Col d'Angello, Stage 17 Day 2

Col d'Angello, Stage 17 Day 2

Well that wasn't in the script. Col d'Angello was always going be hard, but not that hard.

It rained overnight, and my hangover took a while to clear slowly in he morning. Unfortunately the clouds never really cleared. After about 20k of gentle climbing (around 5%) I stopped for coffee and a dry shirt in the last bar before the angels took over. The road immediately and rather rudely kicked up to 10%. And continued that way for 10k. Aside from, that is, the rather discouraging sign signalling that the next section was in fact 14%.

Now this would all have been challenging enough on its own, but by this point the heavens had truly opened revealing, not angels, but sleet and hail accompanied by a gale force wind. Occasional breaks in the cloud gave a sense of the stark beauty surrounding me as I climbed, slowly, but my main view was of 20m of tarmac in front of me disappearing into the cloud.

Given the relative visual blindness, the sounds of the Alps became heightened - those cows and goats must get truly driven mad by those bells under their necks.

Arriving at the summit was a huge relief, but by thirsting point my hands and feet were completely numb. This was worse than mountain biking in the Welsh mountains in winter. Had there been a bar I might have seen the funny side but at 2750m there's not too many customers - today there was no chance of being overtaken by lycra clad, carbon mounted cyclists!

After finding some semi dry clothes in my panniers, and managing to drop my underwear in a puddle, I started the challenging descent most gingerly. If the wind wasn't trying to topple me over sideways then it was trying to force me down the mountain at a speed that my numb hands couldn't slow me down from.

When the hail stones were rendering me blind by bouncing off my eyeballs (only a slight exaggeration) I took shelter under a tree outside a house in a tiny village. The kind owner called me over and gave me a most welcome shelter, tea and biscuits whilst the hail turned to sleet. Off I went again, teeth chatering, through rivers running across the road, this time ending up in a bar at the bottom it the valley.

As I drank coffee and ate panini, the bar kept filling up with customers taking refuge. As it turned out, they closed the road up the Col d'Izoard, my next destination, due to a landslide. I met up again with a Kiwi couple touring the Alps and we spent a couple of hours warming up and allowing the rain to empty the seas.

So there you have it, my lead in the GC has been somewhat impaired by the weather, and perhaps the little Col, (and perhaps my panniers). Indeed, I still haven't finished stage 17, and have the not to be ignored task of climbing 2 more HC climbs before the finish. Given the need to dry clothes, tent etc tomorrow it could be that I take 4 days on this stage, losing up to 3 days of my lead. The Tour will complete stage 17 in less than 8 hours I suspect. Given today's weather though, I bet the commissaires would have cancelled the stage. I think that is what I have to hope for if I am still to take yellow to Paris.

Dormez bien, James.