Cent col day 4: million mile views / there were tears

Out of the door and immediately we start climbing, a 1000m vertical ascent up the Col de Spandelles. A few of the faster group joined us for the first few km including Phil the organiser and rode the beginning with us, it was lovely to have a good pace being tapped out and people to chat to to pass the time up the climb. The faster group eventually drifted off the front leaving the laggards to do the rest on our own, we stayed together most of the rest of the way up just chatting about rubbish.


Onto the Col de Marie Blanque, 11km climb at 8% average - over the top and one of my favourite ever descents, I love descending and even blatted past some of the fast group on the way down - hitting a new personal best high speed of 90km / hr (55mph). 55mph may not seem very fast in a car but on a piece of metal that weighs 7kg and tyres a couple of cm wide it's an amazing experience, I spent a good couple of minutes with goosebumps on my arms and tears in my eyes on the way down. Interesting the stupid garmin computer shortly updated the max speed to an unlikely 200km / hr...


Onto the Col Du Soudet after lunch, a long long long climb, 23km in total with the middle 9km at a leg busting average of 9km. This was a real struggle for me - having been climbing already for 9km at a pretty tough grade it then kicks up to "eye bulging" grade for a further 9km, then back to "this hurts" grade for the last 5km. Many people have commented that this is one of the toughest climbs out there and I wholly agree with them. One saving grace was that whilst it was *hot* at the start the clouds came in a little on the way up and cooled things down a little.


Had some random french tourist snap my picture at the top.




























The views and scenery from the top were really astonishing. I hadn't seen a car for several hours, you are the best part of a mile in the sky, all you can hear were cowbells and you could see for a million miles, just breathtaking. This is why it's all worth it, it's just the mutts nuts.




























Finished the day off with a 30km descent into a very rural Auberge, staying 4 to a room in bunk beds in the middle of nowhere - an "interesting" experiance. 15 cols bagged toda, woo hoo.


Summary stats: Distance 178km, climb 4,400m, max speed 90km (or 200, apparently).



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