Day 4 - Les Arcs (70km)

[Rich] Once Paul and Matt had left for Lyon airport, I had five hours to play with before my train departed. The idea was to climb up to the nearby ski station of Les Arcs and descend via a small road for a 65km-odd round trip.

Sluggish would be the best description of my physical condition. After three days in the high mountains, my legs were lead-heavy. Of course, the fact that I was doing this climb on my own meant my childish competitive edge was tamed, and I soon settled down to a rhythm of just 140-145 bpm (compared with 168-170 on the previous days’ climbs!).

Les Arcs is most famous for being the climb where Miguel Indurain cracked. In 1996, the big Spaniard was the Tour’s undisputed champion, as he sought a then-unprecedented sixth straight victory. While Indurain was King of the time-trial, he was also a gifted enough climber to control his rivals in the mountains. Not this time. Although the man from Pamplona had looked at ease over the Madeleine and the Cormet de Roseland, the final climb of the day was to prove one too many. With only a few kilometres to go, Indurain was suddenly dropped by the group of favourites. I still remember watching my TV in disbelief as the supposedly infallible Indurain grimaced and was passed by rider after rider. He would lose over 4 minutes to stage winner Luc Leblanc that day, and eventually finished a lowly 11th overall in Paris.

Judging from my heavy legs on the lower slopes, I could see myself heading for an Indurain-style cracking by the top. For the first few kilometres, the climb is nothing special: the road winds slowly up the mountainside and under a funicular rail track in forests that offer little shade. But then, from about 11kms, Mont Blanc peeks out from behind the Cormet de Roseland. From here on, the views of the highest summit in Europe just get better and better. I was extremely happy about this, as it gave me a brilliant excuse to stop every few kilometres and snap shots of the 4810m-high peak. Nothing to do with the heavy legs, honestly.

Les Arcs: the higher you climb, the better the views of Mont Blanc