2 for the price of 1

This refers to both the fact that I didn't post anything yesterday and to today's ride. We left Le Velo Jaune yesterday and drove over the Glandon pass (at over 6,000ft) before dropping down to the next valley. We are staying in St Jean de Maurienne, which gives us access to some different cols. however yesterday was a rest day so all we did was walk 5k and sit around a lot as it was unbearably hot. The place we are staying is a bit peculiar and as the only window in the ground floor room opens directly on to the pavement of a reasonably busy street there is no sensible way to get fresh air, so we didn't sleep very well.

We have discovered that in the 2 towns we have stayed in, and all the bar restaurants we have visited for cold drinks on our rides, have taken rudeness into the realms of an art form. If the Olympics are ever awarded to Paris they will probably make it a demonstration sport. The place we ate last night was no exception and the food was truly awful, so we scarpered without leaving a tip and are probably now on a hit list for the local Mafia (we are close to the Italian border it seems).

Anyway today we managed two cols, mainly because the second was lower than the first and only required a short extra ascent. We started climbing straight from the B&B and carried on in the same vein for 18 miles, adding extra ascent every time we had to drop to cross a river. We finally made it up to the Croix de Fer, which at around 6,800ft made a climb of over 5,500ft and some dirty looks from the other half of the team (he loves it really but will never admit it in case I am encouraged to go mad on the next route). It has been a sweltering day so we stopped for cold drinks on the way up, then had lunch at the top before heading down and back up to the Col du Glandon. We saw 4 rather strange concrete pillars clustered together above the road and on going up to have a look we discovered they were set up so that you could line up a view of Mont Blanc. Annoyingly we saw it yesterday but couldn't stop, whereas today it must have been obscured bu cloud or heat haze.

We finished with a long descent, steep in places, back to the valley - stopping in a couple of places to let the rims cool down - and then had over 6 miles along the valley bottom on a rather busy road to get us back. The Mechanic is having another one day strike tomorrow so we need to start planning what we are going to do. Currently sitting on the terrace contemplating the infinite.........