Tour de France 2024 – Stage 3

Today’s stage in my Tour de France brought me #70 and #71 from VeloViewers “100 Greatest”.

As we needed to do some shopping after I finished, I saved Col de Tamié for the second part of the stage.

Descending that would bring me back to Albertville and close to the supermarket.

So, we first drove to Épierre, a few kilometers away from the start of the Col du Grand Cucheron.

Despite the name, the Grand Cucheron is nowhere near the Cucheron I cycled during my Prologue.

Nor does it have a summit that is considerably higher than that – 1,201 vs 1,141 meters.

It is however, longer and bridges more altimeters.

And it is not a friendly climb, especially not the last 6 kilometers.

Just a col marker and otherwise deserted summit, so a quick change of clothes, a few pics and I descended towards Aigubelle.

From there, I started the climb up to Tioulevé (or Montsapey) – this one is considerably harder, but also more beautiful than the Cucheron.

Nice hairpin sections and a few panoramic views down the valley.

I was lucky that it was still early-ish in the day, so I could ride in the shadow a lot, because the sun was as blistering as it has been in all stages.

I cycled on past Tioulevé to see if there was anything interesting further up.

The path was rocky but rideable, however, at the Chalette des Rouelles the adventure was over.

We did buy a lump of sheep cheese and a sheep yoghurt, vanilla flavored 😋

I tossed the bike in the car – descending down that goat path was too risky for my taste – in fact, I forfeited the whole descend back to Aigubelle.

We then transferred to Gilly-sur-Isère for the Col de Tamié.

This time, I was cycling in the sun and besides the fact that I’ve been wearing myself out already, the “sweating more than I can drink” problem, didn’t help much either.

Luckily, this climb is not too long – and not overly difficult on a good day – so I made it to the summit once more.

A below 1,000 meters summit at that, so it does not even go on my “Been There, Done That” list…

I also visited the Abbaye de Tamié and passed the Collet de Tamié sign – near the Fort de Tamié and 40 meters higher than the Col – on the way down to Albertville.

Total for today: 74 kilometers and 2,661 meters of D+.

Strava part 1 – part 2 / Garmin part 1 – part 2