Stage 4 Summary

Stage 4 - Alpe d'Huez to Briancon.

First, sorry for the short post tonite, but we have horrible internet. The hotel's doesn't work at all, and I'm using someone in the neighborhood from Mark and Jon's room with the window open. This will be the only picture I post due to the bad connection - the view on the ride up the Col du Lautaret - not too bad for a Tuesday morning!

We got a decent start around 9am, with clear skies and bright sunshine. We started descending thru the town and thru the old road down. Very narrow alleyways and rough roads. We had some great views, and a fun run to the bottom. Cold, but nothing like the day before.

We had a nice cruise thru the valley back to the lake where we had lunch yesterday. I was feeling pretty good and led most of the climb to the lake, then backed off and enjoyed the pull from stronger bikers. We kept it pretty mellow since this was a 'rest day', until around 35 miles when a few of the big boys took off. We rode about 50 miles and climbed ONLY 5000' so it was a pretty easy day, compared to the last couple.

We had a wonderful lunch at the top of the Col du Lautaret in the restaurant there. Pasta and bread, with ice cream for dessert. Felt nice to actually relax for a mid-day lunch instead of standing outside pounding a quick meal before blasting off again. We met a wonderful woman who we saw yesterday at the top of the Col du Galibier when she rode in. I will not guess how old she is, but trust me when I say we were all VERY impressed that she rode it. You never know..

We've had incredible luck on the weather - just a stellar day. After lunch we cruised down the other side to Briancon, a much bigger town than the last couple nights, and suprisingly horrible internet! Traffic was heavy with some suprising maneuvers by the locals, but we all made it down safely.

We're a decent hotel, but much more sparse than last night - just a room. We walked town a little bit, and had a beer in an outside cafe, but headed back when we got cold. Dinner was in the attached restaurant and was pretty good. Kevin and I tried the Coutchaet Royale, or something similar, which basically translates to Plate of Pork. With sauerkraut. We will probably regret this later tonite or tomorrow, but it was tasty. I couldn't and wouldn't finish it all - self-preservation.

We're all feeling the effects of 4 days now in various ways. Tomorrow is another decent day with 60+ miles and 4000 feet of climb if I remember right. Weather should be sunny as far as we know.

Lucky that this was a day with not too much new to comment on. It's getting hard to find new ways to describe breathtaking views and sore muscles. Everyone is having a really good time, the biking is great, the weather is better than we could have hoped for. Our conversations center around biking, biking stuff, biking equipement, etc. so the wives should be happy we're getting it out of our systems. Mostly....

Thanks for the continuing comments, we appreciate them. Jen, no night-time issues, but 'pookie' and 'dear' are being thrown around, so I'm not sure.......

This is the end if you get here. Not sure how long this internet connection will last. Hopefully better luck tomorrow.