Stage 5 – L’Argentiere – La – Bessee           102km

Happy Birthday to me – Happy Birthday to me.  My husband brought some great aussie treats over from Oz for my birthday which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The entire team also sang to me at breakfast which was really cool.

After signing in today, I was rolling around to warm up when I heard the announcers calling my name.  I returned to the stage and was thrilled to have the entire crowd sing Happy Birthday to me.  The organiser presented me with coloured book about the history of the Tour de France and then wished me good luck in the stage.  He hoped I rode well for the entire tour and emphasised that he wanted me to make it to Paris – so did I.

I felt hungry before the start and should have grabbed some food.  I hadn’t eaten enough for breakfast.  After a neutral lap of the town, the race took off at a clapping speed up a 10km climb.  My legs were dead.  The entire field passed me and then the cars.  A rider from Power Plate actually pushed me a bit and tried to encourage me to ride with her but I had nothing in my legs.  I found one other rider from the French team and rode with her.  We caught 3 riders and as a group of five we started to make up ground.  Two French policemen on motorcycles kept encouraging us to go faster as there was a group only 1.5km ahead of us.  After 40 minutes of hard riding we eventually caught the grupetto where I joined fellow aussies Margaret Hemsley, Sara Carigan and Alison Wright.

The next climb of 15km took us over several glaciers which looked magnificent in the brilliant sunshine.  I kept thinking – this is my birthday, I am riding through the French alps, I am really hurting but where else would I want to be.  After this climb, we descended for 20km which was the best part of today’s stage.  It was scary through the tunnels and around the hairpin corners.  There was a 2ft brick wall along the edge of the road and then just a sheer cliff.  If I misjudged a corner and went over the edge, it would have been very ugly.

The final climb to the finish was only 6km but it was 17%.  The profile had it as 7% but I climbed it in the 39×29 which is almost a mountain bike gear.  Most girls had 39×27’s and had to stand most of the way.  I had been really worried about making time cut today but our group finished 30 minutes down and were well inside the time limit.

We drove to our hotel in Grenoble and past many beautiful castles and other spectacular mountains.  If I wasn’t so exhausted I would have taken a few photos of this amazing scenery.