Milano San Remo Stage 8

Briançon, France to Sampeyre, Italy

Strava (to lunch only): 38.25 km, 1,286m, 2:32, 93 shifts, max speed 80 kph

On waking up this morning I felt the best of any day on the whole trip. Could it be I am finally shaking this sickness? We had a nice breakfast, I made sure to sample the pastries since that is one thing that is typically amazing in France. 9.5 out of 10 there. Then we packed up and headed out at 8:15 as usual.

The stage had two climbs and the first one, to Col d’Izoard, started practically in town. Right away my Garmin said 19 km with a bit over 1,100m climbing. So up we went. The air temperature was pretty nice, cool in the shade, but it wasn’t long before I was sweating mightily. I had hoped my power would be back but no, I was still stuck in the slow lane. It didn’t matter though, I just kept going, climbing with Louis, Carien and Curt. We stopped for snacks etc. after about 850m of climbing, then continued to the top. It wasn’t too steep which was nice. The weather was perfect and it was really nice rolling up that last switchback to the summit.

There were lots of people up there, I’d say more motorcyclists than bicyclists. We took some photos, ate and drank and checked out the gorgeous view in either direction. This pass is pretty famous since it’s been included in the Tour de France many times, and is an HC (beyond categorization) type climb. I almost bought a souvenir in the shop on top but somehow avoided it.

We started down and right away it seemed steeper on this side. There was a spicy little climb in there and some gorgeous rock towers, then a bunch of steep, sharp switchbacks. My new pads were squeaking a little – they got pretty hot! Lower down the road straightened out and I had the extreme pleasure of blasting through a red light at 80 kph! There were a number of these one-way sections for cars and in this case I could see the whole section was vacant so shot it in seconds.

We had some more descending, then I rode to lunch with Eddy who is awesome to draft behind. He’s so tall and strong! We got to lunch, at another gorgeous shady spot. I had a great meal then had to decide whether to join others in the vans or crank out the second climb, the Col Agnel, which at 2,744m is the highest point of the tour. I went back and forth and finally decided to not kill myself and to take it easy. The downside of this was that the vans couldn’t go over the Col and the route around was 200 km, but the upside was (I hoped) that my body would recover more and faster.

After everyone finished lunch, we packed up and I went with Graham in Wilbert’s van, and three others went with Hans. The route was long, first over the Col de Vars and then the Col de Larche where we reentered Italy. We ended up arriving at the hotel after 4pm, I think just after the last rider. I was told I did the right thing, evidently the last part of the second climb was a harder than the numbers let us to expect. Anyway, I’m happy with my decision, nothing to prove, I just want to enjoy cycling and get healthy again. I made an appointment to see my doctor a week from today at home, if I’m still feeling bad.

We had dinner in the hotel, pretty good with opportunities for seconds and double or more desserts. Wilbert showed us tomorrow’s stage, very similar to today’s with two giant passes and lunch between. But both passes are longer and steeper. Oh boy. I might have to half-stage it again…