Day 7

So on this day they get to stay at the same hotel, the very lovely chalets, and therefore don’t have to take their kit with them, which is a bonus.

Today they effectively do a loop of the mountains taking them over the highest mountain of the ride; the Col de Bonnete at 2802m. This is preceded by the Col de Lombarde a mere 2350m, again this is an exact copy of one of the stages of the 2008 Tour de France, so a tough day ahead.


The good news is the sky was blue and the sun was shining, and after the obligatory breakfast discussion of what to wear, the summer gear goes on and off they go.

Neil, unbeknown to most people has a personal vendetta against Vars… (Remember the Alpine Croydon comment!) But this ride helped to dissipate the feelings of hate as he storms up the mountain, having his best climb of the ride so far - still not really liking the North face but now loving the South face.



The descent was technical, fast and with loads of twists and turns. The guys pushed their way through to the bottom, where everywhere feeling very pleased and high five-ing and wooing, followed by lunch, followed by a very impressive 8 man peloton going at speed.

Did I mention on the lunch that Chris had carbonara?

Onwards where they decided to split, Chris and Neil heading of with the leaders (Jack and Tom) and Adam hanging out with Paul Harrison, they rode and talked colours!

Forming another impressive peloton that reached speeds of 30mph they faced the final 4k back to the hotel/chalets.

Interesting facts of the day:
Adam had a massage on his arrival back to the chalet.
Chris keeps complaining about his knee problems, using all sorts of gels and creams (for the record Chris states this is due to his imposing muscular body and that his bones can’t take the strain).
Neil’s bike broke at the bottom of the final 4k climb back the chalet, he was with the two fastest riders at the front when he became stuck in 4th gear up a 12% climb, left all alone he had a very slow journey back, where he luckily found Manuel to fix his bike!
Adam and Neil did also point out that by now Chris was practically riding naked to try and top up his tan before he hits Cannes. We are all so sorry Adam/Neil, make sure you ride in front of him!



Stats from the guys:
Top speed: 45
Climbed: 2,080 ft
Distance: 130k