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allensea
I flew into Basel rather than Geneva this weekend, so Cycliste and I enlisted one of Cycliste's colleagues to act as taxi-driver and wingman, and headed over to the Vosges mountains. The route we had planned featured three climbs, the last of which was Les Planches des Belles Filles, as featured in the 2012 and 2014 TdF.
The first two climbs were enjoyable but unremarkable. 7-10% average, climbing through the forests to the top of the pass - typical Vosges riding really. At the bottom of Les Planches des Belles Filles we were joined (well, overtaken) by Mr. Serious Race Face on his Scott - he's at the back of this group, with Cycliste and her colleague Daniel up front. Not for long, admittedly.
Although we'd been told the view from the top of the Belles Filles was nothing special, it wasn't actually that bad. Certainly gave you the impression you'd climbing out of the valleys:
And to round things off, here's Cycliste at the top of Belles Filles, after the 22% section. Cycliste was disappointed it was only 200m long, and denounced it as an insufficient challenge after all the hype about its severity.
All in all, a damn fine day's cycling, topped off by an excellent lamb and aubergine dinner at the local Turkish restaurant.
Oh, and I hit a new top speed on two wheels today - 89.3kph or 55.3mph. I've looked at the data, and it looks genuine rather than a spike.