64 | 1390 | 740 |
| ... | 65 | 1350 | - |
| Les Glières | 67 | 1440 | 90 |
| Le Petit Bornand | 75 | 710 | - |
| La Croix Fry | 94 | 1470 | 760 |
| Les Clés | 105 | 650 | - |
| Le Marais | 110 | 840 | 190 |
| Serraval | 114 | 720 | - |
| Les Combes | 115 | 770 | 50 |
| Faverges | 128 | 510 | - |
| Tamié | 137 | 910 | 400 |
| total | 137 | 2920 |
Stage 2: 2 July 2006
From the col de Tamié, i went to the...
collet de Tamié, which is more or less parallel.
Two passes for the price of one! Then i descended to the Isère valley, heading
south-west. Afterwards, i turned left into the Maurienne valley. There, a road sign
indicated that all passes around were open... all except the one i wanted to cross,
the Grand Cucheron. At Aiguebelle, i stopped at
the gendarmerie to ask about it. The policewoman on duty was nice, but she didn't
know the reason why this road was closed. I decided to try anyway. The road climbed
first on the side of the valley, partly in the sun, partly in the shade of forests,
towards St-Alban. Then the curves towards the pass were all in the forest. It was a
nice climb, and a very quiet one since there was no traffic. Close to the pass, the
road was indeed closed, but just for protection from explosions carried out there
during the week. No problem to ride through since it was Sunday!
After a short descent, i went to the beautiful little pass of
Champ-Laurent, continuing then south-west,
mostly descending, towards Allevard. Instead of joining again the Isère valley, i
went across small side valleys connected by several small passes. This, however,
meant many detours and climbs in the heat of the afternoon. After the
Barioz, Ayes,
Lautaret and
Mouilles passes, i had enough and started
looking for a lodging for the night. The search went long. About 40 km and 2 hours.
With another road closure on the way: a bridge had been destroyed by a flood.
Rather then making a detour, i preferred to cross the stream, walking on stones.
Finally, it was already half past six as i found an hotel above Uriage, with a
beautiful terrace and view over the valley. Riding the whole afternoon by
temperatures between 30 and 35° had worn me out and i was just happy to take a
shower, eat and drink a lot, and rest.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tamié | 0 | 910 | |
| Collet de Tamié | 3 | 960 | 50 |
| Frontenex | 16 | 310 | - |
| Grésy | 20 | 430 | 120 |
| Pont-de-Grésy | 22 | 300 | - |
| Aiguebelle | 32 | 330 | 30 |
| St-Georges | 38 | 610 | 280 |
| Coutassous | 40 | 520 | - |
| Grand Cucheron | 49 | 1190 | 670 |
| Le Pontet | 53 | 880 | - |
| Champ-Laurent | 56 | 1110 | 230 |
| Allevard | 77 | 440 | - |
| Le Barioz | 91 | 1040 | 600 |
| Theys | 98 | 640 | - |
| Les Ayes | 102 | 940 | 300 |
| Villard-Château | 103 | 880 | - |
| Le Lautaret | 105 | 980 | 100 |
| La Boutière | 107 | 900 | - |
| Les Mouilles | 109 | 1020 | 120 |
| Le Mas Julien | 120 | 700 | - |
| Le Rousset | 129 | 900 | 200 |
| Le Bouloud | 148 | 520 | - |
| total | 148 | 2700 |
Stage 3: 3 July 2006
Leaving Uriage, i took again the direction of south-west, remaining on small
roads which were going slightly up and down. As i reached the Drac river, i had to
take a larger road with more traffic, but nothing so bad. Then i crossed the Drac
towards Vif and, from there, started to climb towards the
Arzelier pass. The air was not yet so warm, the
slope was regular, even less steep in the last kilometres. And there were a few
fountains along the way. The climb was thus quite easy. I continued towards the
col des Deux, which has three 2 (deux) in its
altitude, and which i passed as number 2 for this stage. There was very few traffic
on these small but good roads. In Gresse, i bought a lemonade and asked for
refilling my bottle with tap water, but the guy at the counter was not pleased by
this request, and he filled only half of the bottle. Simply unbelievable.
Fortunately, there were more fountains on the way. This eastern part of the Vercors
is a beautiful landscape, but the weather was slowly changing, with more darker
clouds around the mountains. After the Allimas
pass, the descent brought me to a large road, a national road which i could not
avoid taking for a few kilometres. I left it again before Clelles and went towards
the Prayet pass. There was now thunder over the
Vercors mountains, but i was glad that the clouds gave me some shade. From the
Prayet, the road did no go down, but gently climbed further to the pass of
Menée. I got some rain on the way, but it was
not enough to get wet, just to cool down a bit. I did not ride over the pass
itself, but went through the short tunnel, saving about 50 m in altitude and
avoiding to have to carry the bike on a steep trail.
On the other side of the tunnel, i entered the Drôme department. The landscape
changed, becoming drier. There were first very few houses, but their style also was
different, with thick stone walls and roofs of round, light-coloured tiles. After
the long descent, there was another clear sign announcing the Provence: lavender
fields. From Châtillon, i crossed the plain towards the small village of Barnave,
where there was a small hotel. I may have tried to ride over one more pass this day,
but i did not want to search so long as the day before and thus stopped at Barnave.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Bouloud | 0 | 520 | |
| Uriage | 3 | 400 | - |
| Haute-Jarrie | 7 | 490 | 90 |
| Basse-Jarie | 12 | 260 | - |
| Vif | 19 | 310 | 50 |
| St-Barthélémy | 28 | 580 | 270 |
| L'Arzelier | 36 | 1150 | 570 |
| Château-Bernard | 41 | 900 | - |
| Les Deux | 53 | 1220 | 320 |
| Le Chaumeil | 55 | 1150 | - |
| L'Allimas | 58 | 1350 | 200 |
| La Bâtie | 61 | 1120 | - |
| ... | 62 | 1170 | 50 |
| St-Michel-les-Portes | 66 | 890 | - |
| Clelles-gare | 73 | 760 | - |
| Les Oches | 76 | 790 | 30 |
| Le Prayet | 84 | 1200 | 410 |
| Col de Menée | 90 | 1400 | 200 |
| Mensac | 106 | 650 | - |
| Moulin de Jansac | 123 | 480 | - |
| Barnave | 126 | 580 | 100 |
| total | 126 | 2290 |
Stage 4: 4 July 2006
The main thing for the fourth stage could be deduced from the names of places on
the way: Pennes-le-Sec, St-Nazaire-le-Désert. There was obviously no large desert
to cross, but always drinking a lot would be a must. Fortunately, there were always
again fountains on the way. I would have preferred to start earlier, but i did not
want to leave the hotel without breakfast. So it was already quite warm as i hit
the road. In the first climb, to the col de
Pennes, there was no traffic and i could thus always ride on the side of the
road with the most shade. The road was quite narrow but good, both uphill and
downhill. A few places with fine gravel, however, made me ride very carefully. In
the Roanne valley, i went left up to St-Nazaire, where i made a first stop,
chatting a bit with a cyclist from Germany. Then i climbed to the small passes of
Muse, Lescou
and Pré Guittard. It was beautiful, very quiet,
but dry and hot. Then there was a long descent towards Rémuzat. There were
headwinds and i had more to pedal than to brake. It was past noon and i made a
longer stop at Rémuzat to drink a lot of lemonade (which was excellent) and eat a
sandwich (which happened to be huge).
I knew that the next pass, Soubeyrand, would be
the hardest of the day, especially because of the heat of the early afternoon. From
then on, i took several occasions to make short stops on the road side when there
was some shade to cool down a bit. In the Ennuye valley, where the vegetation was
also quite dry, there were apricot orchards and lavender fields. I climbed towards
the pass of Peyruergue, then descended towards
the Ouvèze valley. The sun was no longer so hot as i arrived at St-Auban. Compared
to my initial plan, i chose to make a shortcut and went straight south over the
small col d'Aulan down to the beautiful town of
Montbrun-les-Bains on its hill. From there, there was a final climb to Aurel, also
a very nice town, where there was still a room available at the hotel.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barnave | 0 | 580 | |
| Col de Pennes | 8 | 1040 | 460 |
| La Roanne | 15 | 440 | - |
| ... | 18 | 550 | 110 |
| Pradelle | 20 | 500 | - |
| St-Nazaire | 25 | 560 | 60 |
| Muse | 32 | 930 | 370 |
| ... | 34 | 800 | - |
| Lescou | 35 | 830 | 30 |
| Haute-Gumiane | 37 | 770 | - |
| Pré Guittard | 41 | 910 | 140 |
| Cornillon | 51 | 550 | - |
| Rémuzat | 57 | 450 | - |
| Soubeyrand | 66 | 990 | 540 |
| St-Sauveur | 77 | 540 | - |
| Peyruergue | 81 | 820 | 280 |
| St-Auban | 86 | 600 | - |
| Col d'Aulan | 96 | 850 | 250 |
| Montbrun | 107 | 580 | - |
| Aurel | 112 | 790 | 210 |
| total | 112 | 2450 |
Stage 5: 5 July 2006
I started this stage at 8 o'clock, hoping to avoid the heat for the last but not
least climb of this tour, the Mont Ventoux. I had first a short descent towards
Sault, then a long but gentle climb. Compared to the roads from the south (Bédoin)
and from the north-west (Malaucène), i had chosen the least slope, which reached 7
to 9% only in the last few kilometres. Already in the first curves, i caught up
with another cyclist from Switzerland, later with a cyclist from the region. We
were thus a small group of three as we reached the Chalet Reynard, where the road
from Bédoin joined ours. There, finally, the summit appeared in front of us. There
was less and less vegetation and the wind was strong. I continued alone at a good
pace, passed the memorial of Tom Simpson and reached the
col des Tempêtes, then the summit. From Sault,
i had climbed in 1 hour and 47 minutes, including some 3 minutes to take pictures.
I met again the Swiss cyclist and two friends of him as they also reached the top.
The wind was strong and chilly. We admired the so particular landscape of the
mountain, with its light-couloured bare stones, but then we decided to have a tea
at the small restaurant just below the summit.
Then came the long descent to Malaucène. The road was good and broad, but i had to
be careful because of the strong wind gusts. There were many cyclists climbing this
road. From Malaucène, i went further to Vaison-la-Romaine and crossed this town to
the north-west. There, there were many cars on the roads, but the next part of the
journey was quieter again, except for the wind. It blew from the south and i was
riding west to the Rhône valley, that is mostly with a lateral wind. As i reached
the train station of Bollène at about half past one, the station's counter was
'exceptionally closed'. I thus boarded the first train to the north to buy then a
ticket in the train. At half past nine in the evening, after changing train several
times, i was finally back in Neuchâtel.
This tour had partly been a bit hard because of the heat, but it had been one of
the most enjoyable because of the few traffic encountered on the small roads i had
chosen to ride to the south.
| distance (km) | altitude (m) | climbing (m) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aurel | 0 | 790 | |
| Sault | 4 | 710 | - |
| Chalet Reynard | 23 | 1420 | 710 |
| Col des Tempêtes | 28 | 1830 | 410 |
| Mont Ventoux | 29 | 1910 | 80 |
| Malaucène | 49 | 380 | - |
| Vaison-la-Romaine | 51 | 200 | - |
| ... | 56 | 170 | - |
| ... | 59 | 270 | 100 |
| Buisson | 61 | 170 | - |
| Suze-la-Rousse | 75 | 130 | - |
| Bollène | 83 | 50 | - |
| Bollène gare | 99 | 30 | - |
| total | 99 | 1300 |
PS / 14.7.2006