Col du Galibier (2642 m.)
Big smiles at 2642 m. It’s been a struggle to get back to this special place but great to ride here with Arno. Photos of a great ride together culminating at the Col du Galibier.
Col du Lautaret (2058 m.)
Mont Blanc (4809 m.) seen from the Col du Galibier
Col du Galibier (2642 m.), view south-east to the Écrins, Serre-Chevalier ski slopes and the Alpes Maritimes on the horizon
Col du Galibier (2642 m.)
Arno riding GSR750
CBR600RR
La Meije (3893 m.) and its glaciers
Gorges de la Romanche - Cascade de la Pisse
Gorges de la Romanche - Barrage du Chambon
Route Napoléon at Corps
Last view back north to the granite Alps, from the Plateau de Dévoluy
A visual paean to riding the Alpine Cols
Big smiles for me and Arno at the Col du Galibier (2642 m.) in the French Alps. Great ride together today, fantastic weather. Warm but not hot. No wind and exceptionally clear air. Hardly any jet trails in the big blue sky and much less road traffic than is usual for early July.
Any ride to the Alpine cols is special but it’s a particularly rare treat to share a ride with Arno from Annecy. We’ve been riding together for many years and our styles are similar. He’s now on a GSR 750, no longer a GSXR. Riding a sportsbike is fantastic fun but athletic, and I think we are both dismayed at how tiring we are finding it as we get ever older.
We rode several major Alpine cols: Ornon (1371 m.), the rolling curves of the Lautaret (2058 m.) and the magnificent Galibier (2642 m.) with a rare clear view both north to Savoie and Mont Blanc (4809 m.), to the Écrins to the south and Alpes Maritimes to the south-east. Then a salade de chèvre-chaud outdoors at 2000m at a mountain chalet near Valloire, before the sad but inevitable parting of our ways.
I enjoyed the scenic ride back below La Meije (3893 m.) and its glaciers, the granite gorge of the Romanche with its glacier-fed waterfalls and high dam, then the Ornon (1371 m.) to avoid Grenoble. Heading off the Route Napoléon at Corps for the pastures of the Plateau de Dévoluy, finally leaving views of the granite Alps at the Col de Festre (1441 m.) to descend and follow the Provence river valleys down to Marseille.
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- Col du Galibier - 2642 m.
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- Col de Turini and Col de Braus
- GLME 2012 best rides
- Alps Biker 2016
- Birthday in the Provence Alps - July 2010