Stage 4 Pictures

Here's the pictures and links from Stage 4. It's too difficult to insert them into yesterday's Summary page after the fact, at least from the hotel bar with a beer or two on board. Enjoy....

Our view as we headed out of Alpe d'Huez in the morning. Cold, but clear.

Stopped to take the picture above, and saw this industrious bee working hard early in the morning. Reminded me that life at home is still going on with people going to work every day. We'll be there soon enough..

The view of Le Bourg-d'Oisans from our descent.

The town is a couple thousand feet below us. Hang on tight!

A typical signpost at one of the many junctions we come to. Michele is very good about waiting for us at these so we know which way to go. And we thank him by blowing past him....

I wanted to stop. We should have stopped. It said 'bikers' and 'bar' on the same sign. It's almost criminal to not stop. Who cares if it's 10am. Dano? We'd have been there - probably for the rest of the day....

The downtown are of Le Bourg-d'Oisans at the base of Alpe d'Huez. We thought the banners were for us, but we were wrong....

Pretty town - would love to come back...

A view in town from across the street. More examples of the beautiful flowers we saw everywhere.

We start to climb the Col du Lautaret.

Notice it's facing backwards towards the riders. I was in the lead, and managed to take a picture backwards while riding. Don't try this without practice!

My one attempt at art. This is a picture inside one of the tunnels as we rode thru. Scary....

A beautiful waterfall right above the roadway.

Just another town along the ride. Hard to believe we didn't stop and spend an hour or two.

The view as we got higher up the Col du Lautaret

A farmer and his wife? out tending their field/garden in the morning. Kind of lost without a zoom, but a neat scene anyways.

More views. Stunning? Beautiful? Magnificent? I'm running out of words...

Lunch at the top of the Col du Lautaret. As an astute observer noted on Facebook, there is still some spaghetti and beer left in front of me.

Let me calm your fears - it did NOT go to waste, I simply wanted to show what was on the menu. 3.2 milliseconds after I put the camera down, the plate and glass were empty - not necessarily in that order!

That's a big bike! 6000+ feet in elevation, and pretty cold.

The view back up towards the Col du Galibier that we came over yesterday. Hard to believe we were in snow showers and freezing temps.

An end-of-the-day beer at a little outdoor cafe area.

From the left - Todd, Mark, Kevin, and Jon.

We were cold - shorts were not enough, and we only lasted thru one beer before heading back for dinner, but we did enjoy it. Lot's of people watching on the street behind us, including a fair number of dogs. I miss Stella.....