Today’s stage in my Tour de France 2024, didn’t bring any new cols for my “Been There, Done That” list.
I did tick of #80 of the VeloViewer “100 Greatest” list: La Toussuire.
I cycled La Toussuire back in 2021, but that time I came down from the Croix de Fer’s summit, so I didn’t start in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
And in 2022 I cycled the correct track, but as I had planned to get up Léard first, only to find that road closed, returning to the D110 and then climbing to la Toussuire via de D78C/D, that didn’t count either.
Today it did.
The start of the climb – the Croix de Fer’s too – is well known by now and tough as nails.
I was dead in the water – again – by the time I had cycled 3 kilometers…
The markers for the Croix de Fer are very encouraging, showing 27… 26… 25… kilometers to go.
The averages indicated are often deceiving, but mathematically correct – that doesn’t help me much, though.
The climb up La Toussuire splits of the Croix de Fer after around 4 kilometers – in total, it’s 14.9 kilometers long, with an average gradient of 7.9%.
Which means there are more stretches of 10% than I like…
We had a coffee in La Toussuire and I descended the same way I did in 2021, via Le Corbier.
Back at the split, I turned right for the remainder of the Croix de Fer, just 25 kilometers or so.
(Yes, 25 again – you do not advance up the Croix de Fer one bit when climbing and descending La Toussuire.)
Once again, I chose the “Route Panoramic”, but just for the “Wandrer new kilometers”, I switched back to the main route via the Cote Saint-Jean-d’Arves.
I remembered the shop where I bought a nice kit back in 2022 (Epilogue), but those kits were now all but sold out – I bought the pink jersey as a souvenir.
The remainder of the Croix de Fer, the last 6 kilometers showing 10%, 9%, 8%, 8%, 8% and 7%, included a lot of photo ops moments…
I had the famous blueberry pie and an ice cream at the summit and then went on to the Glandon for another fast descent to Saint-Étienne-de-Cuines.
This descend is probably my favorite – it’s technical as fuck, but if you handle that, it’s an adrenaline rush.
Total for today’s stage: 82.3 kilometers, with 2,625 meters of D+.
