La Berarde

What is ‘La Berarde’? Here’s what my little guidebook says about it:

“This route will take you to the village of La Berarde, an old shepherds’ village, which is at the end of the road and literally at the end of the world! You will be cycling along an extraordinary road in the midst of a high mountain landscape! The silhouette of the peaks which stands out against the sky and the pure fresh air will invite you to put your feet up and just revel in this indisputably great natural wonder.”

It was a great little ride – 68km (42.3 miles) with 1000m (3280ft) of climbing. The climbing came in several forms. In some areas, it was a relatively gentle grade winding alongside the glacier fed river. In others, it steepened to quickly gain altitude. The guide book also says:

“After Bourg-D’Arud, a slope of 11% incline over 3km will lead you to the ‘Plan du Lac’ and the ….”

This was the steepest part of the ride, and I was testing out my knee a little. I didn’t push it too hard though. It felt ok, but I am really, REALLY, glad I have a triple on this bike. While these climbs are certainly doable with a compact crankset (and as Jamie proved also with a full crankset – if you are something beyond human), with my knee, I was glad to be able to take some stress off by using the small ring.

Here’s a few photos from the ride up





I did pass through several small villes on the ride. These little villes are very cool. Buildings are situated at the very edge of the very narrow road. In some cases, there is a traffic light on each end of the town (we saw this on yesterdays ride in fact) and only one direction of traffic can pass through that section at a time. In these small villes I passed through today there was no lights, but the streets were that narrow.

Sometimes too, the ville is located directly on the slopes of the mountain so the road switchbacks through the town. Really cool. Saw this today as well.

There were a lot of riders out there today. There was some kind of big event for cyclists who had come up from Grenoble. I chatted with one woman (in French of course). They had started in the small ville of Rochetaillee with a turn-around in La Barade. I am really having fun being able to converse with people here.

I had other opportunities for conversations as well. Most others were rather short, but it felt good to chat with these nice folks. It is even more fun I think when I have a chat with a person in French, then I hear that person talking to someone else in English.

At La Barade, I found a snack bar and had a croque monsieur (a grilled ham and cheese sandwich) and a portion de frites (fries). Of course, I sampled a couple glasses of ‘pression’ (draft beer) with the sandwich and fries while I read my book.

Once I finished my lunch, I found a shady spot near the river where I could sit and read a few more chapters. The water in these rivers out here is just awesome! The color is almost a teal color as it comes directly from the glaciers / snow banks high on the mountains above. I tried to capture it in some photos, but they just don’t do it justice.






Like many of these rides out here – especially out and back rides like this one, the ‘out’ is uphill, while the ‘back’ is downhill. This ride wasn’t all up on the way out, so it wouldn’t be all down on the way back. However, the up on the way back was nearly not even worth mentioning. In sections, I could just coast down the mountain without even touching my brakes. In other sections, where there were switchbacks, I kept my head about me to make sure I can ride another day.

Tomorrow I’ll re-visit l’Alpe d’Huez. This time, I’m going to take a shuttle to the top (without my bike) and find some trails to do some hiking. It should be fun.

An 'easy' 100km

Actually, it was a little over 100km and in fact the term 'easy' is completely relative to the other rides that are in this area.

Yesterday was a complete rest day. After la marmotte, I felt is was necessary to kick back and relax for the day. I found a great place right downtown Bourg d'Oisans next to the river to sit and write about la marmotte.

It was super peaceful. One pretty cool thing - as I sat there writing my blog, I watched a guy in the river removing trash. This is something I don't see in the US (at least I haven't seen it). I thought it was really cool that the town would take such pride in their natural surroundings.

It took a while to download all of the photos for la marmotte, but I think in the end, that ride deserved all the time I spent working on the blog. Can I say yesterday was an epic day of writing???

Today Jamie and I took off to do part of a sportive called la Vaujany Sportive. In france, the organized group rides are called Sportives - although much like la Marmotte, it is also timed so I'm sure it ends up being a race.

La Vaujany Sportive has three routes. I had thought I would do the Parcours Master which is 173km, but after our loop of la marmotte (almost), I decided that the Parcours Senior is more interesting. In fact, we didn't do the complete senior route, we did a more scenic and slightly easier route called 'Le tour du Matheysin par Laffrey'. This route is listed in my little guide book as being 93km (looping out from BdO) with an elevation gain of 1250m (4100ft).

Because we are staying at the B&B which is 5km outside of BdO, of course we have to add 10k to that distance. No real change to the elevation gain though. Our hosts suggested we do the loop backwards from what the guidebook indicates. This allows us to start and finish on a descent! How's that for great? The other advantage is it puts us descending the busiest road early in the ride rather than climbing it at the end of the ride.

Nothing exciting about the descent of that busy road. The scenery is great, but no real time for photos when we're trying to stay out of the way of the cars. The descent was probably close to 15 miles. The road was pretty straight, so again, nothing super exciting about it.

Once we found our left turn through Sechilienne, the road turned up as we knew it would. This was perhaps one of the easiest climbs I've done. Reminded me a lot of Caesar's Head. Similar in distance and similar in grade. One big difference - this climb pretty much kept that same grade the entire distance to the town of Laffrey. I felt pretty good after my rest day, and kept the bike in the middle ring for the entire climb. I stopped once for a photo before resuming the climb.

After Laffrey there was a little more climbing, but not bad. Then, we ended up in this beautiful rolling countryside for a good number of miles.

This was the easiest riding I have seen since I've been here. Still, the rollers were there and they were a little bigger than what you might find in Greenville county.

We finally made the final turn for the col d'Ornon and started our final climb of the day. Like the earlier climb, this was a constant grade that was relatively easy. Again, I kept it in the middle ring, but Jamie set the pace all the way to the top.

A brief stop for a couple of photos before we began our descent. The descent was something on the order of 8-9 miles and it was a great descent. As per everywhere you go out here, the views are awesome. Here's a couple of shots:

I like how the little village is set right on the side of the mountain. Also, in the last picture (click on it to enlarge) you can actually see the line of the road built right into the edge of the cliff. It is near the top. Awesome.

One problem for me. My right knee gave me a couple of shooting pains today. A little ache I can deal with, but these were not good signs. I'll have to take it easy no matter what ride I do tomorrow. There is a relatively easy ride of about 52km (32 mi) with only (remember, it's all relative!) 1000m (3280ft) of elevation gain. It is out and back, so I figure if my knee starts to hurt, I can always turn around.