<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>On Thursday, the Tour de France stage was finishing at Col du Galibier (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_du_Galibier">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_du_Galibier</a>), the highest stage finish in the Tour history, at 2,645 m. The Tour de France was celebrating this year the centenary of the inclusion of the Galibier in the race (in 1911, only 3 of the competitors managed not to walk, although i am sure the road conditions and the bikes were very different to today!), by going over it twice during the race, as it had done with the Tourmalet in 2010. Amazingly, for such an iconic Tour mountain, this was the very first time the Galibier was going to be a stage finish. The riders were taking on Col D&acute;Agnel (another record, highest mountain in the Tour history at 2,775m and then on Col D&acute;Izoard, another legendary mountain). We would have loved to do the Izoard, but there was no practical way of doing it from where we were staying, as it would have been too far, particularly as we could not finish at Galibier (no accommodation) but rather needed to then descend 52 kms to our hotel, at St Julien Mont Denis, in the Maurienne valley (one significant difference between Tour riders and us is that they get transport to and from the stage start and finish, we have to get there by bike).</p> <p>So, we planned to climb Lautarets and Galibier, together a 33 km climb from the foot of Les Deux Alps, but with the 25 km of Lautarets being quite easy (4% or so). In our mind, this stage, at 94 km and with only 38 of those climbing (we also had to climb the easy side of the Telegraph on the way to St Julien) was a bit of a rest day in preparation for the stage the day after. And so we set off, with another vertiginous descent of Les Deux Alpes and then riding as a group to Lautarets, inclluding a stop to mend a puncture to Nacho&acute;s bike. The atmosphere was amazing, with hundreds of riders going the same way as us, even the famous Il Diavolo, a German who watches every mountain stage from the side of the road dressed as the Devil, and has done that for many years (I started watching the Tour over 30 years ago and he was already around - we had no idea until Thursday that he goes to the stages by bike!)&nbsp;</p> <p>2 kms from the top of Lautarets, I was flagging, and decided to attack to cover my weakness. This of course did not work and resulted in a counterattack from the other 3, who left me behind and raced to the top of Lautarets, with Chema in first. The 3 of them arrived together with me around 40 seconds behind, so I was getting somewhat better! At Lautarets, we had lunch and watched the pros, with Andy Schleck leading, come by to climb Galibier (we decided to watch at Lautarets as there was a giant screen which allowed us to watch the whole stage).</p> <p>Once Andy Schleck had won the stage, we got told by the gendarmes (French police) that we would have to wait until 8 pm before they opened the mountain to bikes. This was not practical, as we had to reach our hotel before they closed reception at 9.30, and we would have had to do 60 km, including 13 of climbing, in 90 mins. So, as soon as we could, we carried our bikes across country, up the mountain, round the back of the gendarmes, and rejoined the road about 1 km further up. From there, we rode, which was quite tricky, as there were thousands upon thousands of cyclists and cars coming in the opposite direction on what they thought was a one way descent. We however survived without a crash and could enjoy the fantastic views of the Galibier ascent, a truly spectacular mountain, with its green glacial &acute;laderas&acute; spreading down all the way to Briancon. At the top of Galibier, Chema and Carlos attacked again, on the 10%-12% ramps at the top, and i managed to nearly hang on, losing less than a minute at the top, with Nacho a minute behind me. Things were looking up. The feeling of climbing in the wake of Tour legends such as Eddy Merckx, Federico Bahamontes, Fausto Coppi, Joop Zoetemelk and many others was palpable.</p> <p>From there, again in absolutely freezing temperatures, we started the most incredible descent any rider is likely to enjoy, from 2664 m to 700 m, punctuated by a 5 km climb to Col du Telegraph, but everything else downhill, 32kms! Unfortunately, we could not make the most of it, as the road was still full of the spectators descending on foot after watching the stage finish, so we could not really push until we had descended for 10 kms or so but, when we could, we did, and again topped 80 km/h for a good part of the descent, overtaking many cars and several motorbikes on our way down. Then, it was bit by bit as hard as we could to St Julien Mont Denis, where we arrived at Hotel Lancheton at 9.37 pm, 7 mins late, but this was no problem as they had kept both reception and the restaurant open for us after we called them on the way down! The hospitality at Lancheton was brilliant, and the entrecote and chips just what we needed. Exhausted, once again more probably from the cold than the climbing, we ended up going to bed around 1.00 am, with the alarm at 6.00 am to climb everything we had descended only hours before, on our way back over Telegraph and Galibier and over Alpe D&acute;Huez on Friday. But that is for another update.</p> <p>I can really recommend Lautarets and Galibier, and the villages of La Grave and Valloire, to any tourist, on bike or car. The views are beautiful, rugged and spectacular, the hospitality of the people (at least for cyclists) remarkable and the whole place is imbued with the legends of the tour and its heroes. The Maurienne Valley is really worth seeing, a deep cut on the huge mountains surrounding it.</p> <p>For those interested in the statistics, the climb of Lautarets and Galibier (25 easy km and a final steep 8 kms at around 8-9% with 12.1% at the very top) took 2 hrs and 15 min, 1hr 30 to Lautarets and 45 min for the final 8 kms. The temperature at the top was once again around 4-5C, with 30 km/h winds. The descent (45 kms to St Julien) took 1 hr and 20 min but could be done faster without all the people on the road. The fastest part was probably Telegraph, 12 kms in 12 min for Chema and me. All together, we were on the bike for a bit under 4 hours but, of course, on Friday we would have to climb everything we descended!&nbsp;</p> <p>To donate go to:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justgiving.com/teams/santitdfcustmf/">http://www.justgiving.com/teams/santitdfcustmf/</a></p> <p>To read the report on day 1 go to:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justgiving.com/Santi-Dominguez-Vivero-TDFDay1">http://www.justgiving.com/Santi-Dominguez-Vivero-TDFDay1</a></p> <p>To read the report on day 2 go to:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justgiving.com/Santi-Dominguez-Vivero-TDFDay2">http://www.justgiving.com/Santi-Dominguez-Vivero-TDFDay2</a></p> <p>To read the report on day 3 go to:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.justgiving.com/Santi-Dominguez-Vivero-TDFDay3F">http://www.justgiving.com/Santi-Dominguez-Vivero-TDFDay3F</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>