May 24, 2019 Aurillac to Issoire

I think today would qualify as the day of the cols.  Right out of Aurillac the route took us to the Col du Pas de Payrol at 1531 m it is the highest mountain pass in the Massif Central part of France.  It has been featured on several Tour De France tours.  As such the road is in exceptional shape.  All along the climb to the summit there are markers indicating the average grade over the next kilometer.  I saw 8.82% and there were steeper sections in that kilometer.  The starting elevation was 659m but we were as low as 618 m on the route before starting the climb.  The views from the top are totally unbelievable as you are way above the tree line which is probably 300 meters below you.   All of the and all of the wild flowers were out in a beautiful display in the alpine meadows.  If you listened really close you could just catch the odd strain of Julie Andrews signing.

It was freezing cold at the summit and I was glad to have my rain jacket to keep the wind off and for the screamer downhill.  As few quick photos and we were off. 

When I looked at the profile I thought that it was pretty much downhill all the way into Issoire.  WRONG.  After the big downhill there were a lot of places where the road climbed up to the nose of a hill and then dived back to the next draw and then back up again to the next point.  At one place there was a long sustained climb between two larger hills and there was the next Col de Montirargues at 1139 m.  It was well below the tree line.  

From there it was downhill in to the town of Allenche.  Ken and I pulled up to a Boulangier and picked up a couple of Quiches, and a Baggett. As we had a big climb of 275 meters in front of us we decided to load the food on the bikes rather than do the climb on full stomachs.  We climbed about 230 meters in about 12 kilometers and there was a picnic table. We pulled in and had a cyclist feast. 

I thought we were close to the summit but there were still two more Cols in front of us; Col de Fortunier at 1280 meters, and  Col de la Vaseze at 1295.  The weather is starting to close in and I am getting worried that we could get a nasty rain squall and at this elevation it is going to be cold and nasty.  These two summits were just above the tree line. This meant another long decent and I decided that it was time to put may rain jacket which I had taken off during the climb back on and I was glad I did.  After a few ups and downs we hit the major decent towards Issoire.  This was about 35 kms of 4-5%.  While there was a lot of switch backs and sharp hair pin corners I was rolling along at up to 55 kms.  The road had been newly paved and was the smoothest section I have ridden for a long time.

As a follow up to Ken’s tire problem of the other day he had a spare tire in his luggage which he mounted. However this tire is a folding tire he purchased at Canadian Tire ten years ago for $5.00 (or some such thing).  At one point in the ride we pumped the tire as it was really low.  So I was kind of worried about the speeds on the downhill.  

At the 111 kms mark we cleared the downhill section into Issoire and we hit by a nasty head wind which was blowing down the valley.  Even though it was still slightly downhill we had to work hard to make progress in the head wind.

All in all Ken and I had a great day covering 133 kms and 2150 meters of climb.  What about Bob you ask well he took the bus/train.  He did have a good adventure and that is what counts.

Terry