The last day beckons, only <100kms to Nice and the conclusion of the OFC's Alps Ride. Another warm sunny morning awaits us from our starting point out front of the Hotel Valdeblore in Valdeblore (La Bolline). Pretty good hotel this....a bit quirky but with nice rooms. Reflecting back to last night, Phil, Graham and I ventured into the town square for the party that was advertised on posters around the town. Under cover in the market square they had a DJ setup...

A ball tearer on the cards for today. From Guillestre to Valdeblore. 137kms plus 3500m of climbing makes this the toughest day of this years tour. On the slate for today are 2 reasonably big Cols. Col de Vars and Col de la Bonnette. Both over 20km long and >1000m. Hot forecast again, knowing that plus the route we decided to leave early today. To get ahead of the pack Chris and Dave left 30mins before the rest of us. As expected Col de Vars was a tough slo...

Overnight the guys were mumbling...........They were concerned about the ride route for today, especially that we were facing a climb of 1000m to get back to the Route Des Grandes Alpes. Ground we have already ridden. As General George S Patton Jnr would say " I don't like paying twice for the same ground....ie. No retreat" Simple proposition, instead of riding back up the Oisans valley and tackling Col du Lauteret, we load all the bikes into the van and drive ...

Another hot day in store for us. Good stay at Hotel Cret Ond at Valloire. Nicely renovated, the rooms were good. Usual conti breakfast, croissants, cereal, coffee and fruit. We rolled out onto the main road and on towards Gailibier - 17kms to the top. The race was on again for KOM. I shot off up the road gaining about 200m but Johan and Harri mowed me down at the 4km mark. Peter came up alongside and we rode together for 3kms. Then Peter slipped away...

The original plan for today was to cover 120kms plus >3000m of climbing, starting from St Foy Tarentaise straight up towards Col L'Iseran and finishing in Valloire after 2 big mountains. Thats not exactly how it played out for all of us. For starters the weather forecast was for +30deg and sunny and what we didn't forsee was how strong and dry the wind was after lunch. We struck out on the Col de L'Iseran right outside our hotel door - 35kms to reach the su...