With 10 days of accumulated effort, I was still to have a bad day on the bike (my only tough time came on the 38C push through the valley on the penultimate day) and still felt fresh and excited every morning.

The climb of the Col d’Izoard rises straight out of the town and the conversation from some of the veterans of previous incarnations of the tour was that the best days were over and that the remaining climbs weren’t as interesting. I don’t know if they were just trying to soften us up for the remaining days, or had gotten so acclimatized to the amazing scenery, that it just became another set of switchbacks under a blue sky, but I got a real kick out of the two days of double climbs in particular.

The landscape was changing becoming dryer and less green, with now was the time that we would start to see some of the spectacular gorges of southeastern France. The Izoard was another beautiful climb, not hard (or were the legs now just adjusted to the long climbs?), with an easy descent and lunch waiting for us deep in one of those gorges. The second climb of the day, the Col de Vars, was a unheralded little cracker, some tough sections (not helped by the heat but with a few friendly water fountains on route) and a special little old school café on top, run by a rugged old French couple serving a decent brew, too.

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