A Chilly Challenge

Before the Fireflies Tour place cropped up, my main cycling event of 2013 was going to be the annual Dynamo sportive – this year, the Challenge Vercors, formerly called the Challenge du Dauphiné-Libéré. This year it departs and finishes at Villard de Lans – France's oldest Ski resort in the northern Vercors, some distance south of Grenoble.
There are usually about 1,000 entrants, 25 of whom will be Dynamos, and two main distances – one of 177 km with 3,380 m of climbing and a shorter 130km route with only four mountain climbs. That took the 2012 winner 3 1/2 hours with the last rider taking 6 hours.
So four of us are setting off at an unearthly hour tomorrow morning to drive down. We should be there by dinner time tomorrow (Thursday). Sad to say the latest forecast is quite a bad one: cold, windy and a chance of 'light snow' on Saturday. But the event itself is on Sunday, so we might be lucky. I hope we see at least some of the spectacular scenery through the sleet...

Col de la Machine on the Challenge route. Spot the road, on the right.