Day 56: Col de l'Echelle

This night was the first cold night. Temperatures went down to 9° and I woke up in the middle of the night and had to close my sleeping bag for the first time because of the cold. Also a first was wearing my long trouser in the evening. Before I had carried them more than 6000km through Europe without using them.

The morning started immediatly with an ascent. In Bardonecchia (where the pass road starts) I bought some more provisions and then started the "serious" part of the climb. Looking at the mountains and up to the serpentines is always a bit disheartening. The look so far up and unsurmountable. So it is always better to just focus on the part of the road that is lying straight ahead. The was a strong, cold wind which made it hard to balance resting and cycling. Resting to long means getting cold, resting not long enough means that the pulse does not get down. And there is no way to just take a long break to recover fully once you are sweaty.
At one point the ascent was so steep that I was at the limit of the force I could put on the pedals. But that lasted only for a couple of 100m.

As I got higher and higher the views got better and better.



I had hoped to find a cafe or restaurant at the top. But there was nothing. Instead the descent led immediatly into a beautiful valley with mild temperatures and people having picnics, sunbathing and children playing football. This was completely unexpected. But not in a bad way. So I also took a break and had some bites for lunch. Finally some weather were you can relax in the sun without being burned or cooked. With slight breeze to cool you down.




Until I got to Briancon the surroundings were outstandingly nice and the weather perfect. But then the temperatures got higher again and I had to cycle on the N94. A major road with a lot of traffic. This I hadn't expected because there are no big cities in the area. So the rest of the trip was still scenic, but you cannot really enjoy this on a loud road where you spent much of the time monitoring the traffic in the rear mirror.
At some point I lost the motivation for this and decided to end the day in Embrun. Near Gap the motorway starts. I hope some of the traffic disappears from there on.





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