France Sep 3, Col de la Forclaz

This trip was designed to allow us to climb as many of the Cols (mountain passes) of the Tour de France as we could during a three week trip to France. The first week was spent in the Alps, the second in the Pyrenees, and the third partial week in Provence. We flew into Geneva, Switzerland on Friday morning, 2 Sep 2011. We spent the day getting the bikes ready, the car rented, and recovering from the overnight flight from Denver and Seattle.

On October 3rd, we started south into the Haute Alps to do some of the climbs. The first stop was by Lake Annecy for the Col de la Florclaz, a short steep climb the Tour De France did in 2010.

Had excellent lunch at the typical Hotel-Resturant just off the Lac D'Annecy.

We started our climb after getting Co2 cartridges. Just to the left of this sign a small sign said 8 km to the top. We were only about one mile from the car. No time to warm up.

Beautiful House below the cliffs on the way up. Besides the scenery, the climb is horrendous. Much of it was a 10-15% grade. Only leveled off to 8-9% a few times.

A look back. Mountain houses were common. I would not want to drive up this road all the time.

The top with tourists and cows. No view, which was supposed to be spectacular, due to rain moving in. In all, we gained 2,000 feet in 5.6 miles. Really steep. Very difficult descent with heavy

rain. It was the only time in my life I enjoyed climbing at 10% more than descending at 10%.