I left the campsite with Ian Pryor cyclist of over 40 years but had done nothing like this and we were going to join up with trip leader and good friend Andy D'Agata after he had ensured that everyone had left camp and the whole bandwagon was on the roll.
It didn't start well Ian and I were lost in the first hour trying to get out of Annemasse finding ourselves heading towards Evian and not Bonneville! We pulled over and studied the map and found that we could take the next right and rejoin the route at Nangy, it meant we had done a few extra miles but hey we had all day to ride 100miles.
The first real Col of the trip was the Aravis at 1486m, it was tough, this was the our first experience of long climbs and pacing ourselves was going to be paramount on finishing each day and ride every fine inch.
The descent was pretty interesting and my shoulders and fingers were a little tight after the 10km drop to Flumet, probably nerves as this was my first real long drop and I was just a little tense.
We climbed these great hairpins on the way up to Col des Saises a huge ski resort, straight through and down to Beaufort for a well deserved food stop. Next the real thing the Cormet de Roseland a mere 1967m and 19km long with a nasty kick straight out of Beaufort up to the Barage de Roseland where a welcome coke was in hand and Andy sitting relaxed at a table on his second meal no doubt.
Refreshed we continued onwards and upwards to the Roseland where we regrouped for the tricky 20km descent to Bourg St Maurice. Our first go at descending hairpins just after Cret Bettex was a challenge late in the day but we survived and rolled into camp buzzing after a hard but rewarding first day in the Alps.
