Day 16 - Alpe du Huez to Serres

Saturday, September 19

Alpe du Huez to Serres (132 km)

Today was a surprise. First, we woke to an overcast sky. We thought we had two Cols to go over, but it turned out we actually had four. It was very hard - we are definitely still in the Alps. I thought they would quickly fade away after Alpe du Huez, but that is not so. It took another fifty miles southwest to get out of them.

The first, up to the Col d' Ornan, was twelve kilometers long, and challenging, but not too steep. It was followed by a twenty kilometer, beautiful downhill where we were able to safely hit high speeds (60 kmph).

Riding toward Col d' Ornan.

One of many wonderful views back up the canyon toward Col d' Ornan.

THEN, we started up to the Col de Parquetout. Its road is not commonly used, and is in fairly poor condition. However, the bad news was that, even though it was short ( 7.5 km), the average grade was 10%, and much of it was around 12% - with one shot over 15%! My knees and right hamstring were talking to me.

The climb to this Col was the steepest I have ever done.

View coming down the Col de Parquetout toward the southwest. We could detect subtle changes in the architecture, flowers, and temperature.

Thank God the next col was not much, and the final Col d' Festre wasn't too hard. Finally, a very long downhill for about 30 kilometers. It was a beautiful, but tough, ride.

The town of Serres was also a surprise. It was a little, podunk, place, and the hotel was nothing to write home about. However, the French food came through again. We found a little resturant about ten feet wide, that had fabulous food. I had a regional specialty - a salad with chicken hearts in it. I followed that with wonderful lamb chops, then topped it off with profiteroles filled with ice cream and covered with cholocate. Again, French food is dangerous. We had a couple of demi bottles of very dry French Rose's that were quite good.