187KM. 2900M.
Bit of a delay in posting. Ran out of blogging steam towards the end of the event. As I was reminded, must finish what was started, so here's how the final few days shook out.
Day 5 was the longest day of the event by distance travelled. Unique to Haute Route thus far had been the up-down nature of the riding. At previous TransAlps events we were more accustomed to "transitions" whereby long distances were covered traversing valleys to get from one climb to another.
Day 5 felt more like a TransAlps day as we migrated from the quintessential French Alps to the Provence region of France.
With the great help of Magic Places', Joerg and Matt, I managed to find yet another bike to replace the downed White Lightning. 4th bike in 5 days. Had it set up and ready to roll a whole 2 minutes prior to the starting gun.
Back to day 1 partners, with TL and I accompanying Wilbur and Ribs to the bottom of the first climb.
TL cresting one of the day's climbs and approaching the Magic Places' on course support.
The final 60km of this day rolled up a valley into the finish town. Similar terrain to riding out to Horseshoe Bay. TL, Derek (another Canadian we met at the event) and I drilled it together. We were part of a bigger group but the riders of the group were sketchy and had produced a good crash. We let them separate so we could do our own thing. Wilbur and Jamie cruised to the finish in a big group. Apparently Wilbur dropped a "bomb" with 3km to go and attacked the group, dropping all but his partner. Made some friends with the move.
Arrived in Digne after nearly 7 hours in the saddle. Long distances equal long days. First impression of Digne was not our favorite town as it didn't quite meet the associations one might have of Provence. Hotels in these small towns can be hard to come by. We typically favor well located (close to food and start/finish) over fancy. This one met the first two criteria.
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