Last stage of the Tour de Hume

The rain continued last night but we woke to a dry, sunny and reasonably cool morning (reasonably cool meaning about 20 degrees at 7.00am!  The owners of the B&B were at a wedding yesterday and not coming back until this afternoon so I had been tasked with going to the Boulangerie for supplies (we had been left the rest of the stuff). The queue at 7.30am was long and everyone seemed to have extremely complicated purchases to make, so I had time to contemplate how many different ways there might be to describe what is essentially a baguette. By the time I got served I used the time honoured method of pointing!

We set off earlier today to make the most of the cooler temperatures and this time went down the valley for 8 miles to La Chambre to the start of the climb of the Col de Madeleine. Today we were heading more or less north so got a lot of welcome shade on the first part of the climb. The Madeleine is known as a real beast of a climb - 12 miles long with an average gradient of 8%. In reality there are no easy pitches. On other climbs we have had a tough climb out of the valley then quite a gentle pull through to the final climb to the col - this one just climbed relentlessly. It got hotter, but the best part of the day was the lack of traffic, not a single motor home passed us all day, a few motorbikes, but no giant convoys, and just a few cars. Even cyclists were quite thin on the ground and most of them were British!  We had a 'pain o chocolat stop at about half way but apart from that just kept pedalling to the top, via a totally deserted ski resort which had a slightly worrying sign up saying that today the Avalanche risk was significant.

When we finally popped out at the top (which makes it sound much easier than it actually was) it was quite busy and it would appear that most people tackle the col from the other side, which is longer but only has a gradient of about 5%.  It was a very pleasant temperature on the top and we spent some time there enjoying lunch and the views - over to Mont Blanc on the north side - plus chatting to a variety of cyclists who appeared at intervals. It was so relaxing that we had to drag ourselves away as some large clouds were starting to build up. We retraced our route stopping at intervals to let our hands recover from gripping the brakes and to allow the rims to cool. As we descended it got hotter and hotter, so by the time we were back in the valley we were afraid we might actually melt. 

A final dash along the valley got us home, with 5,700ft of climbing in our legs (to add to everything else). I am beginning to understand why most groups come over for 4/5 days, knacker themselves and the go home - I reckon 2 weeks in this heat was a bit of a big ask. I am looking forward to some autumnal weather at home.  While we have enjoyed the trip I did rather miss the 'moving on' aspect of a touring holiday and the feeling of being on a journey - however watching 2 tourers with fully laden bikes labouring up the col as we were going down, I appreciate that in this area you really can't have your cake and eat it.