Le Galibier

We had an early start, but not early enough as we couldn't get out of Embrun due to the only road out being completely shut.

Still, the Lac de Serre-Poncon next to Embrun is stunning.

And Embrun was a cool small town with some excellent architecture.

And a bunch of TdF signage... 

And, whilst it meant that the Izoard was now off the menu, it meant that we could see the start of the stage. A friendly Team Sunweb Director Sportif gave us directions and a few pointers on the form of his riders (all suffering!).

And, the chance to get up close to the riders...

Then next up was the first big challenge of the trip, the Col du Lautaret at 2,058m and the mighty Col du Galibier at a towering 2,642m.

I managed to get past some very persistent Gendarmerie, unlike the Guv, and got half way up the Col Lautaret to watch the race go by.

I then followed the race straight after the broom wagon and the atmosphere was fantastic. I was getting cheered on by the crowd and I think my usual (failed) attempts to pull of the pro look worked for once as people were taking photos of me and there were a few people asking for my water bottles.

The weather was closing in and there was a fair amount of thunder and lightning as I went onto the Galibier proper which gave me an incentive to keep the pace up.

After a rapid (for me) decent, I was in Briançon in no time and met up with Simon who had made himself comfortable in the bar.

Tomorrow promises another great day of riding and tour action...