2.9.1

This was my 4th ride over here and the longest. I did not blog my last ride in Belgium, it was a pretty non descript 45km. Today is worth writing about.

France has 4 (maybe 5 if you count the centre) mountain ranges, but people only remember The Alps and Pyrenees. The Vosges mountain run down the north eastern corner of France and rise to a reasonable height of about 1300 metres of so.  So about the height of the blue mountains.  It was a bit further from Colmar than I expected so I drove anoutn50km to the foot of the Balloon d'Alsace.  It, like all the climbs were wonderful wooded climbs.  The view from the top looks over the plain of Belfort and over the the Black Forest in Germany. 

After that I headed down the other side and then up and down one more time to get to the final climb on tomorrow's stage of the tour, Les planche des belle filles.  It is a short but brutal climb with the last 300m up along side a ski slope at about 20% or so. 

Once I got to the top of my third climb I stopped for a nutritious lunch before heading back home down the hill and then rolling forest and farmland.

For those interested in stats. It was 109km with 2,300m of climbing.  Can't wait for the alps.