Leaving our overnight stop over on the outskirts Annecy meant a short ride down to the edge of the lake to follow the road out of town along the Western shore, in fact, following one of the familiar cycling 'road ways' in many French towns and city's. 10km out of town led to a turn into the mountains and the first Category 2 climb of the Col du Puget, beautiful villages stunning views of Lake Annecy below and of the high mountains in the distance. Warm up over and straight into the Category 3 climb of the Col de Leschaux that led to what can only be described as the most beautiful 50km of cycling, this was one of the most stunning areas of the whole Tour, the landscape alone lifted you to just ride on, again, as with Stage 15, riding with wings, one of the moments that is just there on the road, and left on the road. Riders from all over Europe take part each year in the Etape du Tour (Stage of the Tour) what a privilege for this to be Stage 20 (Sean from South Woodford, I know you were there!!).
Onto the second Category 3 climb of the Col des Pres after a brief stop in a cafe in Aillon le Jeune for cake and tea with the locals, incredibly proud of 'their' region and with invitations to come back to the area to ski (we'll see how this works out), they showed so much interest in Ride 21, it was good to talk to them if only for a brief time.
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| On the road Stage 20 |
Riding on, passed by two local riders who offered greetings and 'good cycling' (I think) were three distinct words picked up in that single moment of passing, 'maillot jaune' and 'magnifique', let's hope that the second British rider in two years, Chris Froome, will bring home the yellow jersey in Paris in such a special year, he seems to be well liked in France, he seems to be well liked everywhere!
The moment passed as the riders moved into the distance, lucky to ride together, lucky to be able to draft! I was happy to push ahead unassisted, gliding (for a short time) towards the distant mountains and then a tough end to a beautiful route.
Onto the penultimate climb of the day, the Category 1 climb of Mont Revard, a long long climb around 20km. After finally reaching the summit the reward of a long 20km descent was a torrential storm, hail, freezing wind and a road turned into a river.
The Ride 21 crew, 25km away in the valley knew nothing of the adverse weather (lucky crew). It would have been easy to give up, but just 20km from the end of the Stage with the toughest challenge yet to come, the Hors Categorie climb to Annecy-Semnoz, an 11km climb at 9% gradient, it hurt,it hurt a lot, but after an hour of slow climbing we made it, job done, Stage 20 over, exhausted.!!
And so, as we write this Blog post we are on the motorway half way to Paris to ride the final Stage of the Tour and the final leg of our Ride 21 challenge.  |
| Summit of the Semnoz, Stage 20 |
All being well, the final stage will be a ride from Versailles to the Champs Elysees joining up at the Trocadero with 500 riders taking part in the Action Medical Research London to Paris ride, it should be quite a day.
Ride 21 crew and rider, nearly there, riding for everyone that has followed our progress and for everyone at Action Medical Research, it has been quite a journey!
www.action.org.uk/tourdefrance
Twitter @chrisarmishaw
'whatever you can do, or think you can do begin it, there is no road to which there is no end'
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