I had been thinking about setting out for the Galibier this morning. However, it was not as warm as I would have wished it to be, especially for climbing 2400m, and it was very windy. So I went for the next best thing, a climb that starts literally two miles from my front door.
The Col de Porte is an ascent that I've done many times before. One hour of stiff riding takes you up 1070m. What I discovered yesterday is that, once at the pass, one can continue on a narrow road on the left that switchbacks up another 350m to arrive in a wild Alpine setting with patches of snow and bare rocks littering a wide expanse of green. The climb totals 21km with an average gradient of 6.8%. Nothing to break the will of champions, but a formidable challenge and the perfect aggression-releasing after-work work-out. The whole thing can be done in just about two hours.
If I could just drag my lazy ass up there more often.
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