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Day 50 to 53 Belmont-Trominet to Lyon, Lyon, London

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85 km (53 miles) day, 2,442 miles total.  The tour ended, not with a bang but with a whimper. On leaving the campsite, the road to Lyon progressed across a series of low ridges and valleys with occasional, unremarkable villages. Lyon is a big city, the second largest in France. It starts about 30km outside the centre -  marked by dual-carriageway roads, commercial distribution centres, commuter towns and retail outlets. I arrived at my hotel in Lyon having not seen anything worth photographing. Hotel was really nice and I settled in for a relaxing evening and to make detailed plans for my wine related visit to Mâcon the day after. The following morning dawned, for the first time, cool and wet. I had no difficulty locating a train and arrived in Mâcon around 10:30. Mâcon in on the river Saune and has the umbrella street decorations seen twice before. After a brief tour I set off for Solutré-Pouilly which the tourist office told me had a facility for tasting the local produce. W...
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Day 49 Modane to Belmont-Trominet

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140 km (87 miles) 2,389 miles total A long ride today with, in spite of my claims if yesterday, about 900 meters of climbing. Only 5km short of the longest - and that was flat. First 100 km was a reverse of the stage between Turin and Sauze d’Oulx. Steeply downhill for the first 30 km amid magnificent mountain scenery. The huge mountains rising vertically from the valley, scaled by the ski lifts of the resorts. Averaged 27.5 km/hour in this descent - easily the fastest sustained ride of the trip. The next 30 km was still downhill, but less steeply. The mountains deeply cut by side valleys, and now covered with forest at these lower levels. Followed rushing, milky, mountain rivers the whole way. Frim 80 km to100km was flat with the road sheltered by avenues of Plane trees. Stopped for refreshment at the village of Epierrre. Outside of the village was a metal cyclist with the date 2015. When I finished for the day I checked and, sure enough, a sprint on stage 19 of the 2015 Tour de Franc...
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Day 48 Sauze d’Oulx to Modane

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94 km (58 miles) day, 2,302 miles total A big, and beautiful day. Most climbing of any day of the tour at 2,300 meters. A disappointing start. I had to re-route due to road closures and this meant retracing my steps 30km back to Susa! Fortunately it was mostly downhill. It is the first downhill section on the profile. Then the big climb- 25km of uphill at an average of 6.3% gradient. From 503m to 2,083m. Scenery all day was amazing. Great downhill through a large ski area. That’s the last really big climb of the tour. One more day in the mountains and one to Lyon. I’ll be there two days early (but I’ve plans😀). Photos mainly of scenery (some with annotations).  The Motorway- it goes through a tunnel (cheating). If you zoom in above the motorway you’ll see a village. It was below me later (and I still had to lose height from where I took the picture) Looking down on the climb from Susa Back in France. Last country of the tour  Looking down on the road (quite near the top) It w...
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Day 47 Turin to Sauze d’Oulx

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91 km (57 miles), 2,187 miles total A good day, but hard work. Started in Turin and ended at the ski resort of Sauze d’Oulx. Properly into the mountains now with wonderful views and interesting riding. The day started in full sun (as usual) and the route was gently uphill most of the morning. Turin is a big city and it wasn’t until after 15 km that I left the suburbs and the mountains came into view. I travelled along the dramatic  Susa Valley and soon the astonishing Sacre Di San Michelle  was in sight. This abbey is truly astonishing perched on top of the 972m  Mount Pirchiriano - that’s 12m higher than Helvellyn! The villages along the valley are very pretty and I stopped at Vaie for a glass of wine. A very nice Italian couple bought it for me. After this the climbing got serious and I passed the fort at Exilles which guards the approaches from France and is about half way up the climb where the valley is very narrow. Clouded over in the afternoon and lots of thunder f...
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