An early wake-up was required as I had to catch a train from the airport and get downtown. Much like Toronto, Lyon has a rail link that cost roughly $22 and runs every 15 minutes.

After an easy trip downtown, I collected my tickets for the train trip to Gap. While waiting for the train I watched a steady flow of commuters get off their trains and head into the city. I was struck by the number of people carrying or riding scooters.


Onto the train and out to Grenoble for a change of trains. At the station I ran into Brad – my friend from the Belgium Cobbles trip. He informed me that the train engineers were on strike and we’d have to take a bus to Gap. Boo.

The two and a half hour bus ride gave me motion sickness. Boo.
Once in Gap we were met by Arien and Krysten – our DuVine guides. They drove us to our hotel where we had a quick lunch under a tent.  A great start!

After lunch we went for a ride. It was overcast and threatening to rain but looked good. So off we went to climb Col d’Allos. A nice 14km climb. As we approached the climb it started to rain a little. And then a lot. And it kept raining. All the way up, and all the way down. I loved it. No one else did. I hit the climb hard and didn’t let up – finished a few minutes ahead of the next guy. It was so much fun. I felt like a pro on a breakaway.

Once back at the hotel and dried off we had a nice group dinner before retiring to bed, resting up for the big day tomorrow.

Posted in ECC